Despite a rough start to the season, the Penn State Beaver women’s basketball team pushed its way to its second consecutive Penn State University Athletic Conference tournament.
After losing four of their first five games, the Lady Lions turned the season around, losing only one of 10 games in February alone. The team ended the season with a 19-11 overall record, 15-3 in conference. Coach Tim Moore says time is what gave them the ability to turn the season around.
“We had a very young group of girls this year and it just took some time for them to learn our philosophy and get comfortable on the court,” said Moore. “I kept telling the girls the important thing is to ‘peak at the right time’.”
The team certainly peaked in enough time to win another conference title. “It’s not about winning the regular season, it’s about winning the championship,” said Moore. Junior Natalie Gamble said, “We all shared the same goals; we wanted to win the conference and nationals.”
The team bested Penn State Brandywine for the conference championship, 100-74. At the start of the first half, Beaver exploded out of the gate building an early lead. Beaver closed the half with a 20-point lead. Brandywine chipped away at the lead in the second half, but was never able to get closer than 15 points.
Sophomore Morgan Kurtz led with 20 points. Freshman Sydnee Abernathy had 19, while sophomore Cassandra Flowers scored a double-double, 16 points and 13 rebounds. Beaver’s defense out-rebounded Brandywine 42-27.
The Lady Lions came into the tournament as the underdogs and Moore says that is a huge accomplishment. Gamble agreed. “We had all the odds stacked against us. What drove us was to prove everyone wrong that ever doubted us.”
“We played a team who was ranked in the top 5 of the USCAA all year and had every player back for a team that was the national championship runners-up the previous year,” said Moore. “We went out and played really well.”
“Without the entire team we wouldn’t have been in the situation we were in,” Moore added. “This year every player we had on the team sparked us at one point in time which helped us be successful.”
The PSUAC championship win propelled the Lady Lions to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, but the team fell to Berkeley College in a tough 77-75 loss in the first round.
The lead changed hands five times in the first half alone, with Beaver holding a 9-point lead at halftime. Flowers had a double-double in the first half alone, scoring 10 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
But after an early 14-point lead in the second half, Berkeley chipped away until it took the lead with seven minutes to go. Beaver pushed the game into overtime with a layup by sophomore Khalia Adams with three seconds remaining. But back-and-forth leads in overtime left Berkeley with the win.
Kurtz led with 23 points and Flowers finished with 23 rebounds, a USCAA women’s DII tournament record, and 20 points.
In the consolation game, Beaver closed out its season with a 69-44 win over Warren Wilson College.
