Penn State reserve guard Tova Sabel’s only played more than 13 minutes once during the Lady Lions’ recent 1-5 skid. Coach Carolyn Kieger said she and the 5-foot-10 sophomore talked after Sabel only played four minutes in Monday’s 30-point loss at Indiana.
“She looked me in the eye and said,” Kieger recounted, “‘I’m ready when you need me.’”
Kieger needed a boost in the second half when the Lady Lions played their Big Ten home opener on Thursday night at the Bryce Jordan Center against Rutgers and Sabel responded with 10 points in 15 minutes. That helped Penn State to a 52-48 win to get the Lady Lions back to .500 overall and in the conference.
The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for Penn State since it beat St. John’s in the opening round of the Gulf Coast Showcase on Nov. 26.
“We went into this game knowing we had to pull that ‘dub’ out,” sophomore post Ali Brigham said. “Our offense wasn’t exactly there but we had our defense to rely on.”
In spite of one of her tougher nights of the season – going 6-for-17 from the floor and turning the ball over five times – standout Lady Lion sophomore point guard Makenna Marisa finished with a game-high 16 points and hit the first end of back-to-back three-pointers with Kelly Jekot midway through the fourth quarter to give Penn State the lead for good.
Brigham, coming off the bench for the first time this year, netted 13 to join Marisa and Sabel in double digits as the Lady Lions moved to 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten.
Meanwhile, Penn State, which was allowing 73.1 points coming in, held Rutgers to 13 points or fewer in each quarter and held the Knights (4-7, 0-2 Big Ten) to four points in the last 5:45.
Appropriately, Sabel assisted on Jekot’s trey that put the Lady Lions ahead 48-44.
Penn State’s had a big problem in the third quarter during its recent struggles, and it looked like that trend might continue when a 7-2 Scarlet Knights run out of the intermission gave Rutgers a four-point lead and compelled Kieger to call time out.
In the next 50 seconds, Marisa made two midrange pullups and passed to Sabel – just into the game – for a three-pointer on the right wing.
About 40 seconds later, Sabel made two free throws after drawing the fourth foul on Niya Singleton, who was leading the Knights in scoring at that point with 10.
“She was ready. I think the staff did a good job of recommending Tova coming in to be a spark. We needed someone to attack the rim. We needed somebody to go aggressively downhill,” Kieger said. “We were settling for jumpers. We were settling for contested threes.”
From Stockholm, Sabel, a member of the Swedish National Team, landed in Centre County as a result of Kieger’s connections with coaches and players in Scandinavia. Sabel is the fourth Swede Kieger has coached.
In the last half-dozen games, inabilities to rebound and to get to the foul line have stood with slow second-half starts as the most consistent elements to Penn State’s downfall. The Lady Lions only got to the line 11 times, although that was almost triple the number of foul shots they’d taken in the last two contests combined, and Rutgers ended up with a 35-23 edge on the board.
However, the Lady Lions countered with a huge contribution off the bench. Penn State’s subs scored 29 points.
“It feels great when everyone can contribute to a win,” Brigham said. “We have such a deep team.”
Junior guard Shay Hagans collected six points, three assists and a steal in a reserve role.
“Coach talks about ‘game-changers.’ When you step on the floor, you change the game. It’s either up or down. That’s the mindset we came in with, to be that extra spark,” Hagans said.
Despite going scoreless for a five-minute, 25-second stretch of the second quarter, Penn State still managed to take a 25-24 lead into the half thanks in large part to Brigham’s 11 points and four rebounds.
Marisa’s 3-pointer with 28 seconds left gave Penn State a 16-13 lead after one. Brigham netted eight points. Hagans came off the bench for two points, two assists and a nifty driving bullet pass to Marisa, who drove and dropped it off to Brigham for an easy layup.
“We showed a lot of toughness,” Kieger said. “It wasn’t pretty, but I think the sign of a team that’s getting more mature is being able to win different ways. Our offense wasn’t there but our defense was. As we continue Big Ten play, we’re going to have to find unique and different ways to win.”
