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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- This one was easy, as expected. Now comes the challenge for No. 6 Penn State.
Lisa Shepherd had 18 points and Penn State (No. 5 ESPN/USA Today , No. 6 AP) muscled past outmatched Youngstown State 83-63 Friday night in the first round of the NCAA women's Midwest Regional.
On Sunday, Penn State (27-4) gets No. 16 Auburn, a team that has
knocked the Lady Lions out of the tournament twice. They lost by
six points in 1996 and by 28 in 1988.
"We got the first-game jitters out," Shepherd said. "This
next game is a big one. We can get past where we did last year."
Coach Rene Portland made it sound even more crucial: It doesn't
matter how many games the Lady Lions won during the regular season,
or that they didn't win the conference tournament, she said. She
measures the progress of her program by how far they go in the
NCAAs.
They will have two points in their favor Sunday afternoon: They
beat Auburn 77-65 in December, and they've won 15 straight at home.
It sure beats Ruston, La., where they went last year in a nightmare
trip that ended with a lopsided loss to Louisiana Tech.
"There's more things to do here than in Ruston. Certainly the
crowd was a lot friendlier, and staying in your own bed is a
winner," Portland said.
On Friday, they looked right at home from the start.
Andrea Garner added 14 points and four blocks for the Lady Lions
and Helen Darling, chosen the nation's best small player earlier in
the day, had eight assists and 13 of Penn State's 51 rebounds.
Leslie Majewski had 23 points for Youngstown State (22-9) and
kept the score from getting more lopsided by making 6-of-11
3-pointers. Overall, however, the Lady Penguins shot only 32
percent. Brianne Kenneally added 19 points and 10 rebounds.
The Penguins' 12 3-pointers were tied for second-best in the
NCAAs -- the only bit of frustration for the Lions. Penn State gave
up 10 3s in a 71-63 loss to Purdue two weeks ago in the Big Ten
final.
With Youngstown State outmatched inside, she wanted her guards
to stay out on the perimeter.
"We just didn't play it well," Darling said. "We practiced it
all week. We kept helping out on the post and we shouldn't have."
The Lions led 15-10 early, then broke open the game with a 20-2
run over 10 minutes in the first half. Shepherd started it with a
layup off a nice feed from Garner and a fast-break basket off a
baseball pass from Darling. The run ended with Penn State leading
35-12.
"You hear about the Big Ten and how tough it is, but we didn't
expect their big players to come at us the way they did,"
Kenneally said. "They ran the floor as well as anybody we've seen
-- even on television."
The Penguins managed just two baskets over more than 12 minutes
and shot just 9-of-38 (24 percent) in the half.
"We went 1-for-22 in a 10-minute span. That's not like us,"
said Penguins coach Ed DiGregorio.
Youngstown State, the Mid-Continent Conference champion, had a
five-game winning streak snapped. Penn State beat Youngstown 94-71
in the first round of the 1996 tournament.
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ALSO SEE
Womens College Basketball Scoreboard
Youngstown State NCAA Team Report
Penn State NCAA Team Report
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