Women's basketball travels to Penn State

The IU women’s basketball team might have its toughest challenge yet when it travels to State College, Penn., today.

The Hoosiers (15-3, 2-3 conference) are slated for a 7 p.m. matchup against No. 13 Penn State, the highest-ranked team IU has played this season.

The Nittany Lions (13-4, 4-1 conference) claimed control of the Big Ten standings on Sunday, rallying from a seven-point halftime deficit to claim a 66-54 road win against Michigan State.

Three of Penn State’s four losses have come against teams currently ranked, including losses to No. 1 Connecticut and No. 2 Notre Dame.

Freshman forward Lindsay Leikem expects Penn State to pose the biggest challenge IU has faced yet.

“They’re undoubtedly the best team in the league,” Leikem said. “They’re just extremely well coached, and they have a lot of great players. We have to prepare and play the best we can against them if we want to win.”

Penn State’s defense is the root of its success this season.

The Nittany Lions start 6-foot-5 junior forward Tori Waldner and 6-foot-6 sophomore forward Candice Agee. Their length has been a large factor in holding opponents to shooting 34.7 percent from the field — best in the Big Ten.

IU Coach Curt Miller said he has been telling his players in practice to shoot whenever they can because Penn State’s defense does not allow for many chances to score easy buckets.

“You can’t be afraid to take the first open shot because it might be the only good shot you get in the whole 30

seconds,” Miller said. “You have to be confident not to pass up shots.”

Miller pointed out that one of the hardest parts of preparing for Penn State’s defense is they show opposing offenses a variety of defensive looks.

The Nittany Lions have historically relied on a 2-3 zone defensively but in recent games have shown the ability to shut opponents down with a man-to-man defense. They relied heavily on a man-to-man defensive set when holding Michigan State to only 17 second-half points Sunday.

“We’ve seen them shut down and hold teams to really poor field goal percentages in both (defense schemes),” Miller said. “So you’ve got to prepare in the two days of preparation for both their defenses.”

On IU’s own defensive end, the Hoosiers will be faced with trying to box-out the Big Ten’s top offensive rebounding team.

Penn State has the second-worst field goal percentage in the Big Ten at 41.1 percent, but their height creates extra possessions from grabbing offensive rebounds and then proceeding to score on close range layups.

“You can do everything right for 20 seconds, they take a shot and they just get a simple put back because they’re so huge,” Miller said. “If you can’t rebound with Penn State, you can’t upset them.”

The Hoosiers are also charged with guarding the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer Maggie Lucas.

The senior guard is averaging 20.9 points per game. Miller conceded that IU will not be able to shut Lucas down. Instead, he is just looking for his defense to contain her from having a huge scoring night, similar to how the Hoosiers played against Minnesota’s Rachel Banham.

Miller did not specify any particular Hoosier that will be charged with guarding Lucas. However, Leikem said defending her will be a team effort.

“Coach Miller says this a lot, he says, ‘respect everyone, fear no one,’” Leikem said. “She’s good, but we can’t be afraid of her or else she’ll score on us. We can guard her. I know we can.”

Follow reporter Sam Beishuizen on Twitter @Sam_Beishuizen.