Senior forward Aerial Edwards leads Penn State with 11 points. Senior guard Maggie Lucas, the Big Ten’s second-highest scorer, was held to six points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Pickrel was aggressive early, scoring the first five points to get the Spartans going. Bell tipped in a missed 3 by Johnson to make it 7-0, and the Lady Lions burned a quick timeout two minutes into the game.

The Lady Lions had no problem getting to the line, drawing two early fouls on redshirt freshman guard Powers, who only played six first-half minutes because of foul trouble. Penn State evened the score at 12-12.

Jankoska, as she’s been all season, became a huge offensive weapon for the Spartans after checking in for Powers. She nailed two 3-pointers and a couple free throws as MSU retook the lead midway through the first.

A baseline jumper by redshirt junior center Madison Williams gave the Spartans a 24-16 lead, leading to a Penn State timeout with 6:45 remaining.

MSU struggled with turnovers, and it reflected in the box score as Penn State took advantage of transition opportunities. A fastbreak pull-up jumper by Lucas trimmed MSU’s lead to two, 25-23, to cap off a 7-1 run for the Lady Lions.

Bell drained two huge corner 3’s to expand MSU’s lead before halftime. With 2:07 on the clock, Bell struck from the right corner to expand the lead to four. With eight seconds to go, Bell struck from the right corner to make it a seven point lead entering halftime.