After holding No. 23 Penn State without a basket for nearly 8 minutes, the No. 11 MSU women’s basketball team cruised to a victory and in the process, took sole control of first place in the Big Ten.
The Spartans(21-3 overall, 9-2 Big Ten) defeated the Lady Lions(20-6, 9-3), 60-49, not allowing Penn State to even approach the 80-point mark they have been averaging this season and proving again great defense trumps great offense.
With 6:20 remaining in the first half, the score was 19-18 with MSU holding the one-point advantage. It would remain at 19-18 until the 2:30 mark as both teams missed shots and committed turnovers.
It was junior forward Lykendra Johnson who broke the scoring slump and sparked an 8-0 run for the Spartans that they would carry into halftime.
When MSU came out they added on and pushed the run to 13-0. It wasn’t until the clock hit 18:36 that the Lady Lions finally scored.
With the score at 48-30, Penn State put together a run of their own in an attempt to make the game competitive. A 13-2 run cut the Spartans lead to just 7 points and gave the Lady Lions all of the momentum.
However, led by Johnson’s 24 points and 12 rebounds, the Spartans were able to pull away and claimed first place.
Johnson led all scorers and junior forward Taylor Alton added 12 points of her own.
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