Women's Basketball Travels to the State of Pennsylvania for Two Games
12/8/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game Notes
ORONO, Maine – The Maine women's basketball team will travel to Pennsylvania for a pair of games this weekend. The Black Bears will play Penn Friday at 7 p.m. in the Palestra in Philadelphia and Penn State Sunday at noon in the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pa. UMaine will face both teams for the first time.
Maine is coming off a 79-69 loss to Holy Cross last Saturday. The Black Bears scored the second most points this season and the most in the first half but fell to the Crusaders. Maine shot 50.9% from the floor but was held scoreless for nearly four minutes in the second half.
Katelyn Vanderhoff (Lititz, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) drained a career-high 17 points and added 9 rebounds and four assists. Tanna Ross (Newburgh, Maine/Hampden Academy) scored in double figures in back-to-back games for the first time since games two and three of the 2008-09 season, when she added 10 points to her 27-point performance at Kansas. Amber Smith (Ipswich, Mass./Ipswich) scored in double digits for the fifth time this season and the first time since the Navy game on November 26th.
Ashleigh Roberts (Wilmington, Del./Concord) was named the America East Rookie of the Week after posting a pair of solid games. Roberts opened last week with eight points, six rebounds, five assists and one steal at Kansas. The freshman guard followed that game with nine points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals at Holy Cross. Roberts finished the week averaging 8.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals a game.
Freshmen Jaymie Druding (Orchard Park, N.Y./Orchard Park) and Greer Babbe (Papillion, Neb./Papillion-La Vista) made their first career starts at Holy Cross. Druding scored a career-high 9 points and played in her sixth straight game. Maine native and redshirt-freshman guard, Rachele Burns (Gorham, Maine/Gorham), played and scored in her third straight game and drained a three pointer in back-to-back games.
Penn is 2-5 in the early going and has wins over Bryant and Rider. The Quakers won both games by double digits but are coming off a 60-45 loss to Saint Joseph's in the first game of the Big Five.
Alyssa Baron is the only player scoring in double figures this season. The freshman guard averages 15.0 points per game and is making 39% of her three pointers. She has led the team in scoring in five games and has scored 20 points in two games this season.
Maine will square off with Penn at the historic Palestra which opened on January 1st, 1927 and is famed for its close-to-the-court seating. ESPN Classic broadcasted a one-hour documentary on the history of the arena entitled "The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball" in 2007.
Penn State is off to a solid 7-2 start this season and had been receiving votes in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll earlier this season. The Nitty Lions are coming off a 76-68 win against Texas Tech in the Big Ten/Big 12 Challenge on Sunday.
PSU ranks seventh in the nation in scoring offense (86.2) and is second in three-point percentage (47.5). Five players are averaging double figures for Penn State. Alex Bentley leads the team with 16.6 points and 6.7 assists per game. Maggie Lucas is the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Week. She is second on the team with 16.1 points per game.
For fans who cannot make it to the game, Don Shields will provide radio play-by-play on the Black Bear Sports Network starting 30 minutes prior to tip-off of both games. The game can be heard on either WAEI-FM 97.1, WAEI 910 AM or GoBlackBears.com, while live stats will be available on GoBlackBears.com(.)
