University of Minnesota Athletics
Game Preview: Minnesota at Penn State
2/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
| Minnesota (19-6, 8-5 B1G) at Penn State (6-19, 3-11 B1G) | |
| Date / Time | Sunday, February 15 | 1 p.m. CT |
| Location | University Park, Pa. (Bryce Jordan Center) |
| TV | BTN Plus on BTN2Go |
| Radio | 1500 ESPN Play-by-Play: Corbu Stathes | Analyst: Lynnette Sjoquist |
| Live Stats | |
| Game Notes | Minnesota | Penn State |
| Official Sites | Minnesota | Penn State |
| Social Media | @GophersWBB | Facebook |
Feb. 14, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - The University of Minnesota (19-6, 8-5) women's basketball team hits the road for a Big Ten rematch at Penn State (6-19, 3-11) Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. CT at the Bryce Jordan Center. The contest will be streamed live on BTN Plus on BTN2Go for a fee, while fans can listen to the game live on 1500 ESPN.
The Gophers enter the contest having won two-straight games against Michigan State and Wisconsin to improve their record to 19-6 on the season and 8-5 in Big Ten play, a mark that puts Minnesota in a tie with Northwestern for fiftth in league standings. Meanwhile, the Lady Lions have lost four of their last five games to drop to 6-19 overall and 3-11 in the Big Ten, which places them 14th in the standings heading into Sunday's matchup with the Maroon and Gold.
Should the Gophers pick up a win against the Lady Lions, they would have 20 wins in the regular-season for the first time since the 2007-08 season and would secure its first series sweep vs. Penn State since the 2009-10 season.
In the teams' last meeting, sophomore Amanda Zahui B. posted her second-career triple-double with 16 points, 13 rebounds and tied the Big Ten single-game record with 12 blocks to lead Minnesota to a 75-64 victory at Williams Arena on Jan. 28. The win was the second for the Gophers against Penn State in the squads' last three meetings and improved their overall record in the all-time series to 13-27. The Maroon and Gold will enter the Bryce Jordan Center Sunday having won just three games in University Park, as the Lady Lions hold a 16-3 record against Minnesota on their home court.
Zahui B. was recently named to the John R. Wooden Award Late-Season Top 20, a list comprised of the 20 student-athletes who are the front-runners for college basketball's player of the year award, which is chosen by a poll of national women's college basketball media members. Zahui B. was one of just three Big Ten players named to the list, joining Iowa's Samantha Logic and Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell.
The center is on the verge of numerous milestones heading into Sunday's road contest, as she needs 40 points to become the 22nd Gopher in program history to join the 1,000-point club and also needs just nine blocks to surpass her own program single-season blocks record of 105 she set as a rookie last season. Zahui B. became Minnesota's career blocks leader on Feb. 8 when she surpassed Janel McCarville for the record with her 197th career blocks. She enters the contest against Penn State with 202 career blocks, a mark that ranks 17th among the NCAA's Active Career Leaders.
Also earning recent recognition were Carlie Wagner and Shayne Mullaney. Wagner garnered her first Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor Monday after averaging 22.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game against Illinois and Michigan State, while Mullaney was named to the Capital One Academic All-District 6 First Team for her contributions both on the court and in the classroom. The junior boasts a 3.74 grade point average as a communications studies major, while she ranks seventh in the NCAA with a 7.0 assists-per-game average.
Mullaney's 157 assists in 2014-15 rank fifth on Minnesota's single-season record chart, while her 338 career assists rank sixth on the program's all-time list. She has dished out 10 or more assists five times this season, while she has totaled five or more assists 18 times throughout the year.
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