Boilers hope to continue success

By Anne McLaren
Assistant Sports Editor

It’s about pride now.

The Boilers have already won the regular season Big Ten title, their third outright. But when Purdue visits Penn State tonight, it will be playing for what’s upcoming.

"We accomplished one of our goals (Sunday), which was a very special moment for us," said Purdue coach Kristy Curry. "But again, our goal is to win the Big Ten Tournament and put ourselves in a position to get to the Final Four. We’re not finished yet. If we get satisfied with the past, we’re not going to be able to work on the future."

The No. 19 Nittany Lions (18-7, 10-4 Big Ten) and the No. 5 Boilers (24-4, 14-1) tip off at 7 p.m. in Bryce Jordan Center, in State College, Pa. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Pittsburgh.

"We don’t want to come out with a loss in the last game of the Big Ten," said Kelly Komara. "We want to go out on top. Penn State is a great team and they’ve wanted to beat us since we beat them in the tournament last year. It’s a big rivalry for us."

Although this is the first meeting between the schools this season, the teams met three times last season. Penn State won the first two meetings in the regular season, but Purdue upset the top-seeded Lions 71-63 in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament.

Penn State is led in scoring by freshman Kelly Mazzante, who leads the conference with 19.0 points per game. Komara said her biggest challenge will be trying to contain Mazzante.

"She’s a great player and she’s proven that, averaging 19 points per game," said Komara. "But I’m going there to shut her down. Anybody who comes in there should feel that way when they’re guarding her. You don’t want her to get her average and let her score 20-30 points."

Last week against Illinois, Mazzante scored 38 points and is the reigning Big Ten player of the week.

"It’s another one of those situations where if we decide to leave ball side shooters and decide not to contest shots, she’ll have a good day," said Curry. "We’ve had to defend a lot of people this year. We’ve got to do a nice job of making good decisions defensively and being a presence defensively."

Penn State is coming off a loss to Wisconsin, which snapped a six-game winning streak for the Lions.

"Any time a Big Ten team is coming off a loss they always play a lot better," said Komara. "We’ll just have to go in there and play hard. It’s a hostile environment to play at Penn State. We’re just going to have great composure and play our game."

Penn State is 10-1 at home on the season, with a lone loss to No. 6 Duke 88-87 on Nov. 20.

"It’s going to be another environment that prepares you for the NCAA tournament in the regional round," said Curry. "We need to go ready to play. It’s definitely going to be a challenge for us. I’m just eager to see how we’re going to respond.

"Our goal at the beginning of the season was to go undefeated in the Big Ten. Well, obviously we can’t do that at this point; we have that one loss. So we can either keep it at one or we can make it two."

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Sports editor:
Paul Trembacki

Assistant sports editor:
Anne McLaren

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