INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.- Postseason play is often a step up in intensity and pressure from the regular season, and with those new heights comes new challenges and experiences for players young and old.
The Penn State Lady Lions and Wisconsin Badgers played in tight games both times they matched up this regular season, and that tradition continued from the regular to postseason Tuesday afternoon at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Unfortunately for the Lady Lions, after two close regular season wins, they were unable to duplicate that result in the Big Ten Tournament, falling to the Badgers, 65-57 Wednesday afternoon in Indianapolis.
For the younger Penn State players, despite the loss, gaining experience was a key takeaway.
Freshmen Lauren Ebo and Karisma Ortiz both earned their first career postseason starts on the afternoon, and including Bexley Wallace, all three Lady Lion freshmen on the roster saw game action.
For Ortiz, who finished with three points and five rebounds in 21 minutes, there were multiple lessons from tournament action.
"Just making sure you're valuing every single opponent you're playing. In the postseason anything can happen. Every team is going to fight, every team is going to want it," she said. "It doesn't matter the rankings or seedings or anything like that, whoever wants it more is going to win the game."
On the flip side of the experience level, senior First Team All-Big Ten guard Teniya Page, who finished the afternoon with 14 points, agreed with her teammate that that young group can learn from this setback.
"Everybody's grown a lot since we started," she said. "All of them have years of eligibility left. They have this experience to go on for the rest of their careers."
Head coach Coquese Washington also knows that trio can take things away from today despite the outcome.
"There's a lot of lessons for them to learn. The first time you play in this tournament it's a learning experience. The atmosphere, the time and being here," she said. "I'm hoping it gives them a bit of a hunger to come back next year and stick around a little longer."
Although the Lady Lions didn't get the win, there is no doubt they wanted it. As the game wore on you could see experience and veteran leadership of players like Page and the younger group fighting together, as a 9-0 run to end the third and start the fourth quarter cut a 43-31 Wisconsin lead to 43-40 on an Amari Carter jumper with 8:44 to play.
After trailing much of the game, the Lady Lions were back in it late.
"I thought we had some good spurts defensively in the second half and showed a lot of fight," Washington said on the late run.
"Everybody kept fighting when they got the opportunity to come in the game," Page added. "There's been a lot of games this year where we've fought through. Everybody fought back and everybody still had confidence."
Although the Lions fought back, they were unable to get it closer than that three-point deficit before the final horn.
While the younger players gained experience on the court in game time, it's the memories and moments with the five graduating seniors, including a 2,000-career point scorer in Page, that will leave the most lasting impact.
"It's meant a lot having both Teniya and Amari, both senior point guards. Being that's my position I was able to get a lot of great information from them, learn from them a lot of advice," Ortiz said. "I'm going to miss them next year but I think they've prepared me very well for the upcoming seasons."
While a player loses a teammate, a coach loses someone they have been with and recruited for more than just her four years on campus. As a coach, losing the seniors is always a tough moment at the end of any season. With that said, she knows they are ready for what comes next.
"It's always an emotional game for the seniors their last game being in the space where they've got to move on to the next phase in their lives. The one thing I can say about this group is they're ready for the next level, the next step in their lives," Washington said. "The experiences they've had being a Lady Lion and being a Penn Stater they're going to carry with them for the rest of their lives."
Whether it's a freshman taking away a new moment, or a senior getting ready to move on to their next chapter, the Lady Lions leave Indianapolis with experiences they can take and grow from for years to come.
