MSU women suffer 'disappointing' loss to Penn State

EAST LANSING -- As well as her Michigan State women's basketball team had been playing while navigating a challenging stretch, Suzy Merchant was blown away by what she witnessed Thursday.

And her disappointment was clear after a lackluster showing by the No. 17-ranked Spartans led to a 65-61 loss to Penn State at Breslin Center.

"It's really, really disappointing," Merchant said. "I thought our energy was low. I couldn't have predicted it. I thought we had two great practices. We were doing everything I thought we needed to do to prepare for Penn State. It's really disappointing that we performed the way we performed."

MSU (18-6, 9-4 Big Ten) squandered a 14-point second-half lead while suffering their first home loss in conference play and second in three games.

And considering all that's at stake for the Spartans, leaders Aerial Powers and Tori Jankoska said a performance like Thursday is completely unacceptable.

"We came out and we're supposed to be a four seed (for the NCAA tournament)," Jankoska said. "Who knows if we are now. If we're going to go in and try to make it to a Sweet 16, (do we want to do it) on someone else's floor or do we want to play on our own? People have to realize we're still playing for stuff. Even though we may not be able to win the Big Ten, and we're probably not now, but we're playing for postseason rankings and we're playing for ourselves. We should have a little more respect for ourselves than to come out and play like that."

When shots weren't falling, MSU didn't take care of business on defense Thursday, and that allowed Penn State (9-15, 4-9) to rally and halt its four-game losing streak. Freshman point guard Teniya Page had a game-high 20 points and led a strong finish for the Nittany Lions, who shot 53.5 percent in the second half.

Page had eight of Penn State's final 11 points, including the go-ahead basket with 1:01 remaining. Lindsey Spann hit a free throw with six seconds left to seal the win.

"If we want to be really good, people have got to show up at the defensive end," Merchant said. "That's my biggest frustration. We let our offense affect our defense. I was shocked we just let people do what they did. Give them credit, they weren't playing for a lot obviously and that's what is disappointing.

"Our vets have got to show up and they've got to be better than that. To go through what we went through with warrior week and to have that kind of toughness and then just to come out here and go through the motions like we got this and we're good and we can do this, it's surprising. I didn't see that coming."

Powers had 18 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out in the final minute to lead the Spartans, who will try to bounce back Sunday at Nebraska.

"We're playing for something and we have to take that into account every time we step on the court," Powers said.

Contact Brian Callowayat bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.