Penn State hosts Purdue on 4-game home skid
Purdue Boilermakers (9-18, 2-14 Big Ten) at Penn State Lady Lions (10-17, 1-15 Big Ten)
University Park, Pennsylvania; Thursday, 6 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: Penn State is looking to end its four-game home slide with a victory against Purdue.
The Lady Lions are 7-8 in home games. Penn State is eighth in the Big Ten with 9.9 offensive rebounds per game led by Gracie Merkle averaging 3.6.
The Boilermakers have gone 2-14 against Big Ten opponents. Purdue allows 74.9 points to opponents while being outscored by 12.3 points per game.
Penn State’s average of 5.7 made 3-pointers per game is 1.7 fewer made shots on average than the 7.4 per game Purdue gives up. Purdue has shot at a 42.1% rate from the field this season, 1.5 percentage points below the 43.6% shooting opponents of Penn State have averaged.
The Lady Lions and Boilermakers square off Thursday for the first time in Big Ten play this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Merkle is scoring 15.6 points per game and averaging 8.7 rebounds for the Lady Lions. Gabby Elliott is averaging 14.5 points and 4.5 rebounds over the last 10 games.
Destini Lombard is averaging 10.1 points and 1.9 steals for the Boilermakers. Kendall Puryear is averaging 11.4 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Lady Lions: 1-9, averaging 66.1 points, 30.2 rebounds, 17.2 assists, 6.9 steals and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 45.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.4 points per game.
Boilermakers: 2-8, averaging 59.2 points, 28.6 rebounds, 12.6 assists, 7.2 steals and 2.4 blocks per game while shooting 41.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.3 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.