This isn’t something we have normally had time to do throughout the season, but there were so many storylines from DePaul’s 75-73 victory over Penn State Monday night that I couldn’t fit them all into the game story. And these two were important enough (and interesting enough) to post as a separate story.The Unsung Hero

While Felicia Chester and Keisha Hampton will get much of the attention-and deservedly so-the unsung hero of this game was China Threatt. Threatt came off the bench and played 30 minutes, scoring six points on 3-4 shooting while pulling down four rebounds (two offensive), dishing out two assists and notching four steals. She was opportunistic all night, driving to collapse the defense only two dish outside to a wide open Anna Martin multiple times and hitting some big shots-none larger than her basket with 40 seconds left that tied the game 73-73.

“I was just praying that it went in, and when it went in I was happy,” Threatt said after the game of her 10-footer from the right side. “But then it was just like, the next play was in my head. We gotta get a stop, we gotta lock up on defense and make sure that they don’t sore. Get the ball back basically is what went through my head.”

Her contribution became even more important after Taylor Pikes went down in the first half with a knee injury and did not return. Pikes was named Big East sixth player of the year this season-two years after Threatt won the same award.

“If anybody goes down, somebody has to step up, and even when you come off the bench you have to bring some kind of intensity, so everybody coming off the bench has to step up,” Threatt said. “We needed Tay, and since she couldn’t play, somebody else had to step up, so it had to be me. Coach doesn’t look at anybody as a garbage player or anything, so we all just do what we have to do to make sure that we come out with a victory.”

When asked if her former success off the bench helped her slide in comfortably tonight: “I don’t really think about it too much. It doesn’t really faze me. If I play, or don’t play, as long as the team comes out with a victory, that’s all that really matters. And that when I do come in, I do what I’m supposed to do, like get the ball where it needs to go, or get d[efensive] stops.”

Head Coach Doug Bruno had this to say about Threatt’s play after the game:
“China’s game was huge tonight. We told her if it was football we would’ve given her the game ball after the game. She gave us quickness and athleticism and while Alex Bentley was not really guarded that well by us for the whole game, it still gave us an answer for Alex, which is a very, very tough matchup, and you’ve got two very talented [Penn State] guards out there. You saw Alex explode at the start of the second half.

“[China] gave us a great lift on the defensive side and she also made some big, big plays offensively. Her resilience to the comeback after the turnover and the tough shot along the baseline was just huge. But she gave us a great floor game tonight, and really we don’t win this one without China coming off the bench.”

If Pikes is out for the next game (and she wasn’t putting any pressure on that right leg when it got injured) Threatt will need to have more games like tonight.

New(ish) Offensive Set Proves Successful

The team started finding its success in the second half when they switched their offense to a high ball screen, with Hampton getting the ball up top and Chester setting the screen for her. It isn’t an offense they’ve used much this year, Hampton and Chester both told me after the game. But it certainly worked tonight.

“We’ve used it in a few later games, but we had to switch things up because in the first half we were struggling scoring, and we were just trying to do whatever we could, and that play was working,” Chester said. “It’s really how they’re guarding Keisha, and Keisha had a hot hand today so we were really trying to go to her.”

Hampton said she was “definitely” comfortable getting the ball near midcourt and handling it like a point guard. And while that offense has been used sporadically throughout the season, Hampton said it really caught hold after the team had success with it against Notre Dame in the Big East tournament.

“We ran it so much [against Notre Dame], and it’s been working,” Hampton said. “They’ve been switching, I’ve been getting the mismatch, and it’s either a mismatch for me of Fe. And if I don’t’ have it Fe always has it.It’s just hard for them to play a high ball screen. It’s something that we’ve been working on, and it got us some buckets in the second half.”

It certainly presents a matchup problem for the other team, and gets Hampton out in space, where she can move around a little bit and show off her ball handling. It also lets her either set up for a drive or take one of those long jump shots she seems to love. With the success they had tonight, it will be interesting to see if the team sticks with it against Duke next week.

That’s it from University Park and the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament. We’ll (hopefully) have more of the same from Philadelphia next weekend, so stay tuned.