City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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PHILADELPHIA >> No matter where they’ve come from, there’s always an adjustment for a player making the jump to the college level.

For Penn State’s Tea Cleante, that adjustment has been more translational than talent-related, the 5-foot-9 guard from France getting her first look at NCAA basketball this season. She’d made a nice impact early for the Nittany Lions, but nothing like what she’d deliver on Sunday against Saint Joseph’s in Hagan Arena.

Cleante had a breakout game with 23 points, hitting her first eight shots, as the hot-shooting Lions downed the Hawks 89-77 to stay unbeaten on the season.

“She’s getting used to how the game is called,” Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger said. “You saw a couple travels there, the physicality but she’s played big-time matchups before, she’s played high level basketball against really elite competition so for her, it’s just a matter of how refs call the game over here, some terminology but I think she’s adjusting really well.”

Penn State improved to 4-0, winning its first road game of the season and the first of a home-and-home series with the Hawks as St. Joe’s will make the return trip to State College next year. Gracie Merkle, Penn State’s 6-foot-6 center, led all scorers with 25 points while Kiyomi McMiller tallied 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a solid all-around game.

St. Joe's, which trailed by 13 points in the second quarter and 17 points early in the fourth, put together a couple of rallies and were in it until a final push by the visitors. Gabby Casey poured in a new career-best 24 points, hitting 6-of-10 from three, adding four assists while Aleah Snead added 21 points including a career-high four makes from three-point range.

Despite being the road team, Penn State shot pretty comfortably inside Hagan, hitting 35-of-61 (57.3%) overall and a blistering 12-of-17 (70.6%) from three while the Hawks were 25-of-71 (35.2%) overall but did outscore the Lions from three, making 15-of-39 (38.5%) attempts.

“We want to be fearless shooters,” Kieger said. “We want them to play without a fear of failure, we want them to catch shot-ready, we obviously have Gracie Merkle who demands so much attention we know we’re going to have skip passes, we know we’re going to have ‘one more’ passes so we have a lot of faith in our guards to step up and shoot it when they’re open.”

Cleante, a freshman from Dunkirk, spent last season playing with LDLC ASVEL in Lyon and has extensive experience with the French national team including gold medals in 2024 FIBA U18 Women's EuroBasket and 2022 FIBA U16 Women's European Championship. She came into Sunday’s game averaging 11.5 ppg through two appearances for a new-look Penn State roster.

The guard scored the Lions’ first points of the game on a driving layup 30 seconds in but didn’t score again in the quarter as the Hawks built an eight-point lead at 22-14 on Emily Knouse’s deep three. Penn State got within a score at 22-20 as McMiller, the former Life Center Academy standout who transferred to the Nittany Lions out of Rutgers over the summer, nailed a pull-up three from the last feathers of the Hawk logo at the buzzer.

Cleante would then put a significant stamp on the game in the second quarter. She assisted Viktoria Ranisavljevic’s three that put Penn State ahead 23-22, a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, then went 4-of-4 herself from long range the remainder of the quarter.

The guard even took an opportunity at halftime to discuss the travel calls that had gone against her with one of the officials. She’d add seven more points in the third quarter before finally missing a shot in the fourth but still finished strong by turning a steal into a layup with 39 seconds left to finish Penn State’s game-sealing run.

McMiller used the gravity she creates well. Instead of trying to force shots over a good defender, McMiller picked her spots to attack while also spreading the ball around to her open shooters.

It was the pass she made to Vitoria Santana in the left corner for a wide-open three with 1:37 left that was the dagger to seal the win. On top of her strong rebounding on the defensive glass, McMiller added three steals.

Casey led St. Joe’s on a scorching finish to the half after falling behind 35-22 on a Cleante three with 6:44 left. Casey drew a foul driving to the basket with 6:15 left, Penn State also picking up a technical foul on the play, and with Casey going 3-of-4 at the line, it kicked off a 23-12 finish in a wild six minute span that saw both teams flying up and down the floor and launching shot after shot.

“There’s a lot to take away from this game,” Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said. “I thought we had a lot of really good individual performances, I was really happy with the production of Gabby and Aleah, they just really showed a lot of composure there and there’s a lot to learn from.”

Griffin felt the team’s pace really predicated the big finish to the half and Kieger agreed, the Penn State coach adding she had her team go to a zone defense early in the second half to try and bog down the Hawks offense. St. Joe’s forced plenty of turnovers but only produced 20 points off the Lions’ 21 giveaways while Penn State was more productive turning 13 Hawks turnovers into 26 points.

Casey was electric in the run, the Lansdale Catholic alum scoring 12 points, including a triumvirate of threes, and dishing out three assists that all led to three-pointers. Snead, who also spent much of her time on the floor guarding McMiller, nailed two threes in the run as St. Joe’s got within 46-45 at half and added eight points in the third quarter to help her team punch back after a Penn State run put the visitors up 60-46.

“They’ve taken on more of a responsibility and being upperclassmen, that comes with the territory,” Griffin said. “They’ve played a lot of minutes these last couple years. They know the expectation, they know the standard, they know what we’re trying to do and they’re going to step up to the next phase, which is being a leader.

“I thought Aleah coming out and making threes today, it’s something she has worked so hard on all year and when the opportunity presented itself, she nailed it. Gabby, it’s just being relentless, she’s one of our better conditioned athletes and is a great competitor and fearless in so many ways.”

St. Joe’s tallied 19 assists on its 25 makes Sunday, continuing a season-long trend of the Hawks assisting a high percentage of their baskets. Through four games, they have assisted 77 of their 97 made shots, a telling sign that a group with quite a few new pieces has developed some quick continuity and a willingness to share the ball.

“That’s something that we take pride in, sharing the ball, moving the ball and making it difficult for the defense to settle in,” Griffin said. “When you move the ball from side to side or in and out, it just creates more opportunities for you to score in different ways. I thought we did that today but the area we didn’t score in was the paint and we knew that was going to be a challenge today.”

Sunday also marked a return to Philadelphia for Penn State freshman Shayla Smith, the Audenried standout having ended her career as the top female high school scorer in city history. Unfortunately, an injury has slowed the start of her college career - Smith played in Penn State’s opener but missed the Lions’ second game and was limited to a spot appearance midweek - and she did not get into Sunday’s game.

However, Kieger does see the guard as a major piece both in the near future and over the next few seasons in Happy Valley.

“Shayla’s going to help us out drastically,” Kieger said. “I wish she was 100 percent to play in her hometown today but she’s going to help us out on both ends.

“I’ve been really impressed with her work ethic and how she’s just been soaking up, learning and it’s an unfortunate injury there but she’ll be back and ready to rock in no time.”

St. Joe’s hits the road for its next two, a Thursday morning tilt at Columbia then faces Penn on Nov. 24 at The Palestra. The Hawks’ next home game is Nov. 29 against Drexel, the second of two straight pool games for the Big Five Classic on Dec. 7.