For of all of DePaul's success this season, the Blue Demons didn't get an ideal draw for the second round of the NCAA tournament.
No neutral site game Monday night. To advance to a regional semifinal for the first time since 2006, third-seeded DePaul must get by No. 6 seed Penn State on the Lady Lions' home floor at the Jordan Center.
Officially, the Lady Lions (25-9) will wear their blue road uniforms as the lower seed, though the crowd in Happy Valley will most assuredly be on their side.
''Basketball is a very, very different game on the road for many reasons,'' DePaul coach Doug Bruno said Sunday, highlighting one reason in particular. ''You've got to put that little ball into that little ring. It's easier to do that at home than on the road, not just in the tournament, but in your league.''
DePaul (28-6) is enjoying a banner year, rolling over opponents by an average of about 14 points a game. They're hitting 35 percent from 3-point range, the second-best mark in the Big East. They beat nationally-ranked Stanford by 20 in December, one of the Cardinal's only two losses this season.
The Blue Demons have earned program-bests for single-season victories and NCAA seeding, and - after a four-year drought - a first-round NCAA win in slogging out a 56-43 defeat of Navy. That latter goal had been weighing on DePaul all season, so seniors like guard Deirdre Naughton soaked up the victory - but only briefly.
''We have a game coming on (Penn State's) home floor that we have to look forward to, so I think we kind of quickly put the game behind us and realized what we have ahead of us,'' Naughton said before practice Sunday.
That figures to be run-and-gun affair between two teams that average at least 73 points a game. At 77 points per game, the Lady Lions have the Big Ten's offense.
Coach Coquese Washington's crew might lack DePaul's experience - the Blue Demons start two seniors and a junior in All-Big East forward Keisha Hampton - but they have a deep roster that can keep up step-for-step in transition.
Washington doesn't expect DePaul to slow down the tempo, like they were forced to at times against the smaller Midshipmen. The Blue Demons also had an unlucky string of missing layups or open looks in shooting just 37 percent.
''They did what you are supposed to do in a first-round game and that is survive and advance,'' Washington said. ''They shoot the 3-ball extremely well and I expect to see that team tomorrow night.''
Penn State has advanced to the second round in its first NCAA appearance since 2005 thanks in large part to point guard Alex Bentley, who scored 25 points and hounded Dayton in a 75-66 win Saturday. Bentley forms a potentially lethal backcourt duo with freshman and sixth player Maggie Lucas, the Lady Lions' leading scorer with prodigious 3-point range.
Need proof? Teammate Talia East posted a YouTube video last week with a highlight reel of ''Machine Gun Maggie's Trick Shots.'' Lucas hit one shot blindfolded from halfcourt, and sank another from where her mother sits about six rows behind the Penn State bench, on one bounce off the floor and into the hoop.
No wonder Dayton played harassing defense on Lucas all day, holding her to 2 of 6 shooting, all from 3-point range. Lucas did go 7 of 8 from the foul line to finish with 12 points.
The extra attention helped Bentley get more looks.
''She doesn't need a lot of time to get a shot off,'' Bruno said about Lucas. ''It's one of the reasons they're very good. They've got a great guard combination here, and we're not even talking about one of their starters.''
Just like Penn State, DePaul leading scorer Hampton had a subpar outing in her first-round game with nine points on 3 of 13 shooting. But pay too much attention to Hampton, and a DePaul attack with four players averaging at least 10.3 points can hurt opponents from other spots.
''It's basically going to be a competition of defense,'' Bentley said. ''Who can stop the better offensive transition team?''
