Kelly Mazzante had two reasons to celebrate yesterday: the Lady Lions got a win, and it was her 21st birthday.

Mazzante scored 33 points to lead the No. 14 Penn State women's basketball team (18-5, 8-1 Big Ten) to a 69-55 victory over Indiana (9-10, 2-7) yesterday in the Bryce Jordan Center, in front of almost 12,000 fans. The attendance is the third largest crowd ever to witness a women's basketball game at the Jordan Center.

The Lady Lions extended their home court winning streak to 15 games as they defeated

Mazzante's 33 points led all scorers and gave her her eighth 30-point game of the season. She is only six points away from a career mark of 2,000. If she reaches the milestone in the team's next game, Mazzante will have attained 2,000 faster than any player in Big Ten or Penn State history.

"It didn't happen, and it doesn't matter," Mazzante said. "I'll get it the next game. The biggest thing was us [to] protect the Jordan Center."

Protecting the home court was a bit of a task initially. Penn State started out slow after the initial tip off, and never really built a discernible lead until the end of the first half. Indiana went basket for basket with the Lions for the first 10 minutes of the game, and forced six turnovers. It was not until three minutes remaining that Penn State started to make plays and hit shots.

"I think we started out real slow for whatever reason," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "We had too many turnovers, and I don't think we're really attacking as much as we want to attack."

In the second half, the Penn State defense played more aggressively and forced eight turnovers, mainly by utilizing a quick full-court press that flustered the Indiana ball handlers. The defensive pressure combined with an 18-0 run in the final half sealed the win.

"I felt like we fought, and we did a lot better job in the second half on stopping Mazzante but we weren't as good offensively in the second half," said Indiana women's basketball coach Kathi Bennett.

Portland said she was impressed with the Hoosiers' scrappy play throughout the game.

"We're headed in the right direction," Portland said. "We needed to protect two [games] at home. I think Indiana gave us a great game today because they never stopped."

Every member of the Lady Lions saw action against the Hoosiers. Tanisha Wright was the day's second leading scorer with 14 points, and Hazel Joseph grabbed 11 rebounds. Penn State continues to miss the inside presence of Ashli Schwab, but others have stepped up to fill the void.

"Playing time does help your confidence," Portland said. "This whole process that we're going through with Ashli is really helping the team, because if we had a weakness, it was in our post game. It would have been exposed in the last few weeks, and it wasn't exposed. So, I do think the team knows it's a need, and they have risen to the occasion."