There was an atmosphere of levity before the No. 2 women's basketball team played winless Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon in Rec Hall.

The three seniors, Tanya Garner, Terri Williams and Shelly Caplinger were treated to flowers and balloons in the traditional senior ceremony. All day long the Lady Lions were pulling tricks and pranks on each other.

But it was the UMass team which tried to pull the biggest trick of all when it took an early 12-7 lead. But there was no sense of anxiety amongst the team as it regrouped and went on to easily defeat the Minutewomen, 94-45. The Lady Lions raised their record to 23-1 and 14-1 in the Atlantic 10 while UMass fell to 0-23 and 0-15.

"Certainly in the beginning of the game we didn't come out as sharp as we would have liked to," Coach Rene Portland said. "I just didn't think that we were real focused."

Portland added that the team was really loose in practice the last few days, contributing to the slow start.

"I thought our shot selection could have been a lot better," Garner said. "There were a lot of shots taken outside that normally people wouldn't take. I guess that comes with the territory (Senior Day)."

The Lady Lions began to take control of the game, tying it after Susan Robinson hit two free throws and taking the lead after Kathy Phillips hit a 15-foot jumper, with 14:07 left in the first half.

UMass was hanging tough behind the play of Keyburn McCusker, who finished with 20 points, but the Minutewomen just could not possibly match up with Penn State. As the half wore on Penn State began to increase its lead and after Tanya Garner hit a layup with 1:58 left, the Lady Lions led 47-26. Then a Jen Kretchmar 3-pointer made the lead at halftime 50-26.

"We got smacked upside the head. They knew we had to get in sync," Portland said.

In the second half, the outcome turned into a mere formality as the lead began to grow and grow.

"We picked it up in the second half," Garner said. "We got a lot of second and third efforts on our shots."

After Phillips hit a layup the lead had grown to 30, at 58-28 at the 16:59 mark. At the 11:28 mark, after Caplinger hit a trey the lead was now 72-32. And after Tina Henry put back a layup the Lion lead was 90-40. The beginning of the game was all but forgotten as the crowd got what they wanted: destruction of UMass.

In the second half, UMass scored just 19 points on 30.8 percent shooting.

The team received another strong performance from Phillips and sophomore Kim Lazor. Phillips led the team on 9-of-12 shooting, scoring 20 points in just 17 minutes.

Phillips, who scored 19 points against Rhode Island last Thursday said, "hopefully (my shooting touch) will continue."

Portland especially praised the play of Lazor, who will see more action due to the stress fracture injury suffered by freshman Helen Holloway. Holloway could miss up to four weeks with her injury.

"I was particularly happy with the play of Kim Lazor," Portland said.

Lazor finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 19 minutes. Robinson also played well with 17 points and 13 rebounds, her 37th career double-double.