At least for one night, Niagara could find one area of a game where it wasn't small. Two, actually.

The Lady Eagles, who suited up just eight players -- none of whom stands six feet -- lost to the women's basketball team by a really big margin, while giving up an even bigger amount of points.

Ninth-ranked Penn State (13-4) cruised to the century mark with a comfortable five minutes to spare in last night's game at Rec Hall and added 16 more points for good measure as it squashed Niagara (5-9), 116-48.

The Lady Lions' 68-point cushion was the team's second-largest winning margin in history, a bucket shy of bettering the team record, set against West Virginia in 1983. Penn State's 116-point output was the fourth highest in the team's history, two behind the record, set against Ohio State last season.

Most of the production came from the Lady Lion bench, which contributed 69 points and saw the majority of the playing time.

After Penn State jumped to an early 31-12 lead, the lights beside the starters' names on the scoreboards went off and remained off for long periods of time.

"We got what we wanted out of tonight's game -- the opportunity for people to see playing time," Coach Rene Portland said.

Lynn Dougherty poured in a team-high 16 points and canned all three of her 3-point attempts in her 12-minute appearance. Helen Holloway led the troops off the bench with a season-high 15 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, while freshman guard Katina Mack dished out a career-high eight assists.

Jenny Kretchmar, who stands 5-foot-6, enjoyed a rare height advantage at the point and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds.

Carla Coleman began the offensive barrage with a break-away layup off a feed from Susan Robinson and set the Penn State theme for the game -- score, then score again . . . and again.

Everyone had a chance to get into the act, and everyone did. Freshman Shelby Thayer's 18-foot jumper from the corner gave the Lady Lions a 51-21 lead with 2:26 remaining in the first half. After that, the Lady Eagles got no closer than 32.

Needless to say, the smaller squad learned the bigger lessons.

"This is a big learning experience for me as a freshman -- playing a big school that's nationally ranked," said 5-foot-1-inch Jennifer Nelson, who scored 10 points. "We also played Auburn and Texas A & M earlier in the season and it was a similar game.

"I think we learn a lot from this type of game."

One thing Niagara learned was that a team living and dying by the 3-pointer can be downright massacred by it.

To combat the Lady Lions' obvious height advantage, the Lady Eagles' roaming grounds remained primarily behind the 3-point stripe. Sometimes, way behind it.

Nelson, Kim Kuhn and Stacie Kane launched a few treys from distances that would be considered far by NBA standards. However, Niagara connected on just seven of 24 attempts, which did little more than break the monotony of Penn State buckets.

Besides the obvious appreciation of her team's offensive performance, Portland said she was pleased that her starters did the job early and gave the bench some much-needed playing time.

"I think the starting five did what we wanted to do," Portland said, "because in the past when we play a game like this, sometimes they are lackadasical and I don't have the opportunity to play the rest of the kids."