On Jan. 6, the women's basketball team dropped its second Big Ten game of the season, 71-56 at Minnesota. Suddenly, Penn State was at the bottom of the conference standings -- an unfamiliar place for a program with a rich winning tradition.

Following that fiasco in Minneapolis, Lady Lion guard Carla Coleman walked into the locker room, sat down and wept. Emotionally, she was a wreck.

"She just totally fell apart," Penn State Coach Rene Portland said.

Then, the 5-foot-8-inch guard regrouped and delivered a speech to the rest of the team.

"She very calmly sat down and explained the tradition of Lady Lion basketball without any prompting from the coaches," Portland said. "She just went off."

Since that speech, Coleman and Penn State have been making sweet music together on the basketball court.

The Lady Lions are undefeated in their last six outings, including five conference victories. After Sunday's 58-55 triumph over Wisconsin, Portland's team found itself alone atop the Big Ten.

And Coleman is a major reason why Penn State is there.

After a sluggish start, the fifth-year senior has emerged as the team's inspirational leader. And Coleman is the only Lady Lion to have started all 18 games.

"I think I've stepped up my play," Coleman said. "I've started to play with emotion. I wasn't playing with a lot of emotion at the start of the Big Ten season. I'm really not very vocal -- I like to lead by example."

Following the disappointing loss at Minnesota, Coleman turned in two clutch performances against Northwestern (Jan. 13) and Michigan (Jan. 15) in Rec Hall. She scored a combined 30 points against the Wildcats and Wolverines while tallying six rebounds, four assists and four steals.

But maybe her best performance of the season came Sunday against then-Big Ten leader Wisconsin. Playing the entire 40 minutes, Coleman rattled in 19 points, grabbed three rebounds and swiped three steals.

Defensively, Coleman limited the Badgers' lightening-quick point guard Keisha Anderson to eights points -- six below her season average.

"She just refuses to let us lose," Portland said. "She's very comfortable with herself. She hit some jumpers, hit some penetration, handled the ball really well and certainly did a good job on defense."

Despite her recent success, Coleman remains modest, giving her teammates most of the credit for Penn State's turnabout in the Big Ten.

"After the Minnesota game, it was everybody on the team that really knew what they had to do to get us back on track," she said. "It was not only me."

Nonetheless, the Lady Lions are back on track, eyeing two crucial games at Indiana and Purdue this weekend.

"We have gone from the top of the mountain to the bottom of mountain and now we're back on top again," Portland said. "Being on top right now is a nice challenge for us."

A challenge Coleman and the rest of the Lady Lions appear ready to meet.