Although they've gotten off to a solid start this season, the Penn State Lady Lions have had some instability in their backcourt.

Last night, the Florida Lady Gators — namely, Brandi McCain and Tombi Bell — showed they have no such troubles, as the Florida guards kept the Gators (6-0) undefeated on the season with a 92-79 win against the No. 11 Lady Lions (3-3) in Gainesville.

Penn State began the season with sophomore Ashley Luke lining up at the point guard spot beside junior Katrena Carr and senior Lisa Shepherd.

The scoring punch of Kelly Mazzante enabled the freshman to break into the starting five, as she replaced Carr in the season's third game.

Then, Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland decided to insert Carr back into the starting spot in place of Luke, which was last night's lineup.

None of the Penn State guards, however, were able to stop the lethal tandem of McCain and Bell.

McCain, a junior, lit up the Lions for 28 points, 21 coming in the first half as Florida maintained a seven-point halftime advantage. Bell, a senior, scored 11 of her 24 points in the second stanza.

"They really gave us problems," Portland told WRSC Radio. "It was difficult for us to match their speed."

When McCain wasn't draining three-point shots or creating havoc on the defensive end, she was slicing through a porous Penn State press, making it all but impossible for the Lady Lions to mount a serious comeback threat.

The Penn State backcourt, by contrast, started slowly and although Shepherd ended the game with 25 points, most of her buckets came when the outcome was no longer in doubt.

As in their first two losses of the season, the Lions' demise was mainly due to their inability to shut down their opponents' offense, the guards in particular. In Penn State's 88-87 loss to No. 3 Duke earlier this year, Blue Devil guards Georgia Schweitzer, Alana Beard, and Sheana Mosch combined for 48 points. When Texas Tech defeated the Lions 79-71 in the Paradise Jam tournament, Lady Raider guard Katrina O'Neal torched Penn State for 24.

And try as they may, the Lions had seemingly no answer for the speedy Gator backcourt.

"We wanted to play all 94 feet because we felt the quickness of our guards would be hard to defend," said Florida women's basketball coach Carol Ross.

Florida owned all 94 feet of the O'Connell Center floor last night, and it showed on the scoreboard.