The scoreboard operator at Carver Hawkeye Arena will have his hands full Sunday afternoon when the top two scorers in the Big Ten face off.

No. 13 Penn State travels to Iowa City to face the Hawkeyes at 3 p.m. Sunday. Because of their schedules, this will be the only time the Lions face the Hawkeyes and first-year head coach Lisa Bluder in the regular season.

The Lady Lions (12-5, 4-2 Big Ten) are led by freshman Kelly Mazzante, who is pacing all Big Ten scorers by averaging 18.3 points per game.

Lions junior Rashana Barnes had a career game against Indiana last weekend, scoring 23 points and pulling down 15 boards.

"I think Rashana can play like that all the time," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "She's an incredible offensive rebounder."

The Lions will be the more rested of the two teams, not having played since last Sunday, while the Hawkeyes played Wednesday.

The Lions have lost their last two road games, but bounced back and easily beat the Hoosiers last weekend.

Portland said the team is trying to focus on Iowa to snap their road skid.

"The (last) two games we lost, at Illinois and Michigan, we were down by six, we were down by four, then we'd go for the home run," she said. "I think the team has to keep the big picture in mind.

"I think as coaches it's important for us, with such a young team, to go for more of a one game at a time attitude. Though we're well aware that Indiana's right around the corner this is a week where we can focus on Iowa and no one else."

The Hawkeyes (8-8, 3-3) are coming off a 79-52 thrashing at the hands of Ohio State.

Hawkeyes junior Lindsey Meder is leading the team, scoring 17.9 points per game. Another key player for the Hawkeyes is senior Randi Peterson.

Peterson was named Co-Big Ten Player of the Week last week, mainly because of her 19 point, 15 board, six assists and four steal performance in the Hawkeyes 74-68 defeat of Wisconsin.

Peterson leads the Big Ten in rebounds, averaging 8.1 boards per game.

Portland anticipates a close game.

"When you look at the Big Ten stats, Penn State and Iowa really aren't too far away from each other in a lot of the categories," she said.

"The leading scorers on each team lead the league, and the rebounding situations are very similar."

However, even if her squad is down in the closing minutes of the game, Portland has been working on coming back for a deficit in practice and is confident the players can pull through.

"We've been getting more work with the point guards on time and situation," Portland said.

"We've done a lot of scrimmaging in situations where we're down five points and see if we can win it."