You had to see it coming.

All season long, Penn State freshman Kelly Mazzante has made an assault on the Lady Lion record books. Last night, her barrage continued, as the rookie phenom dumped a career-high 38 points on Illinois, leading the No. 16 Lions (18-6, 10-3 Big Ten) to a 101-80 rout at The Bryce Jordan Center.

Mazzante set the Jordan Center scoring record, eclipsing Clemson's Will Solomon, who netted 37 against the Nittany Lions a year ago, reset her own Lady Lion single-game freshman record, and moved within 44 points of Susan Robinson's freshman single-season mark of 503.

"It was neat to see," said Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland, who wore an ear-to-ear grin most of the evening as she watched her freshman rain six three-point shots on the Illini (12-13, 7-6). "She did it in a lot of ways, not just with the threes."

Mazzante finished 15-of-22 from the floor and also tallied six steals. Fellow freshman Jessica Brungo also displayed a lethal outside touch on her way to a career-high. Brungo scored 17 points and was a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc.

Illinois, who got 17 points from Anne O'Neil and 15 from Shavonna Hunter, shot nearly 70 percent in the second half but could do little more than watch as Mazzante and the Lions slowly pulled away.

"It has been a battle for us all week," Illinois women's basketball coach Theresa Grentz said. "Even though we lost the game, we came out tonight and added some things we really needed for the next several games and in the (Big Ten) tournament."

While Mazzante and Brungo did most of their damage from the outside in the second half, junior forward Rashana Barnes was a force in the low post for Penn State early on. Barnes scored 12 of her 19 points in the first 20 minutes as the Lions took a 48-35 lead into halftime.

"Barnes killed us in the first half," Grentz said.

Lisa Shepherd scored all 10 of her points in the first half for the Lions, but the second half was clearly the Kelly Mazzante show. With Penn State up 59-48, Mazzante drilled threes in three consecutive trips down the floor, bringing the hometown crowd to its feet and sucking the life out of the Illini.

All-Big Ten guard Allison Curtin was hounding Mazzante all night, but the freshman was able to get several clean looks with a little help from her teammates.

"I heard her (Curtin) say the one time, 'I'm getting killed on these screens'," Mazzante said. "I was wide open. Everyone was running the plays perfectly. I give all the credit to my teammates."

The game was the first in a crucial four-game stretch to end the season. The Lions will head Sunday to Wisconsin, who is only a game behind Penn State in the Big Ten standings. And the much-anticpated showdown with conference-leader and sixth-ranked Purdue awaits the Lions next week.

"We couldn't have gotten off to a better start," Portland said.