The way she's playing now, Kelly Mazzante may lay claim to every Penn State women's basketball record by the end of her career.

With her old teammates from Montoursville Area High School in attendance, the freshman phenom took one huge step in that direction last night against Illinois at the Bryce Jordan Center.

"I was hoping to play well in front of them," Mazzante said. "I was just enjoying every second of it because I knew that tomorrow we have to come in for practice and we have to move on and focus on Wisconsin."

One month after scoring a career high of 32 points against Iowa, Mazzante set a new personal best against the Fighting Illini by posting 38 points in the Lady Lions' 101-80 victory.

Mazzante's career high broke Jen Bednarek's Penn State freshman single game scoring record and shattered Clemson's Will Solomon's mark of 37 points for the most points ever scored by a single player at the Jordan Center.

Her six three point field goals and 11 three-point attempts also tied Jordan Center records.

Mazzante is now just 44 points away from eclipsing Susan Robinson's freshman season team scoring record.

Mazzante didn't take the fight out of the Illini just from beyond the arc. On several occasions, she took advantage of the Lady Lions' swift transition game and raced to some easy layups.

Several of those easy buckets resulted from her tenacious defense.

"She did it in a lot of ways, not just with all those threes," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "She made a lot of things happen for herself."

Mazzante really started to heat after sinking three straight three-pointers in a span of 66 seconds to stretch the Lady Lions' lead to 68-50 with just over 12 minutes left in the game.

"She hit those three in a row and she was feeling it and then they all got in it," Illini coach Theresa Grentz said. "They caught it, lifted it, released it and knocked it down.

"It was really a pleasure to watch the kid."

Just under a minute later, Mazzante buried a fourth straight three-ball then set up Jessica Brungo for an easy deuce with 10:43 remaining.

On the Illini's ensuing trip down the court, Mazzante made one of her six steals and went coast to coast to capitalize on an old-fashioned three-point-play after getting fouled while driving for a layup.

With five minutes to go, Portland pulled Mazzante but put her back in the game after realizing the record was within reach and put her back in after the television timeout.

"The good thing was the kids didn't know the record was at stake and we didn't say anything during the timeout," Portland said. "She (Mazzante) was the only one I talked to (during the timeout). It was good that Jess (Brungo) gave it back to her because that means they understood she was hot and you want to go to the hot player.

"We talk about that all the time and that's part of the lesson that we're trying to teach our point guards, go to the hot player."