Sometimes, it really is the size of the dog in the fight.

Wisconsin's towering triplet of Jessie Stomski, LaTonya Sims and Nina Smith proved to be too much for Penn State yesterday as the Badgers picked up an important conference win, defeating the No. 16 Lady Lions 86-75 at the Kohl Center.

Stomski, Sims and Smith combined to score 50 of the Badgers' 86 points while rendering the Lions' post players, Maren Walseth and Rashana Barnes, all but ineffective. Wisconsin (16-8, 10-4 Big Ten) as a team shot 57 percent from the field while putting Penn State (18-7, 10-4) in an uncomfortable position with the Big Ten tournament lurking around the corner.

"It's a real disappointing situation because it puts us in fourth place," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland told WRSC Radio. "Now it's real important we win these last two or we'll be playing on the day we don't want to be playing."

The Lions fell to 3-4 on the road in the conference and dropped into a three-way tie for second place with Wisconsin and Iowa. Both the Badgers and the Hawkeyes own the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Lions heading into the final week of the season.

Both of Penn State's two final games will be at home, where the Lions have lost just once in the past two seasons, but one of them is against No. 6 Purdue, who clinched the regular-season Big Ten title yesterday with a 96-43 win against Minnesota.

Barnes spent most of the evening in foul trouble and fouled out with just under five minutes to play. She finished with 11 points in only 16 minutes, while Walseth faced double-teams throughout the evening and finished with just four.

Jessica Brungo posted a career-high for the second straight game, scoring 18 points off the bench, while Kelly Mazzante added a hard-earned 17, but Wisconsin was too much for the Lions inside.

Stomski, a junior forward, led the Badgers with 19 points. Senior forward Sims chipped in 18 and sophomore center Smith finished with 13.

"Their post rotation gave us a lot of problems," Portland said. "It's difficult to play their post players physically. They're so big in so many ways."

The teams traded baskets in the first half, but Wisconsin emerged with a three-point lead at the break. The Badgers broke open the game in the second stanza, however, hitting seven of their first eight shots of the half to open up an 11-point lead.

In addition to out-shooting the Lions from the field, Wisconsin also held a substantial advantage at the free throw line, finishing 29-for-34 compared to just 9-for-13 for Penn State.