The Penn State women's basketball team learned last night that it can win without its star player.

The Lady Lions came away with a 31-point victory, defeating the Perik Jumpers 84-53 last night in The Bryce Jordan Center. The win came in the team's final exhibition game of the season.

The win was impressive for many reasons. Seven Lions scored at least seven points and the team shot 50.7 percent from the field. After allowing their last opponent to score 68 points the Lions buckled down and only let the Jumpers come away with 53.

But the most impressive thing about the game may have been that Penn State was able to dominate without sophomore guard Kelly Mazzante. Mazzante did not play in last night's game due to concussion-like symptoms that she received in practice. With Mazzante gone the Lions lost a player who scored 29 points in the exhibition opener.

"We knew we all had to pick it up scoring wise," sophomore forward Jessica Brungo said.

Brungo and her teammates certainly did that, scoring at will at times against the team from Holland. Brungo and fellow backcourt player senior Rashana Barnes led the Lions in scoring. Brungo had a game-high 25 points while Barnes poured in 17 in her first game of the season. She missed the first game with knee problems.

The offense was able to produce but it was the defense that returned the momentum to the Lions. With Penn State in one of its few scoring lulls, the Jumpers were able to pull ahead 22-20 with less than 9 minutes to go in the first half. At that point in time the Lions implemented a full-court press defense and created havoc for the Jumpers.

A soon as the press was implemented Penn State began to pull away. Sophomore guard Jennifer Brenden stole a ball and passed it to Brungo for an easy lay-up. On the very next possession freshman point guard Jess Strom flew in to steal another Jumpers pass.

"I think the press helped all of us get up and got us excited," Strom said.

The defense also did a good job of playing a solid game against an offense that it is not used to seeing. The Jumpers, like many foreign traveling teams, are known for a fast-break style of play.

"They did a lot of pass and pick through and had big kids outside shooting," Penn State head coach Rene Portland said. "That's pretty unusual for us to see any place

else. We won't see that on Friday against Villanova. Villanova will use the clock for 22 seconds and drive us crazy."

The Lady Lions will see Villanova on Friday night when they play their season opener at home against the Wildcats.