When Northwestern women's basketball coach June Olkowski said her team had not improved enough to win a basketball game she was absolutely right.

The Wildcats (4-15, 0-8 Big Ten) looked inept last night as they were embarrassed by Penn State (12-8, 4-3 Big Ten), 84-49 in The Bryce Jordan Center.

The Lady Lions dominated in just about every statistical category last night on their way to the victory. The Lions came into the game as the No. 1 free-throw shooting team in the Big Ten and their 92.6 percent from the charity stripe was not a surprise.

However, what may not have been expected was the edge they held over the Wildcats in the rebounding department. The Lady Lions had a total of 47 boards while Northwestern only pulled down 28.

"We're in the basement in rebounding and so this has to help," Penn State coach Rene Portland said.

The Lions also out hustled the Wildcats, as they had 14 steals on the night. Those thefts led to outlet passes, which led to transition offense. Penn State had many easy layups from running the floor and got plenty of two-on-one chances at the other end of the court.

Sophomore guard Kelly Mazzante said that the transition game was a major part of Penn State's preparation for the game.

"All week Rene put a lot of emphasis on transition," Mazzante said. "We put a lot of emphasis on running so that gets us some easy layups."

Even though the Lions won by 35 points they did not run away with the game right away. Penn State actually trailed 6-2 in the early going and after taking the lead they allowed the Wildcats to tie up the game at 22 with 8:23 to go in the first half.

"I thought we played pretty well for about fifteen minutes," Olkowski said of her team. "In the first half transition just hurt us and in the second half we just couldn't get going. The did a nice job of pressuring our point and made us very indecisive."

Olkowski also sited the play of Mazzante as a reason why her team was not able to keep up with the Lions for the remainder of the game. The nation's leading scorer poured in 24 points, eight of them coming via the free throw. She also had four rebounds and two steals.

What made Mazzante's stats impressive was the fact that she only played 25 minutes, sitting out during much of the second half when the game was already decided.

With the absence of Mazzante there was room for other players to step up. Sophomore forward Courtney Upshaw had a career high 18 points.

She was an impressive 7-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 from the free-throw line.

"I think tonight was really important," Upshaw said. "I need to work on keeping my game consistent week to week."

Northwestern's top performer of the night was freshman center Sarah Kwasinski. Kwasinski had 18 points and at one point during the game had half of her team's total points.

Even though Northwestern may not be one of the best teams in the conference the Lions think that last night's game will help them get on a roll as they go into the last nine games of the season.

"I was very pleased with that kind of effort," Portland said. "There is balance here. I was able to get some people rest and I was able to get people some playing time. It was a real team thing."