MILWAUKEE — At times during the 2001-02 Penn State women's basketball season, Kelly Mazzante has single-handedly dominated entire teams with her outstanding play. Mazzante has been a one-woman wrecking crew for the Lady Lions, breaking records and setting the Big Ten on fire with highlight-reel shots.

But on Saturday, it took an entire team effort to finally stop her. Mazzante struggled as Connecticut brought an end to the Lions' NCAA Tournament run this past weekend. The sophomore co-captain finished with 15 points but shot just 6-for-21 from the field and 1-for-8 from three-point range in a 82-64 loss to the Huskies.

"We definitely wanted to throw some different things at her, and especially different players," said Sue Bird, the Connecticut senior guard who beat out Mazzante for the 2002 Naismith Award as the nation's best collegiate player. "We really didn't give her that many looks, and that was our plan."

The Huskies used a rotation of three All-Americans (Bird, sophomore guard Diana Taurasi and senior forward Swin Cash) and a few other players at times to keep Mazzante in check. That combination limited the sophomore to just seven points in the first half, and her 15 total points were well below her nation-leading 25 per game average.

Mazzante was frustrated by the UConn defenders from the opening tip, and hit on just one of six attempts from beyond the three-point arc in the first half. The All-American spent most of the afternoon with a multitude of hands in her face and different bodies on her wherever she went, but was still able to fire off 21 shots.

"I don't think there was any way to keep her from getting the 20 shots she normally gets every night," Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said. "I think the quality of her shots might have been affected, and that's all you hope to do."

Mazzante said that the Huskies' defensive game plan against her was no surprise. The Montoursville native often faced a "defense by committee" throughout the regular season against conference and non-conference opponents alike because no single player had been able to stop her.

"I thought coming into this game that they would probably rotate a lot of different players on me, and it's nothing I haven't seen all year," Mazzante said. "But most of the shots that I took, they weren't wide open. There weren't that many."

Lions head coach Rene Portland said that UConn's defensive strategy against Mazzante was a tribute to the sophomore's offensive talents.

"I honestly don't believe that there's anyone Connecticut played this year that they had to use everyone on the team to play," Portland said. "If you have to throw a whole team against her, she must be great."