The Bryce Jordan Center has never been this loud. Now, consider the fact that there was a basketball game being played inside, not a concert.

The No. 13 Penn State women's basketball team (14-4, 5-1 Big Ten) used its homecourt advantage to narrowly defeat Michigan State (9-7, 2-3) 75-70 yesterday at the Jordan Center.

Despite trailing by four with only four minutes on the clock, the Lady Lions turned up their defensive intensity, and managed to escape with the win. This came much to the delight of the crowd of over 10,000 -- the fourth biggest crowd in history to see a women's basketball game at the Jordan Center.

"We were going into every time out saying we need a defensive stop," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. The catalyst during the Lions' late-game surge was guard Jess Strom, who came off the bench to record a career-high 24 points. If that wasn't enough, she iced the game with two steals and four foul shots in the final 30 seconds.

"All year we've been talking about defense," Strom said. "We all finally figured out that we have to step up our defense. Our offense will come, but we have to play defense."

Throughout the game, every basket the Lions hit, the Spartans seemingly found an answer. With every defensive stop the Lions pulled off, the Spartans did them one better.

The Spartans used their size advantage to dominate on the boards, to the tune of a rebounding margin of 18.

"We always talk about second shots and trying to be aggressive, it's frustrating because we out-rebounded them by so much but didn't take care of the ball," Michigan State women's basketball coach Joanne McCallie said. "I would call us wimps. We needed to step up and take care of the ball, and we didn't."

Twenty-four turnovers plagued the Spartans throughout the contest and the Lions seemed to always have an answer, despite having All-America hopeful Kelly Mazzante struggle to only 14 points. Guard Tanisha Wright struggled to get her touches, but came up big late in the game with a pair of jumpers and a key rebound to keep the Lions in the game. The Lions played all but nine minutes without the services of starting center Ashli Schwab, who was forced to ride a stationary bike due to a stress fracture of her left tibia.

In her place was Hazel Joseph, who scored only four points but was everywhere, especially on the defensive end.

"Hazel stepped up to the plate tonight," Portland said. "The team was excited for her to do that because she works as hard as anybody else."

The team was excited about another conference win, which will keep it atop the Big Ten standings.