The media and basketball fans across the country are intrigued by No. 15 Penn State's second round matchup with No. 16 South Carolina.

The reason is simple -- the matchup pits Naismith Award finalists South Carolina forward Jocelyn Penn against Penn State guard Kelly Mazzante. Tonight, at the Bryce Jordan Center with a scheduled tipoff time of 5:03 for a national TV audience on either ESPN or ESPN2, those two will try to take their respective teams to the Sweet 16.

At yesterday's press conference, Penn tried to downplay the matchup with Mazzante and stress the battle between the two teams.

"Tomorrow, it's just going to be about me doing whatever I need to do to help my team win," Penn said. "Obviously she's going to do the same and in the end I think it will be all about the matchup between Penn State and South Carolina."

The matchup between the Lady Lions (25-8) and the Gamecocks (23-7) will most likely come down to which player, Mazzante or Penn, can have the bigger impact. Both are averaging right around 24 points per game, but Penn prefers to get her work done on the inside as she also averages eight rebounds a game.

"Jocelyn gets a lot of her points in the paint and off transitions," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "She's the leading offensive rebounder in the SEC so she's more like LaToya Thomas that we played from Mississippi State."

If the Lions can have the same success against Penn that they had on Thomas, then they can force perimeter player, Cristina Ciocan, or the Gamecocks' other post player, Petra Ujhelyi, to beat them.

Recently, against Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament the Lions had problems with the Buckeyes' post players: Courtney Coleman, D'wan Shackleford and LaToya Turner. That trio was able to score 41 points and grab 25 rebounds against the Lions.

"I can't remember playing a bigger team than [South Carolina]," Mazzante said. "But, I think the coaches will match us up on who we will have to play and we will just go with that."

The Lions will have the advantage of playing on the floor of the Jordan Center, where they are undefeated this season and have never lost a NCAA tournament game in seven tries. Both coaches and players agree that the homecourt advantage will be a key part of the game.

"I would hope the community would come out and support us and see a great game," Portland said. "It's two top-20 teams going against each other, and the team that wins will get to keep going, and they can be a part of Penn State doing that."

South Carolina women's basketball coach Susan Walvius expressed sentiments that she rather play the game on a neutral court. Coaches across the country have said the same things and hope to move to neutral courts as soon as possible.

South Carolina will need to avoid the slow start they had against Chattanooga to keep the fans' participation at a minimum.

"I think the first five minutes out of the gate is important for any game," South Carolina guard Kelly Morrone said. "UT-Chattanooga, we did start slow, and it took us a while to get rolling. I don't think that we can necessarily afford that against the Penn State team."