Kelly Mazzante slouched down on the Penn State bench frustrated by four missed jump shots in the first five minutes.

A rocky start for a player used to torching the opposition. After seven minutes of play against the Basketball Travelers, the Lions led by less than 10 and Mazzante only had four points.

As the Lady Lions' top scorer sat contemplating her struggles that included an air ball to start the night, Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland, offered words of encouragement.

What Portland said must have worked. The No. 8 Lions rolled to a 84-53 preseason victory Friday overthe Basketball Travelers, led by 29 points from Mazzante.

"I told her, 'I'm glad it's not the first [regular season] game,' " Portland said of her comments to Mazzante. "She only needs 16 points to break the all-time school record. The way she was shooting it would have taken us until the third game to get to it. I just tried to make fun of the situation."

Prior to being consoled, Mazzante's four points came on two free throws and a lay-up.

It started with a three-pointer from the corner that hit nothing but net, and before the Lions' Slovenian opponents, the Basketball Travelers, even knew what hemisphere they were in, Mazzante had scored 13 points in less than four minutes. Even after such a slow start offensively, the pre-season All-American finished the half with 21 points.

However, Mazzante and the Lions said the other side of the court is what the team will have to focus on as it prepares for a showdown with No. 10 Louisiana State.

"Offensively, we're fine, but defensively, we're going to need to figure some things out because LSU's going to be more athletic," Mazzante said.

By the time Mazzante had put her first 21 on the board the game was essentially over with Penn State leading 51-29.

But that assumption could have been made before the Travelers even took the floor; a win for the Lady Lions was never in doubt. This was a game for the Lions to experiment, and with junior center Ashli Schwab nursing an injury, Portland had the opportunity to start Reicina Russell -- one of her four freshman.

"One of them had to be thrown to the wolves, it just happened that Recina was the first one," Portland said, adding that Schwab would return to practice today.

Along with Russell, freshman post-player Amanda Brown also got significant minutes.

Combined they scored 26 points, gathered 16 rebounds and blocked five shots.

Defense and rebounding is what they will be counted on to do.

Because Mazzante certainly seems to have the scoring duties covered -- even after a less than perfect start.