Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland sat down for the post-game press conference Friday night and said, "Well, where do you want me to begin?"

In the No. 9 Penn State (1-0) women's basketball team's 86-43 defeat of No. 12 LSU (1-2) in its home opener, there were a number of places she could have started.

She could have begun with senior Kelly Mazzante's record breaking night, as the senior guard netted 22 points to become the Lady Lions' all-time leading scorer, with 2,260 points.

She could have started with the fact that her team out-rebounded the Lady Tigers 47 to 20, a reversal of last March's season-ending game against Tennessee.

Or, she could have talked about the way the Lions spread the offense, with four players scoring in double digits.

But for the night, the bottom line was that the team with the sky-high expectations for the season passed its first test, taking its first steps towards proving that they are indeed the kind of team their aspirations require them to be.

The Lions gained control of the court right away, jumping out to a 10-3 lead by the time the first five minutes had ticked off the clock. While Mazzante did not score her first point until the 13-minute mark, her teammates took care of the offensive duties, starting with a 3-point jump shot by junior guard Tanisha Wright, called 'T' by her teammates.

"[When] 'T' hit a three, the first play of the game, I was like, 'There is no way we are losing this game,' " Mazzante said.

Wright finished with 15 points on the night, while senior forward Jess Brungo added 12 and junior point guard Jess Strom finally started to take shots, contributing 10 points in the win. With so many offensive threats, LSU was simply not able to stop anything from Penn State.

"They pretty much had their way," LSU women's basketball coach Sue Gunter said. "You've got that kind of balance and that kind of depth, it makes it very difficult to counter. We can talk about the thorough whipping that we took, and we took it."

LSU presented a lineup with which the Lions are familiar, as they had no dominant post presence and relied on four guards to run the offense. Much-heralded LSU guards Seimone Augustus and Temeka Johnson took the brunt of the offense on themselves, scoring 30 of their team's 46 points, but without help from their teammates, the effort proved to be not nearly enough.

Not the matchup it was anticipated to be, the LSU game was nevertheless the first true opportunity for the Lions to show off their new and improved form. While questions still remain, Wright assured the next couple of games will back up their preseason hype.

"We're an already confident team, we know our capabilities," Wright said. "It's just a matter of showing our capabilities. Not just saying we're good, [but] going out and proving to other teams who we are."