After beating No. 2 Texas on Sunday afternoon, the No. 7 Penn State Lady Lions had little time to enjoy the victory as they had to lace the Nike's up just two days later for a matchup with undefeated Baylor last night at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Despite a sluggish effort from Penn State (6-1), the Lady Lions were able to hold off the Lady Bears (6-1), 74-63, behind Kelly Mazzante's 31 points. And let's just say that it doesn't look like the two coaches, Penn State's Rene Portland and Baylor's Kim Mulkey-Robertson, will be sending each other Christmas cards this holiday season.

"I read somewhere where [Portland] didn't want a letdown," Mulkey-Robertson said after the game. "I don't think that we're a bad basketball team and that was an insult."

A letdown is exactly what Portland didn't want, no matter who her team was playing last night, and in some cases a letdown is all she got. Penn State started slow, going down 4-0 to start the game and fell behind 39-37 at halftime.

"We didn't do justice to what happened on Sunday," Portland said. "We were not as prepared as we should have been going into this game and I have to assume the responsibility for that."

Whatever Portland told the girls at the break must have worked as the Lady Lions came out in the second half inspired. They quickly went on a quick 5-0 run to take the lead early in the second half. A lead they didn't give up again.

All night, however, Penn State had trouble matching up with Baylor's size. The Lady Bears did all they could to exploit Penn State's guards by trying to post up on the Lions smaller players.

But despite it all, the Lady Lions came out of the game with their fifth consecutive win, and Mazzante hit open shots when the chances came. Last night those open shots came more often then the current senior and Big Ten Co-Player of the Week is used to.

"I had a lot of open looks," Mazzante said.

"It was kind of weird to be that open."

Tanisha Wright finished the game with 18 points and five assists, while point guard Jess Strom ended one point shy of a double-double with nine points to go along with her ten assists.

While Portland praised the play of Strom and Mazzante, she wasn't exactly pleased with the game that her interior players played. They were manhandled for a good part of the game on defense and had trouble finishing when around the hoop.

"That was my complaint with the team yesterday. They didn't come in and shoot, they didn't shoot foul shots, they didn't do anything," Portland said. "We had two days off, that doesn't mean you're off."