The roar after every Penn State basket was deafening. The shouts of "De-fense" and the waving of shakers persisted through the game. And in the final minutes, the whole house was on its feet, ready to dub the home team champs and the visiting team overrated.

As No. 5 Penn State (23-4, 15-1) defeated No. 6 Purdue (24-3, 14-2) Sunday afternoon to win the regular-season Big Ten Championship, the crowd in the Bryce Jordan Center was the largest ever for a women's basketball game in Happy Valley, with the attendance marked at 15,407. The crowd was not only significant because it was the second-ever sellout for the Lady Lions, but because of the momentum it provided for the home team that, according to the Lions, helped them recover from a 14-point halftime deficit.

"They were with us when we were losing, and they were on our side and very vocal," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "And once the run started in the second half, the thought crossed my mind then that I wouldn't want to be Purdue because that place was really hopping, and I do think [the crowd] gave us the energy."

The run Portland referred to was the 14-0 scoring blitz the women engineered at the beginning of the second half to tie the game within the first five minutes. As soon as Tanisha Wright hit a jumper to kick off the half and Jess Strom responded with a steal that resulted in a lay-up, the crowd rarely sat down or calmed itself until Purdue finally sneaked in a lay-up after being held scoreless for seven minutes.

While Penn State credited the crowd for its energy boost, the Boilermakers maintained that the packed arena had nothing to do with their choking effort.

"Great basketball teams make runs," Purdue women's basketball coach Kristy Curry said. "It has nothing to do with the crowd."

Star forward Shereka Wright, who ended the afternoon with 21 points, did not even consider the crowd a factor, citing previous experiences dealing with packed arenas as key to keeping composure.

"Not at all [was it a factor]," she said. "We've played in these situations, our crowd is the same way, and I think that wasn't even a factor. If [the crowd] was a factor, we would have been down that many in the first half."

Purdue's home crowd is traditionally the same way, as the Boilermakers and the Lions top the total attendance rankings for the conference. When they hosted Penn State on Jan. 2, however, that crowd was not in full force, as the game was during the university's winter break. As Penn State defeated Purdue 47-42 at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind., the attendance figure was 9,501, which is average.

While Purdue claims to not be rattled by a hostile crowd, the Lions are aware of how much the crowd impacts their own game, as their only conference loss came while playing at Minnesota in front of a crowd of 14,363.

"We went to Minnesota and played, and their fans played a major role in how we reacted," freshman center Reicina Russell said after the Minnesota game. "They went down and scored a basket, all 14,000 fans go crazy, and it's kind of like, 'Is there anything I can do to break this momentum that they just gave to the team?' [Our] fans mean a lot in the fact that they get us going, they really do."

The sellout crowds also mean something a little extra special for senior Kelly Mazzante, who played her last game ever in the Jordan Center on Sunday.

"Rene sat me down my freshman year and told me that if we don't sell out the Bryce Jordan Center, then something's wrong," Mazzante said. "I'll never forget that moment, and we did it twice my senior year."

But Sunday, what mattered most was that the women felt as though the crowd never gave up on them and was a major factor in the Lions getting back in the game. Purdue claiming to remain unfazed would hardly matter to the Happy Valley faithful. They were in the Jordan Center waiting for one thing, and one thing alone, and that thing -- a Big Ten championship -- was theirs to feel a part of.