It was hard not to look ahead last night at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Lady Lions were playing George Mason, and trying not to succumb to one of the sports world's biggest taboos.

As any athlete or fan knows, to overlook any opponent is just beginning to be upset, but with the No. 2 North Carolina Tarheels coming to Happy Valley on Sunday afternoon to square off against a Lady Lions team that will be looking to get back to .500 after an 0-3 start, staying focused on the Patriots was the biggest obstacle Penn State had to face all night.

Before the game, the Lady Lions said all of the right things.

"Right now I'm concentrating on Thursday," associate head coach Annie Troyan said earlier in the week when asked about this weekend's showdown with the Tarheels.

But by about 7:30 p.m. when Penn State ran the score to 27-8 by the 8:03 mark in the first half, and with the Patriots seemingly content to repeatedly launch airballs from any depth, it appeared to be safe to take a peek toward the weekend.

"Carolina, it is another great opportunity to prove ourselves against a top five team," Troyan said.

Penn State will enter Sunday's showdown coming off one of its best, and by far its most well rounded, performances of the year. The Lady Lions had four players score in double figures on the night and the contributions from other players allowed Tanisha Wright to rest a shooting arm that has been overworked in the early part of the season.

Wright, the Big Ten's leading scorer, still contributed 19 points on 6-14 shooting but it appeared as though, had she wanted to, Wright could have scored 40 points or more.

Penn State jumped on the Patriots early as Wright and fellow guards Jess Strom and Jen Harris ran circles around their George Mason counterparts at both ends of the floor. Harris finished with 19 points on 8-16 shooting including 2-3 from beyond the arc and Penn State finished the first half with a 16-point lead.

In the second half, Penn State poured it on, leading by as many as 31 points and giving its starters some much-needed rest. Strom left the floor with about 8:00 minutes remaining in the game after receiving an elbow to the face that opened up a laceration above her eye that required five stitches.

Resting the starters could come in handy Sunday afternoon when the Lady Lions take on a tough and athletic North Carolina team.

The Tarheels have already beaten perennial powerhouse Connecticut and have also downed a Villanova team that bested Penn State earlier in the year.

North Carolina has a variety of legitimate scoring options and should prove to be a tough defensive test, especially on the perimeter, for the Lady Lions.

"They are really athletic and fast," Brown said. "We just need to come out and play our game, and not be scared of what they are going to bring to us and we'll be okay."

Sunday would have been a big day for the program regardless of the opponent because before the game, the soon to be graduating Kelly Mazzante will say her final goodbye to the program when her number 13 jersey is retired.

Mazzante, the most prolific scorer in Big Ten history, becomes the fourth Lady Lion to have her number retired, following in the footsteps of Suzie McConnell, Helen Darling, and current Penn State assistant coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl.