All season long Tanisha Wright and Minnesota's Janel McCarville have been duking it out off the court, with numerous accolades and awards attaching themselves to the two seniors.

But yesterday, the day finally arrived when the Big Ten's premier players could finally match up on the court, head to head.

Even though Wright, the two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, wasn't the one to take on the 6-foot-2 center, she ended up hogging the spotlight in front of 11,885 fans.

"Tanisha had an All-American night," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "She really did it on both ends of the court, on the offensive end and defensive end. She's defending the title she has on the defensive end. She's making them think a whole lot on the MVP of the league. She did a super job, there was diversity to what she did."

Coming into the game, the apparent mismatch was McCarville against Penn State's post players. After 40 minutes and an 81-68 victory, it was obvious that, even though McCarville got her points, it was Minnesota who had no answer for Wright.

Wright, who entered the week sharing Big Ten Player of the Week honors with McCarville, tied her career high of 32 points, 18 coming in the second half, as the Lady Lions pulled away.

"I thought Tanisha Wright basically did everything that she wanted to," Minnesota coach Pam Borton said.

The Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year, McCarville was contained early by forwards Ashli Schwab and Amanda Brown. The duo, along with Hazel Joseph off the bench, harassed McCarville to just 2-for-8 shooting, leading to six points and four rebounds in the first half.

McCarville made two of her first four shots in the second half, including one to cut the score to 37-35. In the next four minutes, Penn State went on an 11-0 run, while McCarville took and missed her only shot, turned the ball over twice and got just one rebound.

She eventually made the next Minnesota bucket, but by then the Lady Lions had established an 11-point lead; it would never drop below eight the rest of the game.

"We start from the outside in," Portland said. "We were very concerned about their outside shooting. We pressured the guards to see if we could make it more difficult to get it inside. Ashli did the best she could in keeping [McCarville] off the block. When she gets the ball she's a great, great passer."

Wright, meanwhile, did not take her first shot of the game until there was 12:51 left in the first half. With Minnesota stopper Shannon Bolden assigned to shut Wright down, she missed her first three attempts before making four of her next five, as Bolden picked up two early fouls.

Four times in the first half after the Golden Gophers scored to take the lead, Wright came back down the court and scored on the next possession to reclaim control.

Whether it was shooting over her defender, backing someone down on the block and falling away, or driving the paint, Wright was a mismatch for which Minnesota simply could not find a solution.

"I think I was rushing myself, trying to get the flow of the game," Wright said. "I was taking some bad shots, but after I settled down a little bit, got an easy bucket and it just came around."

McCarville finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks -- almost half of those numbers came after her team found itself playing catch-up.

Before the season, Wright and McCarville shared spots on the watch lists of the Naismith Trophy, John R. Wooden Award and State Farm Wade Trophy.

After Sunday's game: Advantage Wright, 1-0.