When Purdue's junior guard Katie Gearlds momentarily came out of the game with five minutes to go in the first half, she left trailing Penn State by one, all by herself, having recorded 14 points.

At the time, her supporting cast had added fifteen of its own, good for a 29-14 lead for No. 11 Purdue (14-2, 6-0 Big Ten) that Penn State (7-10, 1-5) could not come back from last night in West Lafayette, Ind. The Lady Lions ultimately fell 70-56.

Gearlds and Penn State sophomore Kamela Gissendanner traded a pair of baskets to start the game, as defense on both sides was not a factor in the early going.

While both maintained the hot hand, it was Gearlds who went 12-of-15 from the field for 28 points, putting her two points shy of the 1000-point milestone for her career.

The All-America prospect had open looks from all over the floor, converting seemingly every time she put the ball in the air.

"If you don't make her put the ball on the floor she's going to get jump shot after jump shot," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland told the Penn State Sports Network following the game. "She's more than capable of making them in that situation."

The Lady Lions matched Gearlds' point total with turnovers, illustrating how Purdue leads the conference in takeaways and Penn State is near the bottom in giveaways.

The Lady Lions gave the ball away 28 times while only generating 12 miscues by the Boilermakers, all but ending any hopes of going to the NCAA Tournament for the 22nd time under Portland.

"It was incredible," Portland said. "I don't think I saw that many walks since I coached a seventh, eighth grade team 30-something years ago."

The 1-5 conference start is the worst ever for Penn State under Portland, dating back to the school's days in the Atlantic-10.

Freshman point guard Brianne O'Rourke, accustomed to playing the full 40-minutes, was yanked several times to stop the bleeding, as she accounted for eight turnovers on her own.

"You saw Brianne sit a lot in the first half because there's no reason to see her monkey around with two guards of that caliber," Portland said.

Had Penn State limited the turnovers to under a dozen, the game would have been much more competitive, as Penn State held a significant rebounding advantage, out-rebounding Purdue 39- 22, while shooting 47 percent.

Gissendanner led the Lady Lions with 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

Penn State will head to Northwestern for a Sunday matinee, hoping to come home with one win on its four-game road trip, before returning home to face Iowa next Thursday in Portland's 800th game at Happy Valley.

"A road win, a home win, anything is going to be real important to us," Portland said.