Minutes before the Penn State Lady Lions' game against Illinois yesterday, one small fan from the Rene's Dunkers fan club had a huge request.

Standing before 7,975 fans, the young fan asked everyone to stand and cheer until Penn State scored its first basket.

"Can you?" she pleaded.

When junior forward Amanda Brown put the first Penn State points onto the board not two minutes into the game, the crowd let loose a cheer that no doubt pleased the young fan.

While fans were on their feet for the first two minutes of the game, the Lady Lions made sure to keep them there with a 78-52 blowout of the Fighting Illini.

The win moves the Lady Lions (11-13, 5-8 Big Ten) into seventh place in the Big Ten, a better position for a Big Ten tournament run.

As the seventh seed, Penn State would only potentially have to face the No. 2 team in the conference as opposed to the No. 1 team if it were in the No. 8 or No. 9 spot.

"This was a game we needed," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "That's the bottom line."

Portland also hopes the win will give her team some momentum, something it has struggled to pick up all year. The longest winning streak the Lady Lions have put together was a three-game ride early in the season.

And while not many people would believe that a win against an Illinois team that has lost eight straight is cause for a momentum swing, Portland believes momentum is measured in no real increments this year, but in keeping with a learning curve for a young team.

"How we judge momentum is how we judge momentum," she said with a laugh. "We'd win a couple games and then we'd lose a couple games, but I think as long as you can stay positive and believe what's possible on this team, a night like tonight really helps you keep believing in that."

The blowout win could certainly not be predicted during the first 10 minutes of the game, as the two teams shot a combined 8-of-25 en route to a 10-6 yawnfest.

"The game was pretty ugly when we started out," Illinois women's basketball coach Theresa Grentz said. "I didn't know if we were ever going to get to 10 points."

The next 10 minutes, though, saw both teams elevate their play. Sophomore guard Adrienne Squire hit two 3-pointers to help push Penn State to a nine-point halftime lead, and sophomore forward Danyel Crutcher finished with 10 first-half points for Illinois (12-12, 4-9), nearly half of the Illini's total of 21 at the half.

"I was just feelin' it," Crutcher said.

While Crutcher did her best to keep Illinois in the game, leading scorer senior guard Janelle Hughes did not score once in the first half. Hughes, who scored 15 points against the Lady Lions in a 66-57 Illinois win Jan. 12, finished the game with four points in 21 minutes, thanks to a pesky Penn State defense that finished with 10 steals.

"With the pressure, I was just probably rushing myself a little bit," Hughes said.

Squire led all scorers with 28 points, a career high. She finished with another career- high, hitting seven 3-pointers, tying a Bryce Jordan Center record. Freshman point guard Brianne O'Rourke tied her career-high with 10 assists.

The win improves Penn State's home record to 7-5. The Lady Lions have uncharacteristically struggled at home this year, losing to teams like Indiana and Purdue that have not played well historically at Penn State.

"We let a few get away this year," Portland said. "The only good thing about losing a game is that normally after that it becomes a streak of wins. So, the few people that snuck out of here this year, when they come back next year, we'll take care of business."

But revenge will have to wait another year, as the Lady Lions have to push those losses out of their heads to prepare for the upcoming postseason, no matter what seed they are.

"The hopes of this game is that we've gotten over a hump and can use it to build momentum for what we have ahead of us at the end of the season," Portland said.