After a game last week against Xavier, in which she had a career-high tying 29 points and 15 rebounds, Amanda Brown knew she couldn't take her performance for granted.

Brown, a 6-foot-4-inch center, had a field day catching lob passes from the Lady Lion guards in the post, creating so many opportunities that head coach Rene Portland remarked that she "could have had 50 points."

"That lob pass is within our offense and we were running things through, and the guards saw it tonight," Brown said last Thursday.

"Some nights it's not open, but tonight, it was open."

Unfortunately for Brown -- and the Lady Lion offense -- one of those nights came last Sunday at Ole Miss.

With a rested and athletic Rebel defense keying on her, Brown managed to take just six shots, 14 less than her output against the Musketeers. She scored only six points and grabbed six rebounds, while turning the ball over four times down low. It was a devastating blow to an offense that tried desperately to crawl out of a 20-point hole early in the first half.

So, as is Portland's plan after every Lady Lion loss, it's back to the drawing board, starting with the foundation: lay-ups. Opportunely, an open week in the schedule has given Penn State ample practice time to try different things with Brown -- and to calm everyone down.

"We're very fortunate to have this week off," Portland told the Penn State Radio Network.

"We'll have a week to get the little dings taken care of rest-wise, and hopefully get in the gym and shoot the little shots."

Though Portland admitted that Brown must have been frustrated with her performance, the Penn State coaching staff was quick to shift the blame away from Brown and onto itself.

"There's some things we learned as a staff that we need to move her in different spots and create different opportunities for her. She knows she has to contribute in other ways each game," associate head coach Annie Troyan said. "We never attack each kid, saying they need to score so many points. Every game, it's someone different who can have a big game."

Though her contributions to the box score have been fluctuating, Brown's leadership and confidence in her teammates have not wavered. Almost soothsaying after the Xavier contest, even after a dominating showing, she knew that rough times on the road were looming.

"We make mistakes," She said. "But we can learn from those mistakes and take [the knowledge] on the road with us."