Zhaque Gray drove to the basket, found herself in a double team, and brought the ball back outside the perimeter, with her back turned to the basket.

But once she reached the top of the three-point arc, Gray turned around only to notice both defenders had left her. She coolly set her feet, took the time the defense had given her, and drained a wide-open 3-pointer, giving the Penn State Lady Lions a 25-point first half-lead in their rout of Stony Brook Wednesday night.

With the game all but decided after 10 minutes, Washington was able to get her first long look at Gray, and the rest of her 2008 freshman class Wednesday night.

"We need them to get their confidence," she said. "The more we can get them minutes and get them relaxed and feeling good about their play when they're on the floor is definitely going to be to our advantage," Washington said.

The basket marked the first points of Gray's college career--points Gray admitted she was surprised to attain.

"I thought they were going call a charge, and I was kind of surprised they didn't," Gray said. "I realized I was open and I just shot."

Along with a team-high 17 points from Gray, guard Renee Womack netted eight points and added six boards. Freshman Emily Phillips, who saw her first regular season action, also chipped in with a pair of assists.

In Sunday's season opener against South Carolina, the three freshmen combined for a total of 15 minutes and two points.

On Wednesday, however, each played more than ten minutes, and Washington even went stretches of the second half with all three on the floor at once.

"They made some mistakes, and I knew they would," Washington said. "But they need to get out there and play, and they need to learn to play well together."

While Washington was pleased with the numbers put up by her most recent recruiting class, she was equally impressed with their style of play.

Just before half time, sophomore forward Julia Trogele missed a short jump shot that left the 5-foot-8 Womack out of position for a rebound.

But despite being significantly smaller than the Seawolf forward, Womack asserted herself, ripped the ball away from the defender, and finished with a layup in traffic.

Senior point guard Brianne O'Rourke said she was impressed by the effort of her younger teammates and said their production would only improve as the year progressed.

"They're learning a lot of new things," she said. "And they played well tonight and they're just looking to improve game by game."