Tonight, when St. Joseph's comes into the Bryce Jordan Center at 7 to face the No. 11 Penn State women's basketball team it will be a tired team facing its second top 15 opponent in three days.

The Lady Lions (6-1) are getting the Hawks (2-3) fresh off of an 82-48 beating at the hands of No. 1 Duke. They nearly were doubled up in rebounds, 39-20, and that should be something that the Lions can expose.

In the Lions' only loss this season against Kansas State they were out-rebounded 44-31. Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland expects a scrappy squad to come into State College.

"They will try to stop the snowball effect," Portland said. "Certainly they lost to one of our nations best in Duke. They will come in here and try to play great 'D'."

Great defense is something that Portland would like her players to start thinking about. The Lions have yet to take a charge this season and Portland doesn't feel they have been playing the defense they are capable of.

The problem with playing an aggressive defense is that aggressiveness on defense leads to fouls.

On a team with only eight players dressed, fouls can become a problem as they did in the Lions' last game versus Clemson. Sophomore Ashli Schwab played just 23 minutes before fouling out and sophomore Tanisha Wright also had four fouls.

"You want to go after the ball you want to get more steals," Wright said.

"But also you need to be on the court at the same time and maybe not be so aggressive and stay on the floor, that's the hard thing."

Junior Jess Brungo scored 25 points against Clemson and had 23 against Maryland. She is now the third leading scorer on the team behind Kelly Mazzante's 25.7 and Wright's 15.6 points per game.

Portland believes Brungo is physically stronger this season and that a more difficult weight program has helped her.

She also believes the increased conditioning and smarter shot selection has improved her game.

The Hawks come into the game with three players scoring over 10 points a game.

Irina Krasnoshiok leads the Hawks with 12.4 points per game, Stephanie Graff and Amra Mehmedic are both scoring 11.6.

The Hawks are scoring just 51 points a game compared to 86 points for the Lions.