Junior Kelly Mazzante broke the 2,000-point barrier, fittingly, with the three-point basket she has become famous for.

She also broke the will of the Illinois women's basketball team as she dropped 23 points to lead No. 13 Penn State (18-5, 9-1) to an 82-69 victory over the Fighting Illini (13-7, 5-5) at Assembly Hall. It's the Lady Lions first win in Champaign since 1995.

Mazzante's three-pointer that broke the record put the Lions up 21-17 and was the start of a 12-1 run where the Lions' defense held Illinois without a field goal for nearly five minutes.

Back-to-back steals by the defense capped the run as sophomore Tanisha Wright and sophomore Jennifer Brenden finished the fast breaks with baskets.

The stifling Lions' defense forced Illinois to commit 18 turnovers.

"We attacked them tonight," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said. "Illinois came in talking about how they were in good shape and that they can run. We can run and we are in pretty good shape, too."

Junior Jess Brungo played well scoring 14 points and dominating the glass with a game-high 11 rebounds. She recorded her second double-double of the season.

The game was played at a fast pace, which favors the Lions who love to play the run-and-gun style of offense. Sophomore Jess Strom ran the Penn State offense smoothly dishing out eight assists and grabbing six rebounds. She also scored 10 points. This victory allowed the team to erase what Portland said was written on the players' board before the game, "We don't win at Illinois."

During the week Illinois women's basketball coach Theresa Grentz, former teammate of Portland at Immaculata, wouldn't say what they planned to do to stop Mazzante.

Mazzante was guarded by numerous defenders, and was slowed down in the second half as 15 of her points came in the first half. She struggled overall from the field at 6-for-20, but once again played good defense. Portland was still thrilled with her play.

"It's amazing what this child has done. She was quicker to the second thousand than the first thousand," Portland said. "Tonight she did some things in the second half we hadn't seen."

The Lions went into halftime with momentum after a desperate Mazzante-three-point shot missed, but sophomore Jess Strom was there for the put back to beat the buzzer and to give the Lions a 44-33 lead going into the locker room. Illinois tried to make a run to start the second half by scoring the first five points, but consecutive three-point bombs from Brungo and Mazzante re-established the double-digit lead.

Illinois creeped to within five at 72-67 with 1:53 to play, but the Lions ran off six straight points to end any threat.

Penn State received a pleasant surprise when sophomore Ashli Schwab returned to the court after missing four straight games.

She played a few spot minutes here and there, scoring three points on a three-point play.

Sophomore Hazel Joseph had another encouraging performance with seven points and rebounds in 20 minutes of play.

Sophomore guard Tiffanie Guthrie paced the Illini with 16 points. Illinois forward Aminata Yanni hit 4-for-10 from downtown and scored 14 points for Illinois.