The No. 12 Penn State women's basketball team used a 22-6 run to close out the first half, en route to an easy 75-61 victory over Michigan last night at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The win is the Lady Lions' 17th straight at home, breaking a Jordan Center record.

Junior Kelly Mazzante's only made three-pointer of the night seemed to awake the sleeping Lions (22-6, 12-2 Big Ten) midway through the first half. Her basket tied the game at 20 and the Lions never looked back.

The Lions found themselves down 20-15 midway through the first half, as Michigan junior Jennifer Smith was dominating the post scoring with nine points early as she finished with a game-high 28 points.

After allowing the Wolverines (11-13, 2-11) to score 20 points in the first 10 minutes, it took Michigan almost another 20 minutes to score another 20. The zone defense of the Lions stifled the Wolverines and held them to just 38.3 percent from the field.

"Defensively, when we made the switch we saw a big move," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said.

"Playing man-to-man was not a good thing for us, so we went to our zone and that was effective."

The defense also forced 22 turnovers, as Mazzante often sat in passing lanes and picked off passes that led to easy transition baskets.

She had four steals to go with her 23 points.

"I was trying to attack tonight and get some steals," Mazzante said.

Although the Lions did not shoot well, going 27-for-67, they were able to get to the foul line for 26 attempts. The Lions' main struggles came from behind the arc, as they missed 14 of 17 attempts. Mazzante, who missed six three-point attempts, made a concerted effort to get inside as she went 9-for-12 inside the arc.

In the second half, the Lions never allowed Michigan to even think it was back in the game as the lead was as high as 24 at one point.

Sophomore Tanisha Wright used her quickness to blow by defenders and had 11 second half points and 17 for the game. She used her penetration ability throughout the game to hit clutch jumpers as the shot clock was winding down and to dish the ball to open players.

"I think penetration is one of the hardest things in basketball to defend," Michigan women's basketball coach Sue Guevara said.

Sophomore Jess Strom and junior Jessica Brungo were also in double digits for the Lions with 12 and 10, respectively.

The Lions were coming off a rough 80-75 loss in Iowa. However, with this victory they are back on track to clinch the Big Ten title. The Lions travel to Minnesota for a game at 4 p.m. Sunday with a chance to clinch a share of the Big Ten title with a victory.

"We got one goal in mind right now and that's to win out," Wright said. "We got two games to do that and the next team in front of us is Minnesota."