Looking at the score, it was easy to tell who was on the road.

The No. 12 Penn State women's basketball team (22-7 12-3 Big Ten) was crushed 73-57 at the hands of No. 16 Minnesota (21-4, 10-4) yesterday at Williams Arena.

Following Purdue's loss earlier in the day, all the Lady Lions had to do was win and they would have captured the outright regular season conference title. Even with the loss, the Lions clinched at least a share of the title, but they want it all for themselves.

"Everybody knew what happened [with Purdue, that] had no impact whatsoever, we had a game to play ourselves," Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland said on the Penn State sports radio network.

The Lions were outplayed from the start, but trailed by just five at halftime, 31-26. From there the Golden Gophers turned up their defensive intensity and proceeded to blow the game wide open. To start the second half, the Gophers went on a 13-0 run, holding the Lions without a field goal for over five minutes.

The Lions' slow-moving offense combined with the heavy defensive pressure resulted in turnovers time after time and lead to easy lay-ups at the other end.

The big three for the Lions, Tanisha Wright, Kelly Mazzante and Jess Strom, each committed four turnovers.

"They scouted us very well," Portland said. "They were up in our gym shorts, they trapped us instead of attacking,"

The lone bright spot for the Lions was Wright, who scored ten in the first half and finished with 17 points, but had very little help. Wooden award candidate Kelly Mazzante was held to just 11 points, a far cry from the 49 she put up against the Gophers in Minnesota last season.

The Golden Gophers were led by Janel McCarville who scored 18 points on 7-of-8 from the field. She constantly abused the Lions in the low post, regardless of who was attempting to guard her. Her easy buckets helped the Gophers shoot a ridiculous 59 percent for the game.

Despite the bad effort, the Lions can still win the Big Ten title.

"I'd like a long vacation after this game tonight," Portland said. "The season's not over."

The game marked the Lions' worst offensive output of the season and proved once again that the Lions have serious issues on the road, where they have posted a 7-7 mark. In the first meeting between these two teams at the Bryce Jordan Center the Lions won by 30, but this was a road game and a totally different story.