The Penn State Lady Lions opened up an early lead thanks to hot shooting, but it was their defense that earned them a hard-fought 78-48 victory over South Carolina this weekend.

The game was physical from the beginning, leading to a total of 48 personal fouls being called. However, the Lady Lions were able to play through the whistles and assert their game. Penn State went 5-8 from three in the first half to break the game open, and defensively, they held South Carolina to 23.5 percent shooting.

Penn State had a 38-22 lead at the half, and they did not let South Carolina get much closer than that. In fact, the closest the game got was a 14 point margin after South Carolina got a lay-up to open the scoring in the second. Penn State’s zone defense was giving South Carolina all kinds of trouble, forcing them into misses and turnovers that led to points the other way. Penn State cruised through the second half thanks to that strong defense to win 78-48.

While Penn State did not reach their season average of 101 points per game, they did have four players reach double-digit totals. Julia Trogele led the way with 19 points, Alex Bentley and Maggie Lucas both had 14, and Mia Nickson finished with 11.

With the win, the Lady Lions remain unbeaten at 4-0. Coming up next for Penn State is a trip to Mexico for the Caribbean Challenge, where they will face Utah on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.