By Brian Tripp, GoPSUsports.com Radio Voice
Brian Tripp is the radio analyst for every Lady Lion game broadcast.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - When Penn State needed a lift Thursday night on the road in front of 8,681 raucous fans at Purdue's Mackey Arena, the Lady Lions knew exactly where to turn.  After Purdue scored the final six points of the first half to close within two, the Boilermakers opened the second half with a bucket by Sam Ostarello to knot the game at 35.  Then, it was Maggie Lucas' turn.

Lucas scored eight straight points en route to her game-high 28 to give the Lady Lions a 43-35 lead, and despite a few Purdue rallies, there was no doubt Penn State's sharpshooter had found her stroke.  The sophomore guard finished the game 10-for-18, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc, and reached her highest point total in conference play since posting 33 points in a home loss to Michigan State on Jan. 7.

"It's hard to describe, it's like a zone," Lucas said of her second-half shooting barrage. "Once you see it going in a couple times, you just feel like everything is going in and the basket is twice the size it usually is."

It was a milestone victory for the Lady Lions over a Purdue team that has notoriously held Penn State's number for the last decade.  Thursday's game gave Penn State its first win in West Lafayette since Jan. 2, 2004, which was two and a half years before Coquese Washington became head coach.  Last season, Washington's squad snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Boilermakers with a win in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.

"We knew it was going to be a heavyweight boxing match, but that was punch for punch right there for a long time," assistant coach Fred Chmiel told the Penn State Sports Network after the game. "We hit some big shots, to get a little separation and played some defense, and that was good."

Redshirt junior forward Mia Nickson, who posted 12 points and nine rebounds against the Boilermakers echoed her coach's sentiments.

"I think it's so exciting for us, our goal is to be Big Ten champs and we are just so much closer now," Mia Nickson said.  "Going into Purdue it's such a hard place to play and they are such a tough and physical team that maybe last year or years before we wouldn't have had the strong performance that we did today."

Perhaps Nickson is right.  Penn State has struggled down the stretch over Washington's first four seasons. The Lady Lions finished a combined 5-15 over the final five games in each of Washington's previous campaigns at the helm.  Now, riding a five-game winning streak, Penn State is looking to use its momentum to capture the program's first Big Ten regular season title since 2004.

"We had been pumped for this game all week," Chmiel said. "This is the game we wanted for a long time."

Coming up next is another highly anticipated clash, as Penn State begins a two-game homestand to close the regular season. The Ohio State Buckeyes visit the Bryce Jordan Center Monday night for the two teams' only meeting this season. The Buckeyes trail the Lady Lions by only a half game for the Big Ten Conference lead and feature the Big Ten's top one-two scoring duo in Samantha Prahalis and Tayler Hill.