You can put a hand in her face, put multiple defenders on her or even make distracting noises as she releases her lethal shot.
But Kelly Mazzante is too good to be fazed.
No. 17 Penn State (13-3, 4-0) defeated Northwestern (6-9, 1-3) Sunday behind yet another strong performance from the consensus All-American junior guard.
It’s easy to be in awe of the Pennsylvania native after watching her at the top of her game.
Mazzante took only 18 shots against NU but scored 31 points. It marked the sixth time this season and the 20th in her career that she has reached the 30-point plateau.
She converted on 11 of 18 shots, and they weren’t just easy layups. The quick-releasing gunner was 7 of 11 from downtown — many of which were fade-aways — to sink any chance the Cats had of coming back.
Mazzante’s dominance is evident in NU head coach June Olkowski’s post-game comments.
“Boy, that Kelly Mazzante was a good shooter, isn’t she?” Olkowski said to open her press conference. “We didn’t want her scoring 31 — we wanted to keep her to around 25 or 26, but that didn’t happen.”
Containing the Olympian is the focus of every one of Penn State’s opponents. After averaging 24.9 points per game to lead the nation last year, Mazzante is at it again in the 2002-03 campaign. After Sunday’s game, she is averaging 26.6 points a game to lead the Big Ten.
Mazzante also has made 49 3-point shots this year to lead the conference.
But what’s most impressive about Mazzante is how much attention she receives from opposing defenses.
“The key is that you have to make her earn those points,” Olkowski said. “And that’s much of what we concentrated on. They will have multiple players screening for her again and again.”
For the players who have to defend Mazzante, the junior’s outstanding play is no longer a surprise.
“All of (Penn State’s) offense is setting screens for her and getting her the open shot, and you know the ball is going to her,” NU forward Michelle Zylstra said. “You just can’t let it frustrate you, you have to just keep going. That’s what good players do.”
It also seems that there’s no spot on the court where opponents are safe from Mazzante.
The Cats made an 11-0 run to cut the Penn State lead to 12 with 6:09 remaining and the Lady Lions looked to Mazzante to stop the bleeding.
Mazzante took the inbounds pass just past the half-court line, dribbled the ball once and calmly sank a 28-foot three-pointer to silence the Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd.
She was then informed that there were 27 seconds left on the 30-second shot clock. A bewildered look on Mazzante’s face was followed by an amused shake of the head from Penn State head coach Rene Portland.
“Rene told me I can shoot whenever I want,” Mazzante said. “I mean, I was open.”
