State College, Pa., Jan. 12, 2002 -- Contain, restrain and control.

That was the theme running through tonight's 52-23 win by seventh-ranked State College over visiting Lower Dauphin.

Ironically, the "Harrisburg Patriot" had extolled Lower Dauphin's suffocating man "D," which made sense considering the Falcons were holding opponents to 32.8 ppg.

State College players must not read the newspaper.

"Holy smokes, unbelievable," State College coach Bethany Irwin said of her team's defense. "These last couple of games our defense has really picked up -- from one to a 10," Irwin said.

The Lions used their speed and man-to-man pressure to stifle the Falcons holding them to four, six and four points through the first three quarters while pouring in nine, 21 and nine of their own.

When the Lions opened with a flurry of misses, they countered by smothering Lower Dauphin allowing Suzy Carlson's free throws and basket plus Glusko's pair of deuces to build a 9-4 lead.

They opened the second quarter at race horse speed with Liz Gabrielle and Susie Sieminski feeding teammates Carlson and Erika Conner respectively for open shots. Gabriel then went on a tear scoring six of the next eight points, four of those points coming after she made steals and outran everybody for layups. State College outscored Lower Dauphin 21-6 to lead 30-10 at intermission after Glusko nailed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Glusko shook loose from a hounding Falcon defense to score six of State College's nine points in the third period.

Nicole Scipione took over in the final period with seven points aided by four from Carlson and two from Glusko.

Glusko led all scorers with 17 points. Scipione had 13 and Carlson scored 10 for the Lady Little Lions who improved to 11-2.

Lower Dauphin's leading scorers were Alex Bream and Liz Gleason who each had eight points. The Falcons are now 8-5.

State College hosts Central Mountain on Wednesday.