UNIVERSITY PARK — Facing Penn State after the Lady Lions have lost their previous game has been an embarrassing proposition for an opponent this season.

Heading into Thursday’s game with Indiana, the Lady Lions had beaten four opponents by an average of 23 points after losses. It only got worse for the Hoosiers, the Big Ten’s worst team.

No. 19 Penn State rebounded from Sunday’s loss to Michigan State, leading by as many as 38 points before burying Indiana 76-44 at the Bryce Jordan Center.

Maggie Lucas scored 17 of her game-high 24 points in the first half as Penn State (17-5 overall, 7-3 Big Ten) moved within a game of a three-way tie for first place between Purdue, Nebraska and Ohio State in the league standings.

Nikki Greene added a season-high 17 points. Gizelle Studevent tied a career-high with 10, Talia East had a career-high nine and Ariel Edwards added eight as Penn State’s bench racked up 29 points.

“When we lose a game, they really take it to heart,” Penn State coach Coquese Washington said of her players, who held Indiana (5-18, 0-10) to 28 percent shooting and forced 24 turnovers. “They’re very coachable. They get in the gym and we make the corrections that we need to make. ... I attribute that stat to the competitive fire and competitive nature of the kids on our roster.”

The Lady Lions never gave the Hoosiers a chance. Indiana led once 5-4 early, but Lucas had eight points in a 13-0 run that gave the Lady Lions the lead for good.

While Lucas heated up from outside, Greene and East helped Penn State do the serious damage inside the paint. The Lady Lions finished with a 42-14 advantage in scoring inside the paint.

“It was a huge mismatch inside,” Lucas said. “Nikki and Talia, they pretty much dominated. We’re lucky to have the post players we have. That was the big difference.”

Greene, aggressively taking the ball to the basket, had 11 in the first half as Penn State built a 42-23 lead at the break.

“We were talking about it before the game. We had opportunities one-on-on on the block,” said Penn State’s 6-foot- 4 center. “I tried to take advantage of it as much as possible and if there was a double-team I kicked it out.”

“I thought we did a good job taking advantage of our mismatches,” Washington said. “We thought we’d be able to get the ball inside. I was really pleased with the way Nikki played, with power. Talia and Tori (Waldner), both of those guys came off the bench and really got after it on the boards. Our size inside was an advantage and we worked that very well.”

The Hoosiers never got closer than 15 points in the second half. A 19-2 run, capped by Greene’s left-handed hook, pushed the margin to 63-31 with about 111/ 2 minutes left and Washington substituted liberally from there.

Penn State extended the margin as high as 76-38 after Studevent’s transition bucket with 3:07 left.

“Penn State is a very good team and they came out ready to play,” Indiana’s Felisha Legette- Jack said. “They came with aggression on the inside and tenacity on the perimeter. The best team won today.”

None of Penn State’s starters played more than 29 minutes, the only time that has happened in Big Ten play this season.

“Keeping them off their feet as much as possible when we have such a high lead is going to help them in the future when we get down to the stretch of games coming up — Ohio State and Purdue,” East said of the starters. “... Down the stretch, it’s going to come to our bench playing strong.”

Penn State’s defense held Indiana to 19 percent shooting (5-for- 26) over the final 20 minutes.

Penn State cruised even though starters Alex Bentley and Zhaque Gray had poor scoring games. Bentley had five points (about 10 below her average) and Gray, who averages 10 points a game, did not score.

Penn State’s bench took up the slack. East added nine rebounds, while Waldner grabbed five.

“We’ve been talking to them a lot that we need everybody and they have to come into the game and make an impact,” Washington said of her bench. “I thought they really did that.”

Milika Taufa had nine points to pace the Hoosiers. Sasha Chaplin added eight points and 16 rebounds.

Penn State travels to Minnesota for a 3 p.m. game Sunday.

Notes: The Lady Lions were without forward Marisa Wolfe, who was injured in practice Wednesday. According to Washington, Wolfe has had a recurrence of concussion-like symptoms that sidelined her the first three games of the season. “I doubt if she’ll be ready to play on Sunday, but hopefully she’ll be ready to play next Thursday,” Washington said. ... Lucas needs eight points to hit 1,000 for her career. She’ll become just the third sophomore in school history to hit the mark. ... Bentley did move past current State College girls’ basketball coach Bethany Collins Irwin to 24th on the school’s career scoring list with 1,187 points.

Walt Moody can be reached at 231-4630.