INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- No. 5 Penn State delivered a three-punch knockout blow to Illinois to take a 10-game winning streak into Sunday's Big Ten championship game.

Andrea Garner, Helen Darling and Lisa Shepherd led the Lady Lions, the top seed after winning their first outright conference championship during the regular season.

	Penn State's Rashana Barnes shows no mercy for Illinois' Susan Blauser as she drives to the hoop.

Garner had a season-high 22 points, Darling had season-highs of 19 points and 12 assists and Shepherd scored 16 points as the Lady Lions beat Illinois 81-74 on Saturday.

"She (Darling) slowed the team down and showed a lot of patience. She got herself to the paint where she is successful," Penn State coach Rene Portland said. "She got the 12-15 foot jumpers and that's where she's at her best."

Penn State (26-3) will meet defending NCAA champion Purdue in the title game.

The Lady Lions used a 16-6 run to pull away within a four-minute span of the second half. Shepherd began the run by completing a four-point play with 10:06 to go as she was fouled making a 3-pointer and sank the free throw to put the Lions ahead 58-52.

Garner had five points in the run, including a basket that put Penn State ahead 70-58 with 6:25 to go.

Illinois (22-10) got 23 points from Tauja Catchings, but she was 7-of-20 from the field with nine consecutive misses at one point. Allison Curtin scored 21 for the Illini.

"My team played their hearts out. They played great basketball and gave everything they had," said Illinois coach Theresa Grentz, who lost to a Portland-coached team for the 21st time in 40 meetings since 1977.

Darling, the Big Ten player of the year, came two rebounds short of a triple-double before fouling out with 30 seconds to go. Her 12 assists set a conference tournament record of 11, which was shared by three players.

Two of her assists came on passes that led to easy layups by Maren Walseth, who contributed 13 points to the victory.

"Those passes were unbelievable. The fact that Maren got out there (for a fullcourt pass) was an exciting part of the game since Illinois was right on top of us," Portland said.

Garner scored 13 points in the second half. Shepherd, who had more than two dozen fans and family members from her hometown of Richmond in Conseco Fieldhouse, hit three 3-pointers that left her only two shy of setting the school record of 175. The junior guard has 174 in 93 games. Tiffany Longworth set the record from 1994-97 in 123 games.

"We played hard and we got a lot of rebounds (51), but it was tough to get the ball back up," said Susan Blauser, who had 16 points and 13 rebounds for Illinois.