For the second time in the 1988-89 sports season, a ranked West Virginia team used a visiting Penn State squad to fine-tune its game. The fifteenth-ranked Mountaineers played to their billing Feb. 11, beating the men's basketball team, 100-67, at the WVU Coliseum.

West Virginia (19-2, 12-0) led the game from start to finish, running its winning streak to 18 games, longest in the NCAA this year. A quick-paced offense and a stingy defense have been the keys to the 'Eers incredible success this year, as they continue to systematically eliminate opponents.

"From what I've seen this year," Caoch Bruce Parkhill said, "they're a top ten program right now. But we made them look like No. 1."

Five players scored in double figures for West Virginia, led by 22 from Steve Berger. Chris Brooks added 20 and Herbie Brooks chipped in 19. Bruce Blake led Penn State with 18 points and Tom Hovasse scored 12.

The Lions were hurt, however, by another foul-laden game from Hovasse. The senior picked up his second personal only six minutes into the game, and missed the final 12 minutes of the half.

When Hovasse, the team's top scorer and rebounder, sat down, the team trailed by 12. Blake then scored seven straight Penn State points to cut the lead to nine, 27-19.

Brian Allen made a layup a few minutes later to cut it to seven, 32-25, with 4:04 left. But the Lions managed only a free throw the rest of the half, while WVU scored almost at will.

Brooks was especially potent over the last few minutes, scoring 10 points in a three-minute span. In all, the overpowering hosts closed out the half with a 19-1 run to nearly double their guests' output, 51-26.

"We didn't do anything we hoped to do," Parkhill said. "We didn't stop their transition, we didn't compete on the boards. It was a seven-point game (with four minutes left) but we lost concentration and took some bad shots."

The second half went a little better for the Lions, but the closest they could get was at 6:47, when a C.J. Johnson jumper trimmed the lead to 24, 84-60. When the dust cleared Hovasse and Ed Fogell had fouled out, and the Lions had fallen to fourth in the conference standings.

"The major thing was defense," Allen said. "We let them shoot in the high 60 percents (65.6) and they got a lot of buckets in transition. That was our downfall."

Allen then compared the Mountaineers to other nationally ranked opponents he competed against last season, notably the Oklahoma and Temple teams.

"I don't think they're as good as Oklahoma, or even Temple," Allen said, "but they really had it going (Saturday)."

Now that the annual loss at Morgantown is out of the way -- the Lions haven't won there since 1980 -- Penn State can enjoy four home appearances in its last five games, beginning Feb. 13 with Rutgers.