This season has been a bit too predictable for the women's basketball team. The Lady Lions have handily defeated teams like Massachusetts, Rhode Island and St. Bonaventure, teams they should and have beaten with ease.

But so far they haven't been able to knock off a top team, haven't pulled a big upset to boost the team for the rest of the season. The Lady Lions have come close, very close, but so far they haven't gotten over the hump and beaten a higher-ranked team.

But the Lady Lions will have a golden opportunity to not only knock off a favored team but also dramatically improve their Atlantic 10 playoff chances when they play Temple at 7:30 tonight in Rec Hall. The Lady Owls are second in the A-10 with a 12-2 conference mark (17-6 overall), a game-and-a-half behind league-leader St. Joseph's.

Temple defeated the Lady Lions, 79-74, Jan. 26 in Philadelphia on the strength of its foul shooting. The Lady Owls hit 27 of 39 free throws, compared to the 11 of 13 free throws Penn State made.

A 16-point difference in free throws in a five-point game is tough to swallow, and the team does not want to lose to Temple on the foul line this time around.

"It was a really tough game down there," freshman guard Dana Eikenberg said. "Some fouls were called and some weren't. We're glad we're playing them at home now because there's nothing that can replace the great fans in Rec Hall."

Of course, the Lady Owls are quite adept at scoring from the field as well as the foul line. forward Kelly Lane leads Temple in scoring and rebounding, pouring in 18.1 points per game and pulling down eight rebounds. Pam Balogh is a close second to Lane, averaging 17.7 points and 6.1 rebounds per contest. Karen Healy chips in with 11.6 points per game and Rhonda Bates averages seven boards per game.

"I expect a lot from Temple," Coach Rene Portland said. "Pam Balogh is a money player . . . she's phenomenal. Kelly Lane is going to kill us on the boards, or try to kill us on the boards since I thought we did a good job on her last time. They're going to try to control the beat of the game, and they're going to come with a balanced attack."

The Lady Lions may not have beaten Temple last month, but they did play one of their finest games of the season, and the final score may have been far different had center Adrie DeVries not injured her foot in that game.

Portland said DeVries had one of her better games against the Lady Owls, getting easy shots inside against the smaller Temple players. Temple's tallest starter is the 5'11" Bates, and the taller Lady Lions will have to use the size mismatches effectively to offset the quickness of Temple.

"It's hard for Adrie to match up with (Bates), who gives up five inches (to DeVries)," Portland said. "You would think we have the advantage, but we don't (because) they're a lot quicker. The officials don't see things down under, and those things were very obvious when we played Temple down there, and we got beat up pretty badly inside.

"We have to be quicker, we have to step to the ball, we have to protect the ball, and we have to use our size to an advantage, not a disadvantage."

And the Lady Lions need every advantage they can get this late in the season. With Penn State holding a one-game lead over West Virginia for the fourth home-court spot in the A-10 tournament, a victory over Temple with four conference games remaining would be a big step toward a date in Rec Hall for the first round of the tourney.

But to get that win the young Lady Lions have to remember the lessons learned from the last game with Temple.

"You don't lose to the same people twice," Portland said. "They learned that lesson very hard against St. Joe's. When we lost to St. Joe's up here the first thing I said to them when we huddled up after the game was 'you don't lose to the same team twice.' So we're going to see (tonight) if they heard me."