Lady Lion Coach Rene Portland would like to remind women's hoops expert Mel Greenberg about the cliche that says, "Any team can beat any other team on any given day."

Then he wouldn't look so bad after the Lady Lions handled Temple, 73-63, last night at Rec Hall.

"If you picked up the Philadelphia Inquirer last week," Portland said, "Mel Greenberg's article said, 'if Rutgers beat St. Joe's, this is what happens in the Atlantic 10. If St. Joe's beats Rutgers, this happens. And then when Temple beats Penn State, this is what will happen.' And they never put the next sentence, which was supposed to say, 'if Penn State beats Temple.'

"The Philadelphia article didn't say that. They forgot one sentence and that was the sentence we were hanging on to. We rewrote the Philadelphia Inquirer."

The Lady Lions (now 12-12 overall and 10-5 in the A-10) came out of the gate fired up last night and never gave Temple (17-7 and 12-3) a chance to get into the game. The Penn State defense forced the Lady Owls into a horrendous effort from the field, holding them to 294 percent shooting from the field.

At the same time, the Lady Lions blistered the nets at a 55.6 percent clip, and turned in a number of spectacular plays that sparked Penn State and must have left the Temple defenders shaking their heads.

There was Tanya Garner, drilling three 3-pointers to soften the Lady Owls' inside defense, then weaving her way around the defense for two spectacular driving lay-ups, including a base-line two-handed scoop shot with three seconds left in the first half that gave the Lady Lions a 40-28 lead.

There were Adrie DeVries and Tiffany Chill, playing like their old selves after nursing injuries the last few games. DeVries was troubled early in the game by an annoying contact lens, but her vision was good enough to enable her to score 11 points and pull down 14 rebounds.

Chill still is bothered with a bruised knee, but it probably felt a little better after she saw her first shot rattle the rim before dropping through. Chill couldn't buy a basket in the games before her injury, so that lucky roll may signal the end of her shooting slump.

Lynn Dougherty started in place of Chill and came up with a steal in the final seconds to ice the game. It's tough for a former starter to come off the bench, even if she's injured, but Chill took the change in stride.

"I'm just happy to be playing again, especially now coming down to the end of the season," Chill said. "We just all feel confident in ourselves going into tournament time."

"I was very pleased with Tiffany's mature attitude in her role," Portland said. "She served her team very well tonight."

Dana Eikenberg played well at the point, but her biggest contribution was the three one-and-one's she hit at the end of the game that kept Temple from getting too close. Eikenberg also fulfilled every point guard's fantasy with an in-your-face snuff of Temple guard Kelly Wicks, giving her a total of two blocks on the year.

And, ho hum, Susan Robinson had 21 points and 16 rebounds, just another remarkable night at the office for the freshman.

After coming close to winning a big one many times before, this was a game the Lady Lions wanted very, very badly.

"We played with a lot of emotion tonight," Eikenberg said, "more than the Illinois game that we won here, more than any game we won on the road. Everybody was doing their job, and I think they didn't know what hit them."