Things were going a bit too good for the women's basketball team as it headed into the Atlantic 10 playoffs. The Lady Lions won the coin flip for the home-court advantage for their quarterfinal matchup against West Virginia, and the Lady Mountaineers never had won at Rec Hall.

That is, until last night.

West Virginia eliminated the Lady Lions from the A-10 tournament, 76-64, and for the first time in seven years, the Lady Lions failed to make the NCAA tournament.

West Virginia enjoyed a sterling shooting performance from Jenny Hillen, who connected on 10 of 13 from the field and scored a game-high 22 points, vaulting the Mountaineers to the A-10 semifinal round at Rutgers tomorrow night.

"I thought at the start of the year that we'd be contenders for the conference and now we're finally strong," West Virginia Coach Scott Harrelson said. "It's going to be fun in the Final Four."

The home-court advantage couldn't provide the shooting the Lady Lions needed down the stretch. Especially after point guard Dana Eikenberg and Penn State's top scorer, Susan Robinson, both fouled out late in the game.

"I think the biggest thing that caught up with us at the end was the depth at the guard position," Coach Rene Portland said. "It was the first time Dana had fouled out of the game and that really took Tanya (Garner) out of her game and that was reflective on her performance.

"I think in the first half we got some good things out of our inside people. In the second half, we took too many shots from the outside that weren't good shots."

It looked as if the Lady Lions were going to roll after Eikenberg opened the scoring with a jumper from the corner that circled the rim and dropped through the bucket.

But the Lady Lions lost Lady Luck as quickly as she came and watched West Virginia build a 13-point (32-19) lead midway through the first half.

After a Penn State timeout, the Lady Lions cut the Mountaineer lead to four (34-30) when Adrie DeVries tapped in a missed jumper with two defenders on her back.

But every time Penn State would claw its way back into the game, Hillen would simply come off a screen and nail a jumper to start another West Virginia scoring spurt. The Lady Mountaineers took a 41-34 lead into the half.

"Every time we got the lead we took our time and ran our offense," Harrelson said. "I think the talent of our freshmen and the experience of our seniors worked very well tonight."

West Virginia continued to rip the cords in the second half, hitting 55 percent from the perimeter, opening up a 10-point lead and showing no signs of letting up.

"We came in tonight totally relaxed and I told them even if we got a 10-point lead, to just relax, play the defense and move the ball on offense until we get an inside shot," Harrelson said.

The Lady Lions made a run late the second period behind Kathy Phillips (18 points) and Garner (11), who swished a 25-footer to begin a nine-point Penn State spurt that tied the game at 52.

But the Moutaineers weren't fazed at all. They unleashed Dionne Morris on Garner to shut her down late in the game and keep the Lady Lions from pulling away.

"I felt very confident having the seniors there when things started going bad," Harrrelson said. "When I put Dionne Morris on Tanya Garner the game changed. I think Morris did a fantastic job on Garner because once Garner gets hot, there's nobody in the country that can stop her."

With Garner held in check, West Virginia pulled away for good, leaving the Lady Lions hoping for a National Invitational Tournament bid.

"We are out of the running for the NCAA tournament and we would be interested and pleased with an NIT bid," Portland said.

"On the court, I guess we have to live up to everyone's predictions now. Because that's all we heard all year of how good we are going to be in the future because it's over now."