The 24th-ranked women's basketball team held off a furious Temple rush in the final four minutes with some clutch free-throw shooting and earned an 86-79 victory last night at Rec Hall.

The Lady Lions hit six consecutive free throws in the final 21 seconds after Temple cut the lead to one, at 80-79, with 26 seconds left. Penn State finished 19-of-25 from the free throw line.

The win was the seventh straight for the streaking Lady Lions as they raised their record to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in the Atlantic 10. The Lady Lions are a perfect 4-0 at Rec Hall this season. Temple fell to 3-7 overall and 1-1 in the A-10.

"It is the mark of a good team and a together team when they are getting the job down," Coach Rene Portland said. "They hit the foul shots down the stretch and rose to the occasion.

"When we are 10-2 you will forget about nine," she added.

"What you saw tonight was what we had been doing all year long," Temple Coach Linda MacDonald said.

Center Kathy Phillips led Penn State with 27 points, a career high, on 10-of-11 shooting. Phillips, a 67 percent free throw shooter, hit four in a row down the stretch to ice the game. The Lions needed a big game from Phillips because forward Susan Robinson hit only 6-of- 17 shots, including 2-of-12 in the first half. Robinson, however, finished with 16.

"I was concerned about the way Susan was playing, I wanted her to do well," Phillips said. "But if she wasn't having a good game I wasn't thinking 'Well I got to pick up the slack automatically,' it just so happened that I did."

The Lady Lions had a commanding lead most of the game and stretched that lead to 14 at one point in the first half. The Owls, however, battled back in the second half led by All-American candidate forward Kelly Lane. Lane finished with 20 points, including 11 in the second half. The Owls, who only shot 50 percent in the first half, upped that mark to 61.8 percent in the second half.

Temple began its charge when Kelly Wickes hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to six points, at 75-69. Lane then cut it to one, 77-76, with an eight-foot jumper but the Lady Lions opened the lead back up to four points on a Dana Eikenberg free throw and a Robinson layup, with 1:07 left.

The Lady Owls would not quit as guard Wendee Booher canned a 3-pointer to cut the lead again to one but the free throws saved the Lady Lions.

"We wanted to do a better job in the conference," Portland said. "We didn't want anybody to believe they could come close to us here."

"We weren't scared, you can't be scared," Phillips said. "We came in, we wanted to win this game, we are on a winning streak, we wanted to win this game.

"When they were within one, then two then three we knew we could pull it out because that's the team we are this year," she added.

Phillips said the team's rebounding and defense in the final minutes as the Owls were making the final rush was another key to the game along with free throw shooting.

"We all talked in the huddle, 'Rebound, rebound the ball, rebound it strong and protect it because they are going to be coming after it,' " Phillips said.

The Lady Lions began the game opening up a nine point lead in the first eight minutes and stretched it to 14 when Lynn Dougherty hit a layup at the 7:22 mark. Temple made a late surge, behind Lane, to cut the lead to eight, 39-31, at intermission.

Notes: Robinson was named Atlantic 10 co-Player of the Week with Rutgers center LaTonya Johnson last week. She averaged 18.5 points and six rebounds in the team's two victories against Duquesne and Virginia . . . After playing three games in four days, the Lady Lions get a much deserved rest until 7:30 Saturday night when they battle A-10 foe George Washington.