Lock the doors and put the children to bed, this one got ugly. After a lackluster first half, the 21st-ranked women's basketball team turned up the intensity in the second half and demolished Rhode Island, 92- 51, last night at Rec Hall.

The Lady Lions took an 18-point lead at halftime, 43-25, but pesky Rhode Island cut the lead down to 14 at the midway point of the second half. From that point on it was all Penn State as the Lady Lions outscored the WRams 36-9 for the 41-point victory margin.

Penn State improved its record to 11-2 overall and 5-0 in the Atlantic 10, while Rhode Island fell to 1-12 overall (0-4 in the A-10). The Lady Lions also moved up three spaces in the latest AP poll to No. 21 and vaulted over A-10 foe St. Joseph's, ranked No. 22.

"Thank God for the last ten minutes of the game where we scored 36 points in the last ten minutes," Coach Rene Portland said. "Down the stretch we did what we had to do, hit our average and we beat them, we beat them bad."

"Last year Penn State was building a program and look what happened here tonight (their improvement)," Rhode Island Coach Linda Ziemke said. "We have to look at things like this and the only way to win is to put in the building blocks."

Center Kathy Phillips scored 18 points and pulled down 14 rebounds and forward Susan Robinson turned in a typical performance, scoring 21 points and grabbing 16 rebounds, equaling her career high. Phillips was named A-10 co-Player of the Week, yesterday, with Dale Hodges of St. Joseph's.

"We were flat and it showed, we were getting outhustled and it showed," Phillips said. "I don't know if it was the fact that Rhode Island was 1-11, we just took it for granted."

Penn State started slowly in the first half but Robinson's layup at the 12:38 mark opened the lead to 10. Rhode Island, however, kept after the Lady Lions, cutting the lead to nine. But at the end of the half, Phillips scored six straight and Tanya Garner hit a three-point bomb to stretch the lead to 18.

Even though the Lady Lions led by 18, their intensity was still lacking and they got a spark from Garner, their co-captain, at halftime.

"Tanya did a good job," Phillips said. "But everybody, not just a single person, everybody wanted it."

Still, Rhode Island persisted. Again the WRams cut the lead to 10 at one point and to 14 before the Lady Lions turned their play up a notch.

Just like on Saturday, when they got a strong performance from their bench, the Lady Lions' non-starters again played an important role. On Saturday it was Terri Williams and last night it was senior guard Dawn Chambers.

"It (the bench) killed us," Ziemke said.

Chambers came in for an ineffective Dana Eikenberg and gave the team the spark that it needed. Chambers scored nine points in 3:24 to open the Lady Lions lead to 36 after Chambers' 15-foot jumper and to 41 when Terri Williams hit a three-pointer at the final buzzer. With that shot, Penn State hit its per game scoring average, 91.4.

"We were outhustled but the bottom line is that we got the job done," Portland said.

Portland said one possible reason for the team's less than enthusiastic effort last night was possibly the schedule which calls for games on Saturday and then on Monday.

"I do not like the Saturday/Monday scheduling, I think it is awful," Portland said. "You do not get a day off, we had to practice on Sunday.

"The Saturday/Monday format was never discussed with the coaches it was handed to us in September. It's an awful format."

"It's hard to say because we had the Saturday game and then the Monday game" Phillips said. "I don't know if it's fatigue, that's a tough question to answer."

Whatever the reason the Lady Lions have today off with their next game Saturday against St. Bonaventure in Rec Hall.