The men's basketball team will try to build up a win streak this weekend as it faces a team on the comeback trail from a 1-27 record last year.

The Lions (11-5, 5-3 in the Atlantic 10) square off with George Washington (7-10, 1-6) at 2 tomorrow afternoon in Rec Hall.

"GW is a heck of a lot better that it was last year," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "The team's got some excellent people, some new kids who have, I think, helped them get better. But this is an important game for us because we want to build on our win over the Bonnies."

The Colonials are a big outside threat. Center Clint Holtz and forward Matt Nordmann are just two of several players who know they can shoot the 3-point shot with extreme accuracy. Most team members will take that shot if it is given to them.

"My confidence started with George Washington," center C.J. Johnson said. "I've always played pretty well against them. Maybe it's because I'm from that area."

As a whole, the squad pushes the ball up the floor quickly and has a tendency to come out of the zone and play tough man-to-man defense.

This means even more problems for the Lions' outside game. The Colonials will also hustle and chase down every loose ball.

But, the main factor swinging favor to Penn State is location. The Lions are 11-1 at Rec Hall and have won eight straight there.

"This is shaping up to be a league where you've got to win your home games, because nobody's winning on the road," Parkhill said.

No one knows this better than Parkhill. Although his team has done well at home and it is 2-0 on neutral courts, it is 2-4 on the road.

The team's field goal percentage is 46.6, its 3-point percentage is 27.5 and its free throw percentage 69.3. Of the starters, Freddie Barnes and Monroe Brown are both shooting below 40 percent from two- point land, A-10 Freshman of the Week DeRon Hayes is shooting 52.5 percent, James Barnes is shooting 58.3 percent and Fogell almost 62 percent.

"It's pretty amazing that we can have those kinds of stats offensively and still be 11-5," Parkhill said. "I think this team really exemplifies a team that wins on hustle and playing together.

"Defense and rebounding are two areas that we've been pretty solid on. Until we can break out of the doldrums shooting-wise, that's going to be our bread and butter."

So far this season, the Lions have won on their ability to hustle the ball down the court. Parkhill has instructed his team to come back to this if nothing else works. He believes the other parts of the game will fall into place if the mental stress caused by poor shooting does not start affecting decision-making.

"A lot of times we've had some negative spurts because we've gone to our bench," Parkhill said. "But our bench really gave us a lift at St. Bonaventure. I thought that was a real crucial part of our ability to win -- our bench helping us out."

Perhaps the biggest contributor off the bench of late is reserve center Johnson. In last Tuesday's win over the Bonnies, he came in when Fogell got into early foul trouble. In the second half, when the Bonnies were attempting a comeback, Johnson got two quick tips and a block to put the Bonnies down.

"C.J. really helped us," Parkhill said. "I hope he'll continue to do that. We've had a tendency to get into foul trouble and we need someone to be able to come in there and give us a lift, especially behind Eddie and Jimmy Barnes."

Johnson does not just go in and play, either. He has to carefully observe every play of the game and to some analysis of his own.

"I usually focus on what Ed does or is not doing, as well as what the offensive player he's guarding is doing," Johnson said. "And I watch what the other offense as a whole is doing. If I go in there and make a mental mistake on defense, I get yanked."