During the shoot-around prior to Saturday's game at Rhode Island, some members of the women's basketball team noticed that Adrie DeVries was shooting the ball well.

So once the game started, the Lady Lions went inside to both DeVries and forward Susan Robinson. The two combined for 24 first-half points and Penn State went on to a resounding 83-52 victory over the WRams at Keaney Gymnasium.

With regular center Kathy Phillips sitting out with the flu, DeVries started her first game since last season. In the first half, she scored 10 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

"We thought maybe (Adrie's) the one to get the ball," guard Dana Eikenberg said. "She came in and did a great job."

The Lady Lions were never really threatened. The only flicker of comeback came 5:38 into the second half when Rhode Island's Beth McGinniss scored to cut the lead to nine, 46-37.

After a Penn State timeout, the team returned to its dominating ways.

"We just needed to get into the flow of things," Coach Rene Portland said. "Tanya (Garner) got tired of looking at the score and started getting steals and (scoring)."

With Garner scoring nine of her game-high 15 points in the second half, the Lady Lions went on a 16-4 run to put the game out of the WRams' reach. Garner finished with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.

All season long, attention has been focused on the play of the team's reserves. Yet last weekend in two losses in Philadelphia, the reserves were not a factor. So Portland decided to switch and rearrange the substitution rotation.

Instead of going with Dawn Chambers in for Eikenberg, Jenny Kretchmar got the call. She played 21 minutes on Saturday. Also, Terri Williams got the nod over Shelly Caplinger; she tallied a game-high five steals.

"We've talked about them all year and (after Philadelphia) the play was not what it needed to be. Some changes had to be made. We told them, 'Whoever wants to be in our deck of cards can be in it,' " Portland said.

It was Garner, Williams and four points by another backup center, Tina Henry, that initiated Penn State's second-half run. Everyone on the roster, except Phillips, saw action.

It was a long day all-around for the WRams. They shot only 34 percent from the floor. The only category Rhode Island led in was turnovers. Mary Malone finished with 15 points while Zoranna Cvetkovic scored 10.

The win raised Penn State's record to 18-5 and 12-2 in the Atlantic 10. Rhode Island dropped to 3-21 overall and 2-13 in league play.

With its two wins in New England (a 72-53 triumph at Massachusetts last Thursday), Penn State must now battle the A-10 co-leaders at home this week. At 7:30 tonight Rutgers enters Rec Hall and this Saturday No. 21 St. Joseph's comes in.

The Lady Knights are 16-6 on the season and currently riding a seven-game winning streak. Traditionally, the Penn State-Rutgers matchup has provided some classic confrontations. In February 1987, the Lady Lions knocked off the then-No. 2 and undefeated "It'll be like a chess match," Eikenberg said. "They are two great coaches and we both run a lot of the same offenses."

"It should be a crowd-pleaser," Portland added. "Rutgers is playing very well right now, yet we've worked ourselves into a nice position at this time of year."