Warming up before the men's basketball game in Rec Hall last night, forward Dave Degitz broke the rim on the basket the Lions were shooting at. It had to be an omen.

Maintenance men finally fixed the hoop and wheeled it back to the court minutes before the game started. The Lions' game went the same way as they came back from a five-point halftime deficit to beat West Virginia, 64-61, in a game that threatened to go into overtime.

With the win, Penn State improves its record to 19-6 and 12-4 in the Atlantic 10. The Lions are now firmly ensconced in second place behind Temple and, with two games remaining before the A-10 Tournament, have a good chance of attaining a season-goal 20 wins.

"My hat goes off to West Virginia," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "They came out and really played tough, especially after what must have been a really tough loss for them at St. Bonaventure. They outplayed us in the first half in every phase of the game. To be perfectly honest, we were really worried at halftime. We didn't have a spark and West Virginia was really on top of its game."

The first half closely resembled a horse race, with West Virginia (14-11, 9-7) coming out a close winner. From the opening tip, both teams played tight run-and-gun basketball. The Mountaineers scored first, but James Barnes added two for the Lions eight seconds later.

During the period the teams were tied nine times and the lead changed hands on eight occasions. The teams alternated turnovers, fouls and rebound battles to give each other chances to get back into the game. It almost seemed planned.

With six seconds left in the half Barnes missed a shot underneath the bucket but was fouled by WVU center Matt Roadcap. Barnes went one-of-two at the line and it looked as though the Lions would go into halftime down by two.

But guard Chris Leonard had other plans and hit a leaning 3-pointer in traffic at the buzzer to give the Mountaineers a 36-31 lead at halftime.

"We thought we could pound the ball inside," Lion center Ed Fogell said. "We really didn't think we were doing the best we could in the first half, and then we really tried to get it inside a little more."

Once back on the court, the Lions took the game and made it their own. Fogell hit a five-foot jumper with 19:37 left to make the score 36-33. Mountaineer guard Tracy Shelton answered a few seconds later, but the Lions then went on a 6-0 run to take control and the lead, 39-38.

West Virginia kept close until about 13 minutes remained in the game, when Barnes, DeRon Hayes and Michael Jennings engineered another 6-0 run to put the Lions more soundly on top, 48-42. But the Mountaineers weren't about to roll over and play 'possum.

At several key moments in both halves, West Virginia gave the ball to Leonard and Shelton, who converted on 3-point shots to keep WVU in the hunt. After Barnes scored inside with 26 seconds left to make the score 64-61, the Mountaineers called a timeout, and plotted to get the ball to either one of them.

Shelton finally got a shot off with about four seconds left, but it didn't drop. Barnes got the rebound and was fouled. There were no shots because the foul was only the Mountaineers' sixth. With three seconds left, the Lions inbounded the ball and held it until time ran out.

"We knew if we were going to win we really had to play better on the defensive side," Parkhill said. "In the second half, our offensive momentum came from defense."

This win gets the Lions one closer to 20. All-season long Parkhill has said he believes his team has a good chance of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if it collects 20 wins before the A-10 Tournament.

Yesterday, however, USA Today ran a page compiled by its basketball writers, which picked the field of 64. Penn State was not listed.

"We were disappointed with that, sure enough," Parkhill said. "I think we deserve some mention in those kind of things."

Fogell finished the night with a team-high 19 points, 11 rebounds, shooting 7-of-9 from the floor. Barnes netted 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Most of either player's points came from the strong play inside the paint indicated by the rebound totals.

"I really think we did a pretty good job inside on defense," Fogell said. "I also felt we did a good job of taking it to them on offense."

Notes: Penn State outrebounded West Virginia 35-21 . . . the Lions shot 50 percent from the floor and the Mountaineers shot 47 percent . . . at Rec Hall this season the Lions are 12-0 . . . over break the Lions complete their regular season schedule; they meet West Virginia again on Sunday and host Duquesne on Wednesday . . . the A-10 Tournament begins next Friday at the Palestra in Philadelphia.