With a 73-66 loss to Rutgers on Saturday in the Atlantic 10 regular-season finale, the women's basketball team's hopes of a regular-season championship faded away as it finished third.

The Lady Lions ended the season at 21-6 overall and 15-3 in the A-10 while Rutgers finished 19-8 and 16-2 and in a tie for first place with St. Joseph's.

St. Joseph's (22-5, 16-2) snatched the top seed in the A-10 tournament by winning a coin flip. All three team's received first-round byes, advancing to the quarterfinal round, in the conference tournament.

"We were mad we lost what we were trying to shoot for all season," Dana Eikenberg said. "We know we have to get back to work."

Eikenberg added the team is ready to go after one of its season-long goals -- the A-10 tournament championship.

The Lady Lions open A-10 quarterfinal play Wednesday night against George Washington, a team they have beaten five straight times, including twice this year. If they defeat GW and if Rutgers wins its game against the St. Bonaventure-Massachusetts winner, then the two teams will meet for the third time at Rec Hall on Friday.

With the semifinals and final games at Rec Hall, where Penn State finished the season undefeated (12-0), the team is confident.

"We are ready to come out and win the Atlantic 10," Kathy Phillips said. "They are practically giving it to us and I think we can take it."

"We have a great chance, nobody beats us twice in one year and nobody beats us on our court," Eikenberg said.

If the Lady Lions had beaten Rutgers they would have won the championship and the top seed in the tournament by virtue of beating Rutgers twice and splitting with the Hawks. This was not to be, however.

"We shot really terrible, I think the worst ever in the first half," Susan Robinson said.

"They came out and did everything right; they were flawless," guard Eikenberg said. "And we were taken back by their sudden spurt."

"We were shocked that they came out so strong and ready to play," center Phillips said.

Rutgers jumped all over the Lady Lions early, opening up a 7-0 lead as Penn State missed its first nine shots. Penn State's shooting woes continued the entire first half as it made just 6-of-33 field goals, a lowly 18 percent.

The Lady Knights continued to add to the lead, which stood at 37-18 at halftime. Penn State's lowest one-half output this season was 25 points in the first half against UConn on Nov. 25, 1989.

"We didn't execute our offense, we were taking just one shot in the first half and they were not falling," Eikenberg said.

Penn State staged a comeback in the second half with a 20-8 run that cut the lead to 57-44 with 8:09 left. The Lady Lions managed to cut the lead to nine three times but every time Rutgers countered. Although Penn State shot 52 percent in the second half, a marked contrast to the first half, and outscored Rutgers 48-36 the team was still unable to overcome the first half.

"We were angry, more angry than upset, (at halftime) it was a very calm halftime time talk, we were flat," Eikenberg said. "We knew what we had to come out much better in the second half, we just missed the first five minutes of the first half."

Rebounding, usually an indictor of a Lady Lion win or loss, was again a factor as the Lady Knights won the Windex War, 44-32 overall and by 12 on the defensive side. The team agrees the key to winning the A-10 title will be rebounding.

"Statistics show that every time that you outrebound a team you win," Robinson said. "That is going to go through the whole tournament."

"Rebounding that is how you get the ball out that is the name of the game," Lynn Dougherty said.

Rutgers was lead by Vicky Picott with 20 points and 12 rebounds and Tanya Hansen who scored 18. Tanya Garner lead Penn State with 24 points.

The Penn State-Rutgers showdown was set up by two Lady Lion victories against George Washington and rival St. Joseph's.

The Lady Lions defeated St. Joseph's, 90-88, on Feb. 24 at Rec Hall behind Dougherty's 3-pointer at the buzzer. A crowd of 2,814 people attended the game.

"I was very happy to hit that shot," she said. "Because it was Adrie (Devries) and Dawn's (Chambers) last home game."

Penn State trailed by seven points with 2:49 left but outscored the Hawks 11-2 in the final minutes for the win.

"It was a big game because we got that championship feeling because you won a big game," Robinson said. "That is what you want to feel again."

Robinson and Garner led the Lady Lions with 26 and 24 points, respectively.

Also in that game, Garner and Robinson each broke the 1000 point barrier for their careers.

Against George Washington on March 1, Penn State got another win, this time 75-66. Robinson and Dougherty led the team in scoring with 21 and 20 points respectively.

Notes: Aside from becoming the first sophomore to score 1000 points, Robinson also set a new sophomore scoring record with 551 points . . . Tickets for the semifinals and finals will be $4 for adults and $2 for students and senior citizens.