Two more wins.

That's all the men's basketball team (21-7) needs now to join the party in the NCAA tournament after its 83-72 Atlantic 10 quarterfinal win over George Washington (14-17) last night at the Palestra in Philadelphia.

The Lions will face Massachusetts, which upset West Virginia, 78-55, yesterday, at 7 tonight in a semifinal game.

The score may not indicate it, but the Colonials were like a mosquito hovering around the Lions ears. The Lions would get a 10 or 11 point lead and the Colonials would shave it to six. Coach Bruce Parkhill, who was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year on Friday, was expecting a pesky George Washington team.

"That was like going to the dentist without any novocaine," Parkhill said on his post-game radio show. "GW was competing the whole game. I thought we played pretty good defense all through the game. (George Washington) wasn't shooting well and that may have had something to do with it. They made it difficult for us on our offensive end, especially in the first half."

It looked like it was going to be a yawner for the Lions in the early going as they jumped to a 14-point lead. After Fogell, named to the Atlantic 10 first team on Friday, scored the initial basket, the Colonials' freshman forward Sonni Holland, who came in second to DeRon Hayes for Freshman of the Year honors, scored to tie the game. That is the closest the Colonials would get.

The Lions ran off six unanswered points thanks to Fogell and James Barnes, who scored 20 points after playing only seven minutes in the first half because of foul trouble. The Lions went on a 16-8 run after that to lead 24-10.

Hayes netted a 15-footer, sunk a tip in after a Monroe Brown miss and added another basket to lead 14-4. Freddie Barnes then stole the ball, missed the lay-up, grabbed his own rebound, made the shot and was fouled. He made the free throw and the Lions score seven more points.

Parkhill could have been leaning back enjoying the game, but of course, he wasn't doing that.

"I was never comfortable because I didn't think we were comfortable," Parkhill said. "(George Washington) was playing real physical and real aggressive, and I don't think we got the ball down inside as much as we should have. But the credit goes to GW also."

The Colonials put a scare into the Lions as they scored eight unanswered points. But Fogell and Hayes sunk two baskets to extend the lead to 10. The Colonials fought back to seven point deficit via an 11-8 run. Dave Degitz ended the scoring in the first half, sending the Lions to the locker room with a 42-33 lead.

A high scoring first half, however, didn't translate over to the second half as both teams played sloppily in the early going. For the game, the Lions committed 22 turnovers.

The Lions' sloppy play could have been blamed on the layoff between their final game with Duquesne on Wednesday and last night. Parkhill said he was concerned about the Lions not being fresh.

"We were not in our normal routine," Parkhill said. "GW got one under their belt yesterday (85-77 over St. Bonaventure). Maybe (George Washington) was a little tired because they didn't shoot the ball real well. And we didn't make as many foul shots as we should have down the stretch."

The Lions got plenty of free throw shooting practice as the Colonials hacked anything they could find in the last three minutes. After Fogell scored on a back door play, Barnes made one of two free throws to lead 70-58. Later, Hayes knocked in both free throws with 1:58 left.

The Lions' last nine points came by free throws. If there was a record for fouling the fastest, the Colonials garnered it as after Freddie Barnes missed the front end of a one-and-one with 1:18 left, Fogell grabbed it and was fouled two seconds later. Monroe Brown ended the fouling contest as he made one of two free throws to end it at 83-72.

Next up for the Lions is upset-minded Massachusetts, who beat the Lions earlier in the season.

"They looked awesome today," Parkhill said of the Minutemen. "It's going to be another tough one; it seems like we've been saying that for the last two months."