PHILADELPHIA -- Making it to college basketball's big dance requires good footwork. Unfortunately for the men's basketball team, it shot its own foot last night in a 64-59 loss to Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Tournament semifinals.

Penn State (21-8) committed 23 turnovers and 6th-seed UMass (17-12) capitalized, ousting the second-seeded Lions from the conference tournament. With the loss at the Palestra, the team's chances of winning an invitation to the NCAA tournament are now severely in danger.

Penn State controlled the early part of the game by moving the ball around the perimeter and looking for good inside shots. Behind center Ed Fogell and forward James Barnes, the Lions earned an 8-2 lead.

UMass had entered the game wary of the Lions' inside prowess, but remained composed and rallied and opened a 17-11 advantage with 12:42 remaining in the first half.

The big key to that turnaround was Coach Bruce Parkhill's first technical foul of the season with 16:24 remaining in the half.

"We were getting the ball inside and some of the time fouls were being called," Parkhill said. "Some of the times they weren't though, and I, uh . . . I obviously was upset with what was going on."

Both teams were patient offensively throughout the first half and against the respective man-to-man defenses UMass and Penn State were content to work the perimeter and look for good shots.

The Lions used the pass to penetrate the Minuteman defense while UMass drove to the hoop behind guard Jim McCoy. McCoy led all scorers with 25 points.

Often, however, UMass settled for one shot because it was unable to pound the offensive glass with Penn State. While that may sound good for the Lions, it didn't matter because the Minutemen shot 46.7 percent from the field.

In the second half they didn't cool down and finished the game shooting 44 percent. Penn State shot 39.9 for the game.

Later in the half, the Lions' trouble handling the ball became evident. Often a pass would make it into the paint for an apparently easy turnaround-jumper, but Fogell, Barnes and Freshman of the Year DeRon Hayes allowed several to slip through their hands.

UMass Coach John Calipari credited his team's persistence and hard work for keeping it in the game throughout.

"We knew we didn't match up well and we worried about that entering the game," he said. "We knew we could score but we weren't too sure about keeping them from scoring.

"It's a nice win for our program," he added. "This is something (the kids) really deserve, and I'm really happy for them."

Although Parkhill said his team made several mental errors, he also credited the Minutemen's defensive play. And rightly so.

"A lot of our errors were unforced and we made a lot of turnovers that I really didn't think we needed to make, but you have to (UMass) credit," the seventh-year Lion coach said. "They played well.

"(But) something was missing from our game tonight. I don't know what it was, but something wasn't there."