Immediately after George Washington's coach Joe McKeown shook hands with the women's basketball team's coaching staff, he turned back toward his bench and kicked his chair in frustration. As it crash landed, he quickly walked to the dressing room.

In Penn State's 77-63 victory, the Lady Colonials stayed in the game, but just couldn't find that little extra to pull out the victory. At the end of the first half, Penn State's lead was only four. With two minutes to play, it was nine. Just not enough.

"We felt (throughout) we were in the game," McKeown said. "But we gave them some easy buckets. We just never seemed to get on track defensively or get a run going ourselves."

That was indeed the problem all night. In the first half with Penn State leading 13-5, the Lady Colonials went on a 14-2 run to take a 19-15 lead. Penn State then turned it up a notch to regain the lead. But GW scored the last four points of the half to pull within 35-31.

All this was quite a turnaround from the last meeting between the two at Rec Hall. The Lady Lions won in a blowout, 96-52, but that game was played without star point guard Karin Vadelund, who was out with a shoulder injury. Last night, she did it almost by herself, scoring 26 points in 40 minutes of action. "(The earlier blowout) was without Karin Vadelund," Coach Rene Portland said. "She's a great point guard. We were playing man-to-man defense and Vadelund did it all herself. But when your point guard has only three assists, that's something to worry about."

With outside shooting from five-time Atlantic 10 Freshman-of-the-Week Jennifer Shasky almost non-existent and the inside game of Kristin McArdle plagued by foul trouble, Vadelund and junior guard Anne Riley (21 points, 12 over her season average) had to come to play.

"Jennifer's a freshman and will play up-and-down, but she's done a great job this year," Vadelund said. "It's my job to get things done, whether it be pass the ball more or shoot the ball more."

Just last week at home, the Lady Colonials stayed with Penn State before falling, 75-66. With the knowledge it could compete with the Lady Lions, the team came into the game feeling confident.

Vadelund said the teams matched up well and that George Washington's pressure defense could cause problems for Penn State. Before the game, Portland and forward Lynn Dougherty agreed handling the press was important. While Penn State had enough to win, the Lady Colonials held the home team to a 31 percent field goal percentage in the first half and under 40 for the game. They also forced 19 turnovers.

Penn State's Tanya Garner said after the game that for the most part George Washington went for the loose balls and overall outhustled the Lady Lions. Statistically, George Washington maneuvered enough to almost win the rebounding war against the taller team, but lost it, 44-41. And while Portland and Garner lamented their team's lack of rebounding, McKeown disagree.

"The stats are deceiving," McKeown said. "We battled well, except for at key times. When it was a nine-point game (with 2:10 to play) they got the offensive rebounds and had the putbacks."

At that point in the game, the Lady Colonials' try ran dry and Penn State fulfilled its favored status.

Still, despite the setback and a 14-14 season, George Washington had hopes that this game and season could propel them to better things in the future.

"There was great improvement. We were in a lot of games. We could have had an 18-13 record. But to get respect in the A-10, we need to knock off a Rutgers, a Penn State or a St. Joseph's."