At the 14:48 mark of the first half, the women's basketball team and George Washington were knotted at 21 in last night's Atlantic 10 quarterfinal game. Penn State beat the same team by 44 points at Rec Hall on Jan. 13.

A possible major upset was avoided, however, as the Lady Lions held off a tough and scrappy George Washington team in the end, 77-63 last night.

"A good night's sleep is something this team needs right now," Coach Rene Portland said. "I think we were very, very tired on the court tonight.

"But they got what they wanted tonight they wanted the win, they got the win and they're in the semifinals," she added.

"We were mad at ourselves because we knew we were a much better ball team than that," Tanya Garner said. "We know we should have beaten them by 30 or 40 plus."

"We felt like we were right in the game," Colonials' coach Joe McKeon said. "But we could never seem to get on track."

The Lady Lions upped their record to 22-6 and will now meet Rutgers, for the third time this season, in tomorrow night's semifinal game at 8 in Rec Hall. George Washington finished its season with a disappointing 14-14 record but showed much improvement over last season's 9-19 mark.

Both teams started off slowly as the Lady Colonials gained the early advantage behind four consecutive Karen Vadelund points, at 4-3. But after a a Lynn Dougherty jumper made it 10-5 it appeared that the Lady Lions would start to widen the lead but this was not the case.

George Washington cut the lead to one and actually enjoyed a four-point lead at 17-13 when Anne Riley hit a six-footer.

"The slow start is something we need to get rid of," Portland said. "We need to come out very, very aggressive and we need to come out attacking and passing the ball more."

But the Lady Lions battled back to tie and then go ahead 24-21 when guard Dana Eikenberg hit a trey from the top of the key.

The Lady Lions would never trail again.

Penn State lengthened the lead to nine when Kim Lazor hit one of two free throws making the score 32-23 but four straight Vadelund points cut the lead to 35-31 at halftime.

"They were really pumped and they knew coming into the game that we were picked to win it by 20-plus and that was a positive thing for them to even chop it down or stay in the game," Garner said.

The second half was much of the same as the Lady Lions continued to open up a lead but it could never break completely free from the grasp of a desperate George Washington team.

Penn State led by as many as 17 but a Riley jumper trimmed the lead to 70-61 with 2:10 left. But the Lady Lions staved off George Washington in the end to earn the 14-point win. But the Lady Colonials' 34.8 percent shooting eliminated any upset hopes.

Garmer led Penn State with 21 points while Susan Robinson had 11 points and 13 rebounds. Vadelund, who played just one minute in Penn State's 44-point win Jan. 13, led the Lady Colonials with 26 points while Riley had 21.

The Penn State bench also contributed as Lazor scored 10 points, Shelly Caplinger had four steals and Jen Kretchmar, after three early turnovers, added four points and one steal.

"We have always said that we need at least three of them to come off the bench ready to play every time we play," Portland said.

Rebounding, which Portland stressed before the game, went to Penn State, 44-41.

"If there is one thing that I am annoyed at, it's the lack of rebounding on our kids part," Portland said, however.

Now Penn State will have to pump itself up for tomorrow night's big game against Rutgers.

"It's just who wants it more, a lot of times you see a loose ball and you is willing to go get it, and a lot of the times tonight it was George Washington," Garner said. "Hopefully, this Friday it will be us."

Notes: At the 15:41 mark of the second half Robinson set a new record for consecutive free throws at 29, when she converted both ends of a one-and-one.