Well, it might have had a little more suspense than usual, but the women's basketball team's performance last night at Rec Hall will, once again, go straight to syndication.

In a repeat performance of so many contests at home this season, the No. 2 Lady Lions (19-1, 10-1 in the Atlantic 10) recorded yet another victory, 80-69, at the hands of George Washington.

Despite the closeness of the score, Penn State outrebounded (37-26), garnered more steals (15-9) and gave away only 15 turnovers to play in control -- for almost all of the evening.

"It was two different ball games," Coach Rene Portland said. "When you look at it on paper and then at the video, you ask 'what's wrong with (Penn State)?' , but then you look at the statsheet."

In the early-going, the Lady Colonials (16-4, 9-2) hung in the game, mainly due to the inside presence of center Mary K. Nordling and the 3-point shooting of last season's Freshman-of-the-Year, Jennifer Shasky. Behind their play, the visitors cut the deficit to five points, 29-24, with 4:33 left in the first half.

GW was playing like the team that went into the game at 9-1 in the conference, tied with Penn State and just a full game behind 11-1 Rutgers. But then, just as they did against the Lady Knights on Tuesday, the Lady Lions exploded at the end of the first half, outscoring the Lady Colonials, 13-4, to end the opening half.

"I thought we played very well," George Washington coach Joe McKeown said. "You're not sluggish when you're drilling the ball from left and right (GW shot 50 percent for the game).

"But I thought we had a lot of chances, but when we had to make the big play, we didn't do it."

That was definitely the story of the second half. The Lady Colonials would cut into Penn State's lead, mostly behind the inspired play of forwards Kristin McArdle and Shasky.

Yet probably the most agonizing missed opportunity for George Washington came with eight minutes left and the team down by 12. But as Shasky went in for an uncontested, no-one-within-yards-of-her-layup, Shasky's shot bounced out.

The rest of the night, GW could never get closer than that 12-point deficit, the last of those margins coming with 3:27 remaining, 74-62.

Down the stretch, unlike past games against Rutgers and Maryland, Penn State held onto the ball and looked for the higher-percentage shot or open lane to the basket.

"We're huddling as a team more and calming everybody down," guard Dana Eikenberg said. "We're taking that extra second to discuss what's going on -- it's all of us together."

"When they (the Lady Colonials) tried to come back, we spelled D-E-L-A-Y (with our offense), instead of S-H-O-O-T and I'm pleased with that," Portland said.

Once again, the triumverate of forward Susan Robinson (20 points), Eikenberg (16) and guard Tanya Garner (16) carried the load offensively. Shasky (19), McArdle (18) and guard Anne Riley (14) scored in double figures for George Washington.

Notes: Penn State extended its home court winning streak to 24 games, the longest in school history. It's also the third-longest in the country, behind Auburn's amazing 64 straight home wins . . . Robinson's 20 points moved her within three points of third place all-time on the Lady Lions' scoring list, only three points behind Vicki Link's 1,514.