"The first five minutes are very important to us."

Since Wednesday night's NCAA first-round win over Kentucky, that's what James Madison women's basketball coach Shelia Moorman has told her players. Stay in the game early to have a shot at upsetting No. 1 Penn State.

"If we can weather the first five minutes, that's very important to us . . ."

So much for coaching strategy.

In Saturday's first five minutes, the Lady Lions leaped out to an 11-0 lead and Moorman had to call a timeout before the Rec Hall crowd blew the roof off the building.

But maybe Moorman meant the second half's first five minutes. With JMU down 12, 41-29, the visitors did some comebacking of their own, going on a 14-4 run and reducing the deficit to only two, 45-43. That stretch provided the confidence for their 73-71 upset win.

"I've never been involved in a better comeback than the one we were involved in," Moorman said. "The courage it took from our players, especially after the last few days, all we have talked about was the first five minutes.

"It's hard not to be shell-shocked by the environment (6,087 in attendance). We were a little tentative at first, but we felt that if we could get out of the first half under double digits we'd be in great shape. We almost did that."

After Penn State grabbed the early lead, James Madison used its speed and quickness on both ends of the floor -- especially in the second half. Offensively, the players would use their speed to get a step advantage on the Lady Lions inside and often got short layups or close jump shots.

The quickness advantage also enabled JMU to sneak in and grab rebounds, despite having a tremendous disadvantage height-wise -- no impact players on the team were over 6'0". It outrebounded Penn State, 37-36.

And on defense, the Dukes -- again mostly in the second half -- would step in front of a PSU player and either steal, deflect or disrupt an incoming pass.

"They outhustled us and we didn't get the job done," forward Susan Robinson said.

It's not the first time the Dukes have went into a higher-rated opponents' lair and come away victorious. In 1986, the Dukes went to Charlottesville, Va. and beat nationally-regarded Lady Cavaliers, 71-62. That team, like this one, according to Moorman, had no center and played great team defense. She added those were the keys Saturday.

"We just have a team," Moorman said. "We build our defense from the outside in."

When it was all done and the JMU cheerleaders were standing in dismay saying over and over, "I can't believe we beat the No. 1 team in the country," all that was left was for the eight-seeded Dukes to head for the Palestra in Philadelphia to face fourth-seeded Clemson in the East Regionals.

"We're going to take the underdog's role from here on in because that's what we are," Moorman said.