Neither Coach Rene Portland nor Temple Coach Charlene Curtis got what she expected from last night's game at Rec Hall.

Portland would probably welcome another "unexpected" game if it were anything like last night's, but the same can't be said for Curtis.

Penn State put together solid performances on both ends of the floor and pummeled its former Atlantic 10 foe from the onset, cruising to an 81-37 victory and improving its record to 16-6.

Defensively, the 11th-ranked Lady Lions kept Temple from developing a rhythm, holding the Lady Owls to a mere 13 points and 22.2 percent field goal shooting at the half.

It wasn't until Sonya Perry's 10-foot jumper with 1:50 left in the game that Temple even equalled Penn State's halftime total. By then, the Lady Lions had upped their own point total to 79.

"It was what they did defensively that we never got into a flow," Curtis said. "Very seldom did we even take shots from where we wanted to take them."

That handicap forced Temple to finish the game with 24 turnovers and a dismal 28.3 field goal percentage. Penn State, meanwhile, enjoyed its best shooting game of late, connecting on 32 of 66 shots for 48.5 percent.

Susan Robinson overcame a lackluster performance at Rutgers to toss in 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting. Kathy Phillips and Katina Mack added 12 a piece for the Lady Lions.

"We worked a lot on shooting today in practice, just concentrating on our shots and believing they'll go in, " Phillips said.

Practice obviously carried over to the game -- especially on the believing end. Penn State started the game with four different starters missing shots. In past games, that usually meant the beginning of a long and dismal night.

"It was nice to see them not say, 'Oh God, here we go again,' " Portland said. "They obviously spoke a different language to themselves than we could say to the public, and they got the job done.

"It almost looked like they got mad at the fact that the ball wasn't going into the bucket."

The anger stayed for the rest of the half and the better part of the game. Temple was on the receiving end of it the whole time.

Holding a mere 39-18 advantage at the 16:06 mark in the second half, the Lady Lions turned it up a notch, give or take a few, and rattled off an eight-minute, 23-2 run.

During the decisive stretch, eight different players scored for Penn State and covered just about every possible inch of the floor. A Jen Kretchmar 3-pointer here, a Tina Henry tip in there. Whatever the shot, whoever the shooter, it all looked the same to Curtis.

"I could not put my finger on any one thing that we did well tonight," Curtis said. "We're the type of team that we have to have five people on the court who are playing together. We were not moving in sync at all.

"We don't have good enough individual players to make up for the mistake of two or three players on the floor. You guys have Phillips and Robinson and a couple of others who can make up the difference."

Notes: Susan Robinson pulled down seven rebounds, which puts her just two shy of 1,000 for her career. The only other Lady Lion to reach the 1,000-rebound plateau was Kahadeejah Herbert (1,103). . .Sophomore Missy Masley also enjoyed a good rebounding night against Temple, pulling down a career-high eight boards.