In the aftermath of Penn State's 80-72 victory over Vermont last night, Penn State Coach Bruce Parkhill made a comment about how every win is a good win. In fact, he added that he's never had a bad one.

His counterpart, and former assistant at William & Mary, Vermont Coach Tom Brennan was left to mull over an oxymoron of sorts -- a good loss.

"If you have to lose to somebody, I'd rather lose to a friend than a jerk," Brennan said of his former mentor Parkhill, whom he served under for five years from 1977-82. "He's such a dear friend, it's a great time to get together with him."

And for the first half of the game, the Catamounts were having a really great time. On the strength of a 9-for-13 performance from three-point range, Vermont headed into the locker room ahead 43-33.

"We were so pumped up at halftime," Brennan said. "Obviously I knew that there was going to be a long way to go, but I just tried to get them calmed down at the half."

Maybe the coach got them a little bit too calmed down. Because as good as they shot in the first half, they were just as lousy from behind the three-point stripe in the final 20 minutes -- going 2-for-13 in the second half.

"It just seemed like we were getting great shots," Catamount point guard Eddie Benton said. "But the shots just weren't falling."

Benton paced his Vermont squad, leading all scorers with 29 points. He and forward Jeremy McCool went into the locker room at the half a combined 7-for-9 from three-point land.

But as Penn State surged ahead in the second half, Benton and company simply didn't have an answer. The Lions stepped up the defensive pressure, and the 6,617 in attendance didn't help Vermont out either.

"It was hard to call the offense out," the 5-foot-11 Pittsburgh native said. "Our players were in the wrong format because I guess they couldn't hear me."

Brennan expected his old friend Parkhill to give his troops the motivation to come out strong in the second half. But he also agreed that the crowd played a big part in Penn State's comeback.

"This is really a tough place to play. This is great for our kids because it's hell to play here, man. These people really carry on."

But the Catamounts don't have anything to hang their heads about. They came into a tough place to play, and didn't leave before putting a pretty good scare into the home team.

"I was very proud," Brennan said. "I think our kids did our university, our state and our league very, very proud tonight. I really believe that."