The irony of his action probably never crossed Kevin Morris' mind.

Morris, coach of the Fordham women's basketball team, was just under eight minutes away from the end of his squad's 94-41 battering at the hands of Penn State. Waiting for an inbounds play after a timeout, Morris stood in front of the Lady Rams bench and, trying to get his team's attention, waved a white towel.

How symbolic.

"We knew we couldn't take everything away from them," Morris said after the Lady Lions had completed the drubbing. "In some games we feel that we can take away everything a team does. But we knew we had to give them something."

The first-year coach didn't seem phased by the pasting he'd just been dealt. A 53-point loss isn't the way anyone wants his season to end. But for Fordham, in its first-ever NCAA appearance, just the chance to get pasted by the likes of Penn State in the tourney was a reward in itself.

The Lady Rams came into last night's game with a 21-8 record and a Patriot League championship under their belts. Their reward was an automatic bid to the Big Dance.

And a 16th seed. And a road game against the No. 2 team in the nation. Some reward.

But Morris and his crew aren't complaining.

"It was a tremendous experience for our program," Morris said. "We can only learn from it."

A learning experience. Those are rarely fun, and it wasn't for Fordham. Hammered on the road, thoughts of the Big Upset and a Cinderella run abruptly squashed.

Still, they didn't seem crushed. No matter how brutal the loss, it'll likely be forgotten. What will be remembered, at least by the up-and-coming Lady Rams, was the season that got them there.

"One thing that I wanted to do was go out as Patriot League champion, with a winning record, and that's exactly what I got," senior forward Tammilyn Borkowski said, the traces of tears evident on her face after her last collegiate game. "I couldn't have asked for a better team to play with than I did this year."