There are a number of things that are awful enough to make anyone's stomach turn.

And though the final score of last night's game against Michigan makes it sound pretty peachy for Penn State, it may be time to add Lady Lions' first halves on the road to a list that includes notables like curdled milk, sweaty hockey equipment and Ashlee Simpson.

Granted, Penn State did play better in the second half, eventually running away with the game, but against a Wolverine team that is one of the bottom feeders in the Big Ten, the Lady Lions played only a mediocre game, winning 76-61. The win kept Penn State (14-7, 9-1Big Ten) in first place in the conference.

"I think we focus on the first five minutes of the second half every game," Lady Lions guard Jess Strom said after the game on the Penn State Radio Network. "We start out slow in the first half and then have to come back."

Strom was referring to Penn State's maddening habit of shooting itself in the foot early in games, which may come back to haunt the team against better competition.

Coach Rene Portland said after the game that she was not impressed with her team's effort in the first half.

"Anything on the road scares you and our defense was really letting us down in the first half," Portland said, followed shortly by a similarly ringing endorsement of the offense.

Strom carried the Lady Lions with a career-high-tying 29 points and seven rebounds, but uncharacteristically only a single assist. Tanisha Wright chipped in with 19 and Amber Bland also set a new career high with 11 points off the bench.

The first half might have been the worst half of basketball the Lady Lions have played all season.

Last week's 18-point first half against Northwestern was certifiably wretched, but a brief look at the halftime box score last night must have made Portland ill.

For starters, Penn State trailed 28-25.

Wright, the leading scorer in the Big Ten at 20.7 points per game and candidate for player of the year honors in the conference, began the game invisibly, and then spent the rest of the first half wishing she'd stayed that way, struggling to two first-half points on a dismal 1-of-8 shooting.

Strom led all scorers with 11 points at the break, but struggled from the field, shooting only 4-of-10 and turning the ball over three times.

Jen Harris, Penn State's third scoring option after Wright and Strom, may have had the worst half of all, shooting 2-of-10 from the field, turning the ball over twice, and repeatedly getting smoked in the defensive end. Unlike Penn State's two elder stateswomen, Harris's numbers didn't improve much in the second half and she finished with only four points.

Ashli Schwab played a solid half, scoring six points on a perfect 3-of-3 from the field and getting numerous shots for her teammates by setting excellent screens. Unfortunately, she quickly found herself in foul trouble, and after scoring four of Penn State's first six points she mostly disappeared from the flow of the game.

Schwab's frontcourt mate Amanda Brown barely had a chance to break a sweat in the half as she was in foul trouble seemingly as soon as she won the opening tip. Things didn't improve much for Brown in the second half as she picked up two quick fouls and ended up logging only 11 minutes in the game.

Penn State finished up shooting just 40 percent from the field (26-of-65), which was no better than the 41 percent (24-of-58) mustered by the Wolverines, who rank near the bottom of the Big Ten in that category.