Two examples of how to lose a heartbreaker were handed to the Penn State women's basketball team this weekend.

On Friday, the Lady Lions (0-2) were stomped into the ground by an older, more experienced team in No. 1 Duke (2-0), 93-67. But finishing out the weekend against Villanova (1-1), Penn State failed to squeak out a victory against an evenly matched team, 62-59.

Either way you slice it, Penn State women's basketball head coach Rene Portland wasn't going to say one loss hurt more than the other.

According to Portland, the Lady Lions have never lost their first two games at home.

"You only gave me an 'A' and a 'B,' I need a 'C.' All of the above is what I need," Portland said. "We lost in the Jordan Center, that is not Lady Lion basketball."

Junior Amanda Brown sat to the right of Portland at the postgame press conference with her Bryce Jordan center model standing up next to the microphone. After leading her team with 16 points and 8 rebounds, Brown failed to convert the front end of a one-and-one from the free-throw line with five seconds left on the clock and Penn State trailing the Wildcats, 60-59.

Off of the miss, Villanova's Kate Dessart Mager came down with the rebound and iced the game with two free throws on the other end. Dessart Mager had given the Wildcats the lead on the previous possession, hitting an open jumper with her foot just inside the line.

Brown was visibly distraught after the game from the missed free throw. It ended up being her only miss of the game, as she went 6-for-7 from the charity stripe. Instead, Brown tried to focus towards the future after the nail-biting loss.

"I'm real disappointed because I know we should have won that game," Brown said. "The players are young on the team and I need to lead them and show them that we can learn from this game, put this behind us and move on to the next game."

All weekend Portland found herself stomping on the hardwood, trying to get the attention of her younger players. She was frustrated after the game with her team's inability to get a hand in the face of the 3-point shot.

Portland described Villanova women's basketball coach Hank Perretta's offense as having five guards. Dessart Manger, Villanova's starting center, is only 6-1.

"Did you see one person post up? No, you didn't," Portland said. "We told our players the whole time. We'd rather make them dribble then give up a 3-pointer."

Villanova went 10-for-20 from 3-point territory during the game, including 5-for-6 in the second half. Wildcat senior guard Liad Suez-Karni went 4-for-5 from outside the arc in the second half. Suez-Karni and her teammates saw open looks from outside all game, rotating the ball around with quick passing.

Perretta also mentioned the use of back screens for Suez-Karni, something that he thought the young Penn State team wouldn't be used to. With some more time and coaching, Perretta doesn't know if that strategy would have worked to his team's favor after seeing freshmen Mashea Williams and Brianne O'Rourke's defensive effort on the press late in the game.

"I wouldn't want to play them in February or next year," Perretta said. "They were really physically talented."

Portland didn't want to use any excuses for her team's demise. In the Lady Lions' loss to Duke, Portland described some of her player's offensive sets as "totally ass-backwards," having 20 turnovers, with nine by O'Rourke.

Yet in that game the margin of victory for Duke was one that could demoralize some weaker minded teams. If any positives came out of the weekend, Portland was able to find one.

"I will never question their hearts," Portland said after the Duke game. "The character of our team will be shown best at 12 tomorrow when we go to practice."