With 16:50 remaining in the second half, a dark-clothed woman raced in front of freshman point guard Brianne O'Rourke, stabbing her arms ferociously.

O'Rourke had just committed one of her seven turnovers to the players in the blue-away jerseys, Michigan, as Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland burst onto the court, just feet away from her point guard.

Each pointing motion nearly grazed the freshman. Yet in all of her rage, the stomping of her heels shaking the floor that the Penn State women's basketball team stood on, Portland insisted that nothing harsh was directed towards O'Rourke. Just run "our stuff."

"Just a little nice conversation," Portland said smiling and with a wink.

Portland's basic message, in short, was to calm down. While she didn't practice what she preached to relay her thoughts, O'Rourke did miscalculate on a backdoor pass to junior forward Amanda Brown, causing Portland to be fed up after one of Penn State's 22 turnovers in the game.

But O'Rourke, who had five in the first stanza, would eventually be the Lady Lions savior. The score was 29-26, Michigan, when the 5-6 guard snuck into the passing lane and swept the ball away from the Wolverines and dashed down the court.

As she surged the Lady Lions within one, the crowd of 5,429 fans reverberated with enthusiasm.

"That's what coach always says, 'It starts with the guards on defense,' " O'Rourke said.

Heeding her coach's wisdom, now up 34-31, O'Rourke was the common thief once again. She stole the spotlight, dashing those memories of earlier overthrown passes from the crowd's minds.

Much of the game was strings of bad play after worse play. In one stretch, O'Rourke overshot sophomore guard Kamela Gissendanner on a fastbreak, then Wolverine guard Carly Benson shot an air-ball feet away from the basket. Then sophomore guard Adrienne Squire practically handed the ball off to another Michigan player for a steal.

Portland admits that years ago, the arm jerks that she was displaying during the game might have just pulled the player right off the court. But with O'Rourke's late game heroics, all is well.

"You just have to ride it out with some people," Portland said. "In previous years I would have gone like this, and I would have gone like that real quick."