With 25 seconds to go, and her team down five, Northwestern women's basketball head coach Beth Combs hopped up and started flapping her arms around.

She wasn't pumping up the crowd, because she was on the road, and she wasn't congratulating her team for taking a lead. Combs was most likely happy that her team wasn't losing by 43 points like the last time it faced the Penn State women's basketball team.

But the Lady Lions (12-14, 6-9) weren't able to put the Wildcats (6-12, 2-13 Big Ten) in their place, only managing a 72-64 victory over the No. 10-ranked team in the Big Ten.

"It can't be about wins and losses," Combs said. "We've talked about it's not where you start, it's where you finish."

And after allowing Penn State to shoot 38 free throws by committing 25 personal fouls, Northwestern felt lucky to even be in the game. On the other hand, the Lady Lions put the Wildcats on the line only five times.

"It puts you in a tough position when you lose by eight and 28 of those points come from the line," Combs said.

Northwestern senior forward Ifeoma Okonkwo carried her teammates on her back for much of the game, scoring 27 points along with four blocks. Nobody else scored double figures for the Wildcats. Okonkwo couldn't raise her game too far above her height of 5 foot 10 inches. Penn State women's basketball coach Rene Portland calls her "I," instead of "Foamy" as the Northwestern coaching staff refers to her, but that characterized her attitude when with 33 seconds left and the score 68-64, Okonkwo called her own number. The forward transformed into the guard that her height afforded, as she jacked up a three. It didn't fall.

Despite a couple rejections by Okonkwo and constant double-teaming, junior forward Amanda Brown exploited that weakness, almost neutralizing Okonkwo with 25 points of her own along with 13 rebounds.

If it weren't for Brown and her 13 made free throws on-15 attempts, the Lady Lions might not have been able to overcome a bit of overconfidence that came with beating the Wildcats by 43 in Evanston, Ill.

"An ugly quality of a young team," Portland said. " 'We beat them by 43, we'll be OK.' We needed to smack that out of their heads."

The biggest shot of the game came from freshman guard Mashea Williams. As Northwestern was within one, Williams hit a jumper with zero on the shot clock to make the score 57-54 and gave Penn State the lead for good.

"I didn't practice that one, but hey, it went in," Williams said.

Now bigger things wait in the shadows for the Lady Lions. While Northwestern can salvage a moral victory, the Lady Lions have no time for savoring the win as No. 6 Ohio State will come to the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday.

Brown simply replied, "I'm ready."