For the Penn State women's basketball team, "road trip" has an all too familiar meaning.

Starting with a Tuesday contest against No. 5 Duke in Durham, N.C., and ending with a none-too-pleasant visit to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Lady Lions (4-3) road-tripped -- and fell -- into three consecutive defeats. Losses to No. 18 Rutgers and unranked Western Kentucky in the Paradise Jam tournament mercifully wrapped up the holiday for a once-hyped team coming off of four wins.

"We didn't come in here to lose two games," Penn State head coach Rene Portland told the Penn State Radio Network after the 74-64 loss to Western Kentucky. "We're taking shots but we're not putting the ball in the basket."

A new lineup couldn't light a spark for Penn State against the Lady Toppers. Following the loss to Rutgers, Portland decided to insert guards Mashea Williams and Tyra Grant into the starting five. Sophomore point guard Brianne O'Rourke was relegated to the first reserve role of her career in an effort to get something going on defense. O'Rourke scored just one point and garnered four fouls in 22 minutes.

"The tire was flat. I'm going to stay with this group for a while," Portland said. "We weren't getting enough pressure on the ball with the group we had. I think this group will put some pressure on the ball."

Unfortunately, increased pressure in the frontcourt could not stop Western Kentucky center Crystal Kelly, who paced the Lady Toppers with 29 points en route to being named tournament MVP. Penn State received 24 points and nine rebounds from senior center Amanda Brown, who was named to the All-Tournament team. Adrienne Squire scored 16 points and stood out to Portland as one of the few bright spots.

"Squire was good for us in this tournament," Portland said. "If anyone was consistent for us, it was her."

Despite struggling throughout the first half, two transition buckets by Grant gave Penn State a 49-47 lead with just over 10 minutes left in the contest. However, Western Kentucky answered with a 7-0 run and never looked back. A handful of free throws from another new reserve, junior guard Kam Gissendanner, pulled the Lady Lions within three with 3:48 remaining.

Though Gissendanner was proficient in the waning moments, Penn State missed some critical shots from both the charity stripe and the field, allowing the Lady Toppers to pull away.

Portland didn't expect much different in practice leading into the next few contests for the Lady Lions.

"We're going to get in the gym and shoot," Portland said. "[We need to] shoot some foul shots and continue to work on the fundamentals."