BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- He could not let go. He would not let go that easily. He was watching his chance go by.

Two fouls left Michael Jennings, the men's basketball team's stringy shooting guard, with a disgruntled expression and a bad taste in his mouth. Attention was focused on the floor of Indiana's Assembly Hall. He was on the bench.

You see, Michael Jennings lives for the spotlight. And the spotlight is as big in Assembly Hall as anywhere in the country. It is the heart and soul of college basketball, a place where legends roam. And he could not let them forget Michael Jennings that easily.

"When you're playing in an atmosphere like that, you want people to remember who you are," he said. "If I miss, I'll go out missing 25 three-pointers."

He didn't miss. He couldn't miss. Jennings' 18 second-half points -- including four late three-pointers -- kept the Lions (7-4, 0-2 Big Ten) in the game with Indiana until the final seconds Saturday night. It was a show that made Hoosier fans sweat.

A Jennings' three-pointer from the left corner cut the lead to 61-51. A Jennings trifecta from the top of the key shaved the score to 67-56. Another Jennings trey cut the lead to 73-66 with 45 seconds left. And one last-ditch heave from somewhere near the Hoosier Dome fell through and cut the Indiana lead to 75-69 with 32.1 seconds left.

But Indiana's stiff defense kept the Severna Park, Md., native blanketed on Penn State's final possessions, and the Lions wound up on the short end of an 80-72 score.

"I think Michael's been giving a good effort," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "It's nice to see him knock some shots down."

Expect that kind of thing from Jennings in his last tour around the conference. In "the Ten," as he has dubbed it, there is no room to run and hide.

They will remember him now. After the game, some young fans dressed in bright Hoosier red asked for his autograph.

"I had it in my mind going out there I was going for the kill," Jennings said in-between signings. "I had to do something."

What he did was something.