Rahsaan Carlton held the game in his hands -- twice. Two good looks at the basket from three-point land, two good chances to tie the game and force an overtime.

Prior to that, John Amaechi found himself in a similar situation. Two chances at the free-throw line. Only 36.9 seconds to go, a chance to tie if he hit one, take the lead if he hit both.

Four opportunities -- correction, four missed opportunities to put points on the board.

But it was that kind of game all day long, as the Lions fell to 10-11 overall and 3-9 in the Big Ten with a 60-57 loss to Ohio State in Rec Hall on Saturday.

The Lions simply missed too many shots against a depleted Ohio State squad (11-13, 4-9) For the game, the Lions shot a miserable 21 of 57 from the field (36.8 percent) and 13 of 23 from the free-throw line (56.5 percent).

"You've got to knock some shots down," Lion Coach Bruce Parkhill said, "and we missed a lot of makeable shots."

Coming into the Ohio State contest, Carlton seemed to be out of his shooting woes, with good efforts in his previous few games. But the sophomore finished the game with zero points, shooting an anemic 0-for-11 from the field, including four misses from three-point land.

But he wasn't the only one who must have thought the Rec Hall folks put a lid on the basket. Amaechi was 5 of 11 from both the field and the charity stripe, including two crucial misses before his two free throws at the 36.9 mark.

"You can miss some shots and still win but not that many makeable shots," Parkhill added. "Obviously the foul line killed us.

"I told them to keep their chins up, they gave a good effort," he added.

They had a lot of good looks at the basket, the -- shots just weren't failing. There must be some explanation for the shooting problems.

But unfortunately for Parkhill, the poor shooting is something he can't quite put his finger on. Even in practice he said his team sometimes shoots well, and of course, sometimes shoots poorly.

It might be one thing, it might be a combination of things. Amaechi couldn't really put his finger on it either, but he did offer some encouragement.

"It's only a matter of time before some people's shots start to go down," he said.

Added Matt Gaudio: "We will get better. Because no one on this team quits."