Purdue's Glenn Robinson says he doesn't like some of his nicknames -- especially the "Superman" tag often given to him. He's said before that it says too much.

But "Superman" was appropriate on Saturday, as it took a super effort by the 6-foot-9 forward in the second half of the Boilermakers 71-66 win over Penn State to seal the victory for No. 14 Purdue.

The 14,123 on hand at Purdue's Mackey Arena saw Robinson score 21 of his team's 29 second-half points, en route to a game-high 30, to go along with eight rebounds, four steals and one block. The only other player in double figures for Purdue (23-4 overall, 11-4 Big Ten) was forward Cuonzo Martin with 10.

Penn State (11-12, 4-10) had four players in double figures, led by Rahsaan Carlton's 23 off the bench. Matt Gaudio also came off the bench to score 12, while starters John Amaechi and Steve Wydman had 11 and 10, respectively. Wydman started for injured Michael Jennings, who did not make the trip after spraining his ankle Wednesday against Iowa.

"The important thing is we're out of here with a win," Purdue Coach Gene Keady said afterwards, adding that he was impressed by Carlton. "When you allow a guy to come off the bench and score like that, you're going to be in trouble."

As their pattern on the road has been, the Lions fell behind big early -- down by 20 at one point. Coach Bruce Parkhill's squad played a gritty second half, outscoring Purdue 40-29, but it wasn't enough against Robinson.

"I was disappointed in the way we played the first half," Parkhill said. "In fact, we didn't play, we just showed up. (Purdue) did a good job taking advantage of it."

Purdue shot 65.4 percent on its way to a 42-26 lead at the break. The Lions only managed a 35.5 field-goal percentage on 11 of 31 first-half shooting, including 3 of 14 from three-point range (8 of 27 for the game).

But with five minutes, 55 seconds left in the game, the Lions had cut the once-humongous lead to a single point. Then Robinson asserted himself again, and put the lead out of reach for Penn State.

Parkhill's crew still had life, but it couldn't capitalize on some missed free throws by the Boilermakers down the stretch.

"I can't understand why we shoot free throws well on the road and we can't hit them at home," Keady said, after his team hit only 9 of 17 second-half free throws. "Thank God the NCAA Tournament isn't at Mackey again."

Note:

-- Does Robinson get preferential treatment by the home court referees?

At one point in the second half, Robinson rudely threw Wydman to the floor, as the player-of-the-year candidate wanted the ball in the low post.

At another point, Amaechi seemed to be intentionally fouled as he shot a layup and Robinson pulled him away from the hoop by the waist --but an intentional foul wasn't called.

Parkhill diplomatically responded, saying one or two plays weren't the difference in the game.

"The bottom line is, (Robinson) made some big-time shots when he had to," Parkhill said in a postgame radio interview.