Maybe the 7,184 spectators in the standing-room-only crowd at Rec Hall on Saturday weren't quite sure what they had witnessed, but they left satisfied.

The men's basketball team had secured a 79-51 victory over Northwestern (4-10, 0-5 Big Ten) to up their record to 11-3 (3-2 Big Ten).

Nate Althouse, the 5-foot-10-inch walk-on guard and crowd favorite, hit a three-point basket with 5.7 seconds remaining to delight the crowd.

Upon the fans' request, Althouse entered the game with one minute, 40 seconds remaining. But every time he touched the ball, he was decked by Wildcat guard Joe Branch.

Althouse missed a pair of free throws and a layup, but sank the trey just before time expired. Then he and Branch exchanged words and became entangled at midcourt. Fans seated in the front row intervened before teammates and officials separated the pair.

The ending may seem ridiculous, but it was nothing compared to the rest of the contest. This was a game far uglier than the final score indicated; a game called basketball, but not played like it.

This was a game where the unlikely happened and the unusual became commonplace.

"I'm not real tickled with how we played," Penn State Coach Bruce Parkhill said, "but I'm glad we won the game."

One reporter asked Wildcat forward Cedric Neloms how he would characterize the game.

"How would you characterize it?" asked Neloms, repeating the question with a laugh. "There's really nothing much I can say about this game that hasn't happened the rest of the season. It's been a downhill journey."

Neloms led all scorers with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Four Lions scored in double figures: Glenn Sekunda led with 17 points, Dan Earl scored 15, John Amaechi had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Donovan Williams added 10 points.

But this was a game where the statistics did not matter. The ridiculous did:

After trailing Northwestern 6-2 in the opening minutes, the Lions used a 23-10 run to break the game open. Earl mixed a pair of three-pointers, two free throws and a give-and-go lay-in to score 10 points in that stretch.

At 8:51 in the first half, a series of poor passes began with Greg Bartram's over-the-head save out of bounds and ended with Amaechi scolding Pete Lisicky for throwing a crosscourt pass to the Wildcat bench.

One minute later, the 6-foot-10 Amaechi attempted a three-pointer from the top of the key and shot an airball.

Northwestern slowly cut at the Lions' lead, closing the deficit to 29-20 on Kenneth Lee's 10-foot jumper. Then Donovan Williams and Sekunda scored in succession and Damien McKnight hit a three-pointer to give the Lions a 16-point advantage.

On the final first-half possession, Rahsaan Carlton -- who had already missed one dunk -- took a baseline feed from Earl. Wildcat center Dan Kreft misread the play and jumped out to the corner. Carlton took a drop step and dunked just before the halftime buzzer.

Although the Wildcats' stifling defense prevented Amaechi from becoming a scoring threat, their three-man rotation at guarding the center combined for 12 personal fouls. Amaechi made 10 trips to the free throw line, sinking eight.

Wildcat Dewey Williams, a 6-foot-9-inch forward, fouled out with 4:21 remaining. His replacement was Kreft, a 7-footer with a shaved head who was on the receving end of heckling by Rec Hall fans.

After missing a wide-open layup while contemplating whether to dunk, Kreft reached his arm through the basket to block an Amaechi slam attempt. Kreft was called for goaltending and the Lions led, 72-46.

A frustrated Amaechi was replaced by backup center Michael Joseph with 2:00 remaining. Joseph -- who entered the game with 19 points and 18 personal fouls -- sank a baseline jump hook, but didn't commit a foul.

With 48.7 seconds remaining, Branch -- who already fouled Althouse -- banked a three-pointer from the top of the key.

"If we can get six straight of those," said Wildcat Coach Ricky Birdsong, "we'll take them."

In this game, it was surprising that they didn't.