First-half flop: Cagers unable to dig themselves out of halftime hole

The Penn State men's basketball team (8-6, 1-3 Big Ten) may have established itself as a second-half team this year, but the 26-point halftime lead by Wisconsin (9-7, 2-2) during last night's Big Ten matchup was too much to handle.

On an emotional high of playing their last game at the sold-out 68-year-old Wisconsin Fieldhouse, the Badgers hit 67 percent of their shots in the first half on 20 of 30 shooting en route to a 76-57 victory.

The second half was much of the same for the Lions, as the Badgers continued their offensive onslaught by connecting on 54 percent of their shots to stave off the Lions. Wisconsin became the fifth team to shoot better than 50 percent against Penn State this season. The Badgers also outrebounded the Lions 33-29 -- with a three-guard offense.

Even more impressive on the part of Wisconsin was how well it performed without junior forward Sam Okey. Okey, a 1997 second-team All-Big Ten selection, announced his departure from the team Tuesday morning. He quit after coach Dick Bennett benched him during Monday's practice for missing a weight training session. Okey claimed he did not know about the session, after which Bennet handed his player a red jersey, symbolizing the second team.

"I cannot, in all good conscious, say I didn't make any mistakes when dealing with Sam Okey," Bennett said in an ESPN2 interview prior to the game.

Jarrett Stephens dropped in the first two buckets of the game to give Penn State a 4-0 lead before Wisconsin started scorching the nets. Led by junior guard Hennssy Auriantal's 18 points on 8 of 11 shooting, the Badgers went on a 30-10 run to take a commanding 16-point lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half.

At this stage in the game, Wisconsin had eight different scorers while the Lions had just three. Freshman guard Joe Crispin had 12 of Penn State's 20 first half points. Crispin finished the game with a career-high 21 points followed by Pete Lisicky's 14, all of which came in the second half.

Wisconsin opened up a 33-point lead, its largest of the game, with 9:07 remaining, but a 9-0 run capped by a Lisicky 3-pointer cut the Badger lead to 24 at the 6:04 mark. The Lions went on another 9-1 run to cut the lead to 19, but that was as close as they got.

As was the case in previous losses for Penn State, turnovers proved costly. Crispin and Stephens each coughed it up five times, while freshman guard Greg Grays added four miscues of his own. In all, the Lions turned the ball over 19 times, many of which resulted in Badger points.

Looking for answers, or just a way to stop a Wisconsin team that shot a mere 29 percent from the field in a losing effort in its previous outing against Michigan State, coach Jerry Dunn turned to his bench. Unfortunately for Dunn, there were no answers.

"We had guys who have never been in this situation before," Dunn said in an ESPN2 postgame interview. "They took advantage of it."

The Lion bench did not score a point the entire first half, and not until Greg Stevenson found the net with 14:15 left in the game did it finally produce any offense.

The Lions are now in the midst of an important one week layoff before taking to the hardwood against Northwestern at home on Jan. 22. After losing six of their last eight games, including three of four in the Big Ten, the Lions could use a break.

"It's coming at a good time," Dunn said. "The unfortunate thing is you have a long time to think about this disappointing loss tonight."