CHICAGO -- In the blink of an eye, a tick of the clock it was all over.

The Penn State men's basketball team, leading Wisconsin 51-50 with 27 seconds remaining in it's first round game of the inaugural Big Ten Tournament, had called a timeout. The Nittany Lions' mission was simple -- a defensive stop.

The mission was unsuccessful.

The Badgers, with a mission of their own, cleared the way for a one-on-one between Lion forward Titus Ivory and Wisconsin guard Sean Mason. Mason eventually attracted another defender and passed the ball to Maurice Linton, who spun around and nailed the game winner with 3.7 seconds to go in the game.

Maurice Linton?

That's right. Linton, a 6-foot-8 freshman, who averaged 2.2 points a game this season, gave the tenth-seeded Badgers (12-18, 4-13 Big Ten) a 52-51 win over the seventh-seeded Lions (15-12, 8-9).

"Sean had the hot hand," said Badger coach Dick Bennett, "and Maurice had the poise as a freshman to take that last-second shot."

The Badgers will meet second-seeded Illinois (21-8, 13-3) at 7:40 p.m. today.

Linton finished with 12 points. He has scored 27 points in his last two outings, after tallying just 26 points in 28 games.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't even see the clock," Linton said. "I do that move everyday in practice. It just came natural to me."

And it was just natural that the game ended on a last-second shot since both teams ran neck-and neck with each other. The game featured 11 lead changes and was tied 12 times.

"I thought it was a hard fought game," said Lion coach Jerry Dunn. "Both teams played extremely good defense. Someone had to lose."

In the first half, the Lions and the Badgers kept it close. The highest lead was four points by both teams. Both squads also finished the first half strong. Linton found the foul line after a layup against Lion forward Carl Jackson with seven seconds left. Linton missed the free throw but got the rebound and was fouled by Jackson again. Linton made both free throws.

Lion guard Pete Lisicky drained a last-second jumper to give Penn State a one-point lead at the half. In the second half Lisicky scored nine of the Lions' first 16 points.

Wisconsin tied the game at the 5:22 mark on a 3-pointer by Sean Mason. It was Mason's second straight trey.

The Badgers took their first lead since the first five minutes of the game at the 3:02 mark on a tip in by Sean Daugherty. Penn State regained the lead at the 1:00 mark on a Calvin Booth jumper.

Booth, the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Year, blocked four Badger shots, including a block on Mason prior to Linton's game winner.