Beating then-No. 10 Temple 65-64 at The Bryce Jordan Center on a last-second shot -- nice.

Dominating Villanova 70-53 the next game -- great.

Upsetting Purdue on the road 78-70 this past Saturday -- priceless.

Penn State had a lot of good things happen for it at the beginning of this season, but before this past weekend, it had fallen on hard times.

The Nittany Lions lost 10 of 12 games, three coming in the game's waning moments at the hands of three of the Big Ten's top players -- Indiana's A.J. Guyton, Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves and Minnesota's Quincy Lewis.

Sure, Saturday's win over Purdue will not catapult the Lions into the nation's top 25, but it will give them a boost of confidence heading into next Thursday's Big Ten Tournament.

Lions guard Greg Grays said the team is looking ahead to the tournament. But after what this team has been through, it is hard to believe Grays and company are looking ahead to anything at all.

The postgame scene had become way too familiar.

The opposing coach would come in and talk about how lucky his team was to come out victorious, and how Penn State was a better team than its record indicated.

Next came Lions coach Jerry Dunn, who would field questions about what he had done to deserve all of the last-second losses.

Then the Penn State players would come in and stare straight ahead, not even looking at the person who was asking questions.

But through the ritualistic losing and ensuing reactions, the Lions always found a way to keep fighting and against Purdue were finally able to experience the feeling they had Jan. 23 against Illinois.

The feeling of a win.

"We compete every game," Lions guard Dan Earl said. "I don't think you can look at any game where we didn't come out and compete."

Penn State almost missed its chance to win again as the scenario started to play out the same way it had for all of the other last-second losses.

Penn State was up by seven points with just over a minute left in the game when Purdue guard Carson Cunningham hit a 3-point shot that seemed to give the Boilermakers a chance to come out with another close victory over the Lions.

The Boilermakers then proceeded to foul Lions guard Joe Crispin, who came into the game shooting well over 90 percent from the foul line. Crispin, however, missed the first shot then made the second, which gave Penn State a five-point lead.

Purdue's inbound pass found the hands of Cunningham, but unlike the past four home games for the Lions, Cunningham's shot rimmed out and Earl pulled down the rebound to secure the upset victory.

You could practically hear the sigh of relief come from the players and coaches on Penn State's bench. And the comments after the game showed it.

"Practice will be better, we'll probably play better against Michigan," Crispin said. "I don't think there should be too many highs and too many lows. Shoot, we should have had more wins in the last six games than this one. It's definitely been awhile."

The question waiting to be answered is how the team will react when it returns to action tomorrow night in Ann Arbor, Mich. Will the Lions string two in a row together? Will they come out flat?

Tune in tomorrow.