The situation Wednesday night was eerily similar to the previous two games.

The Penn State men's basketball team was not far from victory in the second half of an always-important conference game.

But one thing was strikingly different.

The Nittany Lions came out on top when the final buzzer sounded.

Rather than follow the pattern it had set against Michigan State and Iowa during the last week, Penn State hit clutch shots down the stretch versus Ohio State to close out the 78-75 victory.

"We couldn't afford to have any more games where we didn't take advantage of the opportunities that we had," Lions senior Gyasi Cline-Heard said.

The win left Penn State with a 1-2 conference mark.

At 0-3, the hill would have most likely been too steep to climb

Even more damaging would have been the fact that another chance to pick up a quality victory was wasted.

The first of those chances came just one week earlier, when a nine-point advantage with less than 15 minutes remaining turned into a 25-point defeat in East Lansing, Mich. The opportunity to take down the No. 1 team in the nation had slipped away.

Three days later, the Lions squandered a 10-point second-half lead to the No. 24 Hawkeyes in a heartbreaking 86-85 loss.

"We need to be focused and not let that happen again," Penn State senior Joe Crispin said afterward. "We'll be better because of this. It won't happen again, I promise you."

With the help of his teammates, Crispin kept his word.

It was shaky in the closing moments against the Buckeyes, but the Lions didn't fold.

Big shot after big shot went down, with perhaps the two most important coming from the free-throw line.

Going a horrid 9-19 from the charity stripe up to that point, Penn State still had the opportunity to move ahead by three.

Lions junior Tyler Smith stepped to the line, already missing his first three free-throws earlier in the game, and calmly sank both of his shots.

After a last second three-point attempt by Ohio State's junior Brian Brown was blocked by Cline-Heard, the sweet taste of victory was, at last, the Lions to enjoy.

"Anytime you play on the road in the Big Ten it's going to be a good game and a battle because all the teams are competitive this year," Cline-Heard said.

"We were 0-2 and we just needed a victory to jump-start us."

Up next for Penn State is Northwestern. The Lions will use their momentum and renewed confidence as they face the Wildcats at 8 p.m. tomorrow at the Bryce Jordan Center.