The Penn State men's basketball team has never beaten Indiana at Assembly Hall.

And with the Nittany Lions coming off close back-to-back conference wins against Ohio State and Northwestern, Penn State was expected to bring their top game into last night's matchup with the Hoosiers in Bloomington.

But Indiana controlled the entire game as the Hoosiers (11-7, 2-2 Big Ten) handily beat the Lions 77-69, forcing Penn State to wait until next year to try and get over the hump of winning in Bloomington.

Even though the Lions only lost by eight points, Penn State (11-4, 2-3 Big Ten) was down by as many as 22 in the second half as the Hoosiers, led by junior big man Kirk Haston, who finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds, controlled the inside and pummeled the Lions outside.

Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said his team was beaten on both ends of the floor and in the Big Ten — if you don't come to play on the road — you shouldn't expect to win.

"Disappointment is an understatement," Dunn said. "My grandmother used to see three words: old-fashioned whooping. That's what we got for 32 minutes."

The fundamentally-sound defense of Dane Fife and the sleek offensive moves of upstart guard Tom Coverdale extended the lead in the second half for the Hoosiers and put it out of reach for Penn State.

Not only did Fife play tough, hard-nosed defense on Lions senior guard Joe Crispin, he absolutely shut the preseason First Team All-Big Ten guard down.

Crispin was pulled out of the game by Dunn as the Pitman, N.J., native recklessly shot three-pointer after three-pointer as Indiana used patience on offense to extend the lead in the crucial minutes of the second half. Crispin was re-emerged into the game in the waning seconds when Penn State was cutting the Hoosiers lead, but it was too late, as the guard who was averaging 23 points per game coming into last night's contest, could only muster 10 against the Hoosiers backcourt defense, as he finished shooting 3-15 from the floor.

"I settled for too many outside shots. I didn't take it at them as much as I would've liked," Crispin said. "I take alot of the blame myself.

"We didn't do a good job of really doing anything tonight."

Joe Crispin didn't step up for the Lions, but Haston played big throughout the game and Hoosiers forward Jared Jeffries contributed big in the first half with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Penn State shouldn't be surprised that Haston had his way with the Lions frontcourt last night, as the Lobelville, Tenn., native averaged 27 points and 14 boards as a sophomore against the Lions last season.

Penn State senior forward Gyasi Cline-Heard did his fair share of contributing as he tied his career-high with 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but got into foul trouble trying to defend Haston.

For more than 10 minutes in the second half, Cline-Heard had to take a step back on defense and not be aggressive on offense because the big man had been tagged with his fourth personal earlier in the half.

The Lions were also outrebounded 53-38 by a dominant Hoosiers frontcourt.

Penn State's conference schedule won't get any easier at the end of this week, as the Lions stay on the road, traveling to No.11 Illinois for their next conference matchup on Saturday.