Despite a late second-half surge, the Penn State men's basketball team could not cap off a potential upset of No. 15 Wisconsin and lost 63-58 Saturday night.

"This is one of those games that just hurts to lose," Nittany Lions senior Gyasi Cline-Heard told the Penn State Sports Network. "We've just got to put it behind us now."

The loss makes it three straight in the Big Ten, bringing Penn State's January mark to 3-5.

Saturday saw yet another opportunity to pull out an important victory in the conference fall short.

The Badgers led for much of the game, building a 12-point lead at one point. But Penn State slowly closed the gap behind 14 second-half points from Lions senior Titus Ivory.

With 41 seconds remaining, Gyasi Cline-Heard scored from inside to cut the Wisconsin lead to 60-58.

The Badgers had trouble inbounding the ball and eventually turned it over after crossing the half-court line.

Upon turning the ball over, Penn State junior Tyler Smith was fouled and went to free-throw line with a chance to tie the game.

However, Smith missed the front end of the one-an-one.

For the moment, it didn't matter much because the Badgers only hit one of their two shots from the charity stripe the next time down the floor.

Just trailing by three, the Lions still had a glimmer of hope.

Penn State senior Joe Crispin, who struggled all night long and only scored three points in the second half, tried one last three-point shot that fell short.

Two more Wisconsin free-throws sealed the victory for the Badgers and sent the Lions home with another difficult loss.

"It was extremely frustrating," Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said.

"When your on the road, you have to make your free-throws and you've got to capitalize in every situation where you have an advantage and we just didn't do that down the stretch.

"I'm proud of the guys for fighting and getting back in it, but we really shot ourselves in the foot."

Ivory led the Lions for the second consecutive game with 20 points. Crispin continued his road struggles, recording 13 of his own.

The Big Ten's leading scorer has averaged just 12 points in his last three conference games.

Cline-Heard and Dunn both agreed that it will be nice returning to the Bryce Jordan Center for three consecutive contests.

It has been a long road for the last month, in which six of Penn State's eight games have been away from home.