If Illinois forward Brian Cook would've played in the second stanza like he did in the first, the Penn State men's basketball team might not have upset the No. 6 Fighting Illini last night in The Bryce Jordan Center.

But the Nittany Lions frontcourt wouldn't let him.

Penn State couldn't stop the 6-foot-10 sophomore who scored 22 points, grabbed three offensive rebounds and had three blocked shots all in the first half.

Cook learned last night that college basketball is a game of halves.

The versatile forward, who can step out to three-point range and be a threat or take the ball hard to the basket, played 13 minutes in the second half because of foul trouble and scored zero points and only could muster one block.

"I wasn't struggling, I just got tired," Cook said. "I'm a team player, I don't care if I score. I just want to win."

Cook, who is infamous for having stellar first halves and dropping off dramatically in the second didn't disappoint against the Lions.

But instead of letting the Illinois forward off so easily, Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said all the credit to stopping not only Cook, but the entire Illinois frontcourt, should be given to Lions senior forward Gyasi Cline-Heard and his teammates.

"Gyasi Cline-Heard did a great job," the sixth-year coach said. "I can't talk about the job he did on both ends of the floor."

Cline-Heard posted another double-double as he contributed with 19 points and 10 rebounds. But his stat sheet doesn't begin to tell about his strong performance last night, as he was the main cohort in fouling out the starting frontcourt of Illinois and even an Illini reserve.

Cook, 6-foot-9 Marcus Griffin and 6-foot-11 Robert Archibald all fouled out of the game and none of the big men were on the floor when the game counted in overtime.

"When you have a versatile big man like that, you have to play team defense," Penn State guard Titus Ivory said about the Lions defense of Cook in the second half. "The big guys did a very good job of denying him the ball."

Cline-Heard not only got the Illinois big men in foul trouble, but he also made them pay for it by hitting 11-for-15 from the free throw line and doing all of this while he was evidently in pain from cramping calf muscles.

Illinois first-year head coach Bill Self didn't want to make any excuses for his frontcourt's poor performance in the second half, especially Cook who seemingly disappeared from the action.

"He had ample opportunities to do things in the second half," Self said. "We went to him early and he didn't deliver in the second half. Cline-Heard got us in foul trouble. They got the ball into the low post and it was over."

Penn State senior guard Joe Crispin said that on any given night, any Big Ten team is good enough to beat any other team if the pieces fall into place.

With the hot outside shooting of Ivory and sophomore Jon Crispin, along with the hard-nosed inside presence of Cline-Heard and Lions reserve Marcus Banta, the Lions' chips fell into the right places.

"The Big Ten makes men," Banta said. "Anybody can beat anybody."