Indiana men's basketball star Kirk Haston did it once before, so he was in familiar territory this weekend when his team faced Penn State.

It was back on January 7 when, with time running out and his team down by two, Haston unleashed a prayer that was answered. His three-point shot at the buzzer knocked off then-No. 1 Michigan State, ending the Spartans 23-game winning streak.

Saturday night at The Bryce Jordan Center, Haston's number was called again. This time, his team was down 65-62 with 20 seconds on the clock.

Penn State guard Titus Ivory was all over Haston until he bit on a head fake. Haston then made a slight move to his right, leaned in and nailed the shot.

"We screwed the play up," Indiana coach Mike Davis said.

"For some reason Haston just stood there. He didn't move.

"By the time he did move, it was too late for the flare (the original play call). Once we got the basketball, we just found Haston. He got it and the ball went in."

"That may have been a bigger shot than he made in the . . . maybe I better not say that," Davis joked when referring back to the game against the Spartans.

The situation brought up a question for the Nittany Lions that will be debated for quite a while — to foul or not to foul before Haston shot the ball.

If they had fouled, Indiana would have gone to the charity stripe with two shots, making it difficult to overcome the three-point deficit.

More specifically, if Penn State fouled Haston, the junior would go to the line having missed all four of his free throws. But Dunn said he thought there were too many risks involved for that to be the best alternative.

"I've been around this game a long time," Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said. "I have not seen anyone in my situation foul a guy with 20 seconds left on the game clock."

Davis said it never crossed his mind that the Lions would foul at the end of the game. Perhaps he and Dunn were on the same page.

Dunn decided to play solid defense instead, which nearly worked.

"We really didn't give them a shot," he said. "We played as tough defensively as you could play on them. I think it's easy to second guess when you lose a ball-game."

"It was a pretty lucky shot if you ask me," Penn State senior Gyasi Cline-Heard said. "We played good defense, so you can't do anything about that."

The Lions preferred not to look at that play as the one that lost the game for them. They were all upset about their first-half performance, which included an anemic 21 percent shooting percentage.

"Against a team like that, you can't come out flat," Dunn said. "And we did. We were as flat as you could be."

Another disappointing statistic for Penn State was their lack of production in the final three minutes. At the 3:17 mark, the Lions held a 62-58 advantage. They scored three points the rest of the way, which left Indiana the opportunity it needed.

"I think it all boils down to this — you run plays, but you have to make shots," Dunn said. "When the ball doesn't go in, it leaves the door open for a lot of criticism."

And a lot will be heading Dunn's way in regard to Haston's shot. But Penn State players backed their coach up.

Not one of them believed fouling at the end of the game was necessary or the right thing to do.

Perhaps Ivory had the best outlook on the situation.

"Basketball is basketball," he said. "The glory of the game is that anything can happen. And they hit the shot."