BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- It's not too often a team wins a game when it endures a nearly eight-minute stretch without scoring a point.

It's even less often a team does that when it enters the game as a heavy underdog. And is on the road.

But the Penn State men's basketball team almost pulled off exactly that before falling in a spirited effort to the Indiana Hoosiers Saturday, 61-54.

The Nittany Lions saw a 22-8 lead at the 11:22 mark shrink all the way to 22-20 before hitting their next shot at 3:40 of the first half.

"That was rough," sophomore guard Sharif Chambliss said. "We couldn't get into our offense because Indiana basically took us out of our stuff. I think those guys had us off track and we got a little frustrated with that."

A Brandon Watkins jumper snapped Penn State out of the scoring slump just before things got out of hand, and the Lions carried the momentum into halftime. They outscored the Hoosiers 8-6 from that point into the break, including a Chambliss three-pointer from 23 feet at the buzzer.

"I thought the shot just before halftime was a back-breaker," Indiana coach Mike Davis said. "Instead of going into halftime down one, we were down four."

From the glass-is-half-full department, Penn State was impressive early on to garner that 14-point lead they subsequently blew. After freshman center Jan Jagla missed a three on the Lions' first possession, Penn State rallied to hit its next five shots and sunk 11 of its first 16 field goals overall.

"I just thought we came out flat in a late, 8 o'clock game (in which) guys have been laying around all day," Davis said. "But Penn State did a great job."

The Lions came out in the second half and again dominated early on. A Tyler Smith three-pointer ignited a 7-2 run to start the half.

But the Hoosiers closed the gap using what would become a common theme the rest of the game: getting to the free-throw line and hitting foul shots.

Indiana converted on 25-of-29 free-throw attempts in the second half, good for 86 percent.

What made the parade to the foul line all the more amazing was the fact that the Hoosiers were a paltry 0-of-4 from the charity stripe in their previous game Wednesday night against Northwestern.

"That's because we went inside," Davis said. "Penn State's defense is different than Northwestern. If you go inside against Northwestern, they really don't foul you."

Indiana was in the bonus less than seven minutes into the second half, and that allowed the Hoosiers to score 35 points and ultimately win a game despite poor shooting from the field after halftime.

"To win a game at home when you shoot only 21 percent (in the second half), that's a coach's dream," Davis said.

A big reason Penn State stayed in the game was its ability to shut down sophomore forward Jared Jeffries. The Big Ten's fifth leading scorer was held to 3-for-10 shooting.

"We tried to deny him the ball all along," Jagla said. "Jeffries is a good player, and we tried to not give him any touches so he couldn't score."

For Penn State, Chambliss led all scorers with 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting, including 5-of-6 from three-point range.

"I told our guys, I said, 'He can shoot the basketball,' " Davis said. "All he needs is an inch."

Despite hanging tough with a traditional national power on the road in a hostile atmosphere, Dunn is not a fan of the dreaded cliché, 'moral victory.'

"I don't like it at all," he said. "I thought we played well enough to win, and it's very frustrating when you don't come out on the winning side. I thought our kids played well. I thought we became a better basketball team tonight. But coming up on the short end doesn't do anything for me."

The Lions' players didn't take any more comfort in the loss than their coach.

"We've had enough moral victories," Smith said. "It's time for some real victories."

With a brutal stretch of the Big Ten schedule on the immediate horizon -- including Wednesday's game against a Wisconsin team fresh off an upset of No. 7 Illinois -- the Lions may be hard-pressed to get any of those real victories any time soon.