Calling Wednesday night's Penn State-Wisconsin men's basketball game ugly would be like saying Janet Reno's face leaves something to be desired.

The teams combined to shoot 35 percent from the field and 27 percent from the three-point line. The Nittany Lions managed to win 51-49 despite a drought of more than 11 minutes without a field goal, and scoring only ten points in the first 15 minutes of the game. The Badgers managed to only lose by two although they went through an 11-minute stretch in the second half in which they managed just one bucket.

"(The Fans) were probably waiting for something to happen," senior forward Tyler Smith joked after the game. "We were down by ten at one point, and I'm sure people were like 'Honey, are you about ready to leave.'"

There wasn't a whole lot for Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn to be happy about, but unlike his team's three solid games against California, Michigan and Indiana, this one boosted the Lions' standing in one statistical category -- the win column.

Can you possibly be pleased after a game in which two players score 30 of your first 40 points, especially when it takes the team 36 minutes to score those 40 points? Can you not be extremely worried when three of your players score all but eight of your points, and every one in the second half?

After the season the Lions have had, when you win a Big Ten game, of course you can.

A win in last night's game was of dire necessity to the Lions (5-9, 1-2 Big Ten), and not just because they need to win out to go 18-9, which is usually about the cutoff line for NCAA tournament bids. It was also not just because they needed to go 10-4 the rest of the way in the Big Ten to finish over .500 and become eligible for the NIT. They needed to beat Wisconsin just to prove to themselves that they could win in this conference and, as ugly as it was, the victory will have a lasting effect that may go beyond this season.

After early season embarrassments at the hands of Yale and James Madison, blowout defeats to Pittsburgh and Boston College and a blown opportunity against Clemson, the Lions were finally starting to show life in those last three near misses.

Those losses had to be even more of a boost, considering that after escaping defeats at the Lions hands, both California and Indiana played very well in upsets over Stanford and Michigan State respectively. However, to make that mean anything, they had to beat somebody. Though Wisconsin pulled a huge upset over Illinois Saturday, Penn State has hung with better teams this season, and if there are any teams the Lions should be able to beat in the Big Ten, Wisconsin is definitely one of them.

The Lions are off until they travel to Columbus Wednesday for a game against Ohio State. If they would have lost to the Badgers, they'd have a long week off, and any confidence they might have picked up in their losses would be greatly weakened.

"I wouldn't want to go to practice if we lost this game," junior point guard Brandon Watkins said.

Now there can be a real sense of hope. These young players can score, they can hang with Big Ten teams and they can actually win games. Knowing that's possible gives them confidence not only for this season, but for next year when Smith and guard Ken Krimmel will be the only two players gone from this roster.

Does that mean you should expect them to win out the rest of the way? Of course not.

Winning a game like Wednesday night's contest isn't going to create a wave of momentum, and it's going to take a tsunami just to get the Lions into the NIT. However, a team can only gain so much in close losses against superior teams, and ugly as it might have been, the Lions now have something to build off.