For once everything just seemed to go right.

After a six game losing streak in which the same problems continually led to defeat, the Penn State men's basketball team turned the tables last night, out-rebounding Purdue 35-24 and shooting 56.3 percent from the field en route to an 81-68 win over the Boilermakers (11-13, 3-7 Big Ten).

All five Penn State starters finished in double digits, leading the Nittany Lions (6-15, 2-8 Big Ten) to their highest point total this season.

Junior guard Brandon Watkins led all scorers with a career high 21 points, and freshman forward Jan Jagla had what Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said was by far his best game to date with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

"We just made baskets tonight," Dunn said. "I thought it was the first time all season we had all five guys on the floor working together and playing well on the offensive end."

The Boilermakers tried to exploit the Lions' inside game early, pounding the ball inside to forward John Allison for 13 of the game's first 16 points.

However, Allison came out of the game with his second foul with six minutes left in the first half, and did not score the rest of the game.

Allison left the game in the middle of a 11-0 Penn State run that gave the Lions a 33-22 lead with 4:39 to go in the first half after the teams had seesawed for the first 12 minutes of the game.

The Lions took a 42-30 lead into the locker room at halftime, and opened the second half with six unanswered points. The deficit peaked at 61-41 when sophomore guard Sharif Chambliss converted a steal to a dunk with 11:15 left.

The Boilermakers were never again down less than 12 points.

The Lions managed to shut down Purdue guard Willie Deane for the greater part of the game. Deane came into the game second in the conference in scoring with 17.5 points per game, but he was shut out in the first half, and scored 11 of his 13 points in the last five minutes when the game was nearly out of reach.

Purdue coach Gene Keady has been extremely displeased with his defense thus far this season. The Boilermakers allow the most points per game of any Big Ten team, and the Lions' blistering shooting percentage didn't make him much happier.

"Our defensive effort has been horrendous all season," Keady said. "Obviously that didn't change tonight. We were hoping to get back in the race, we were starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel, but a lot of what happened to do tonight happened because Penn State played well."

Chambliss followed Watkins and Jagla with 13 points. Sophomore guard Jamaal Tate and senior forward Tyler Smith followed with 12 each.

Purdue senior forward Rodney Smith spearheaded the Boilermaker offense with 16 points. Allison and Deane followed with 13, and senior guard Joe Marshall had 12.

Dunn and Watkins both agreed that though the Lions can only make the postseason if they win the Big Ten tournament, the win was very important because of its affect on the Lions' psyche.

"It definitely feels good to get a win," Watkins said. "We really needed it for our confidence. I give the guys a lot of credit for not giving up and coming out and working hard at practice every day, but we really needed a win to keep our hopes up high."

The Lions play Michigan at Crisler Arena at 11 a.m. Saturday.