Several large bodies in the Big Ten have had their way this year while playing Penn State - racking up career highs in points and/or rebounds - and last night was no different in Illinois' 83-56 win over the Nittany Lions.

Senior Robert Archibald dominated the low post and torched Penn State for a career-high-tying 25 points while grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking three shots.

The 6-foot-11 center came into the game as the Illini's fourth leading scorer, but last night in Champaign Archibald more than doubled the point total of Illinois' second-leading scorer (forward Brian Cook's 12).

"Archibald played about as well as he has all season," Penn State men's basketball head coach Jerry Dunn told the Penn State radio network after the game.

Illinois went down low to Archibald early and often as it was obvious that Jan Jagla - as well as the several other Lions (Tyler Smith, Daren Tielsch, Kevin Fellows, Jason McDougald, to name a few) who later tried - was unable to guard the first-year starter. Archibald scored eight of the Illini's first 12 points and 12 of their first 20, as Illinois used a 16-0 run to build a 20-4 lead and never looked back.

"We never guarded him at all tonight," Dunn said. With the Lions cutting the deficit to only 13 at the half and looking to make a run, Illinois re-established Archibald and the inside game to open the second half and put the game away.

Illinois came out after the break and immediately went on a 16-1 run before Lions' guard Sharif Chambliss knocked down a three-pointer at the 13:33 mark. During this run, Archibald had seven points on 3-of-4 shooting and a foul shot, including two dunks. He also grabbed four rebounds over this span and blocked a shot during that period. While Archibald had the monster game, he was part of an Illini frontcourt that controlled the paint.

Cook had a very nice game inside, as did forwards senior Lucas Johnson (seven points) and freshman Roger Powell (nine points, four rebounds) in the paint.

This inside game negated the job the Lions' backcourt did in stifling talented Illinois guards Corey Bradford and Frank Williams, who scored only five and six points, respectively. The duo averages 27.7 per game.

"I thought our perimeter guys did a pretty good job initially," Dunn said.

"We put pressure on the ball. But then (Illinois) was able to reverse the ball and still get it inside."