For a while things were looking better for the Penn State men's basketball team.

There was good movement on offense and a clear sense of purpose on defense, which combined to give the Nittany Lions a 24-17 lead late in the first half of yesterday's clash with Yale.

The seven-point lead was cut to two, 29-27, by halftime with momentum clearly behind Yale.

Still, a lead was a lead and there was hope among the sparse crowd at the Bryce Jordan Center.

But then the old Lions showed up for the second half and, as any student of history knows, that's a bad thing.

Confronted with a confounding 2-3 zone, Penn State began to clang shot after shot while the Bulldogs simply carved up the Lion defense.

Translation: Yale scores 57 points in the second half and wins 84-68. For those keeping track, that's two straight losses for Penn State to this Yale outfit.

"We have to get it together and play more than one half of basketball," Penn State point guard Brandon Watkins. "The zone definitely slowed us down in the second half."

While Penn State slowed down, the Bulldogs simply caught fire. It seemed that every Penn State basket was followed by a Yale three-pointer and that every Penn State miss was followed by the same.

For the game, Yale went 15-22 from behind the arc, including a deadly 10-13 in the second half.

"I just want to say that if we shoot 68 percent from three we will beat anyone in the country," Yale coach James Jones said.

The main culprit again was guard Edwin Draughan. The rail-thin sophomore from California put in 18 points, mainly from going 4-4 from three, to raise his two-game Jordan Center total to 40 after putting in 22 in last year's upset.

"I'm a lot more confident in my jumper this year, I've worked hard on it," Draughan said. "We came in here expecting to win, even when we were down at halftime, we felt we were going to win."

Penn State was led offensively by junior guard Sharif Chambliss, who put in 26. Sophomore forward Jason McDougald also provided a bright spot for Penn State, going 3-for-4 from the field and playing strong, energetic defense.

"I think Jason McDougald gave us our strongest inside presence," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said. "He was very active on defense also."

Despite the few positives this team has a way to go and it starts with heart.

"Right now, I want to find 5-7 guys with enough intestinal fortitude to step up and make a shot when it has to be done," Dunn said. "When they [Yale] were down, they stepped up. They made shots, we didn't."