After starting the season 0-3, including consecutive losses to Ivy League teams, the Penn State men's basketball team won't get a break today when it takes on Clemson.

The annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge continues tonight when the Nittany Lions travel to South Carolina to face the Clemson Tigers at 7:30 at the Anderson Civic Center.

The Lions are coming off an embarrassing home-opening loss to Yale on Sunday, when they squandered an early lead and were torched for 57 points in the second half to lose, 84-68.

They'll face a deep Clemson squad that finished ninth in the ACC last season, but has three starting seniors and a bruising frontcourt in seniors Ray Henderson and Chris Hobbs. The Lions have no one that matches up with Hobbs, a 6-foot-7, 265-pound power forward who averaged 11.6 points and six rebounds per game last season.

The other starting senior is All-ACC candidate Edward Scott, who averaged 12 points, eight assists and five rebounds last season while manning the point.

The balanced Clemson team is now 2-0 after beating up on cupcakes Wofford and High Point. In the 91-65 demolishing of High Point, the Tigers had six players with double-digit scoring.

Of course, it is possible for the Lions to compete with Clemson if they can just start shooting the ball well.

For the season, Penn State is now shooting 33 percent from the field, including an ugly 20 percent from three-point range.

"I never anticipated the scoring and shooting woes that we're having right now," Penn State men's basketball coach Jerry Dunn said.

Against Yale, the Lions missed shot after long-distance shot because they were unable to penetrate the Bulldogs' 2-3 zone defense.

The Lions could face similar problems tonight and down the road if they don't start shooting better and finding a way to score in the paint.

"I'm sure that Clemson will do their homework, and they'll try to figure out who they need to stop," Dunn said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more zone."

Penn State's second-half collapse against Yale is a big issue for starting point guard Brandon Watkins.

"In the second half, we just didn't show up at all," Watkins said. "We have to get tougher, we have to have some pride, have some heart."

The Lions didn't have much time to dwell on the loss. Leading scorer Sharif Chambliss thinks that the quick turnaround between the loss to Yale and tonight's game against Clemson is a positive. He said the other games are over with and the team needs to refocus since there is nothing it can do about the past.

To beat Clemson, Chambliss knows that Penn State must improve on every aspect of its game.

"I think the people that are in the game just have to execute, it's simple," he said.