Ah, there's no place like home.

After opening conference play with two straight home victories, the Penn State men's basketball team has collapsed rather harshly back to earth after being mentally, physically and emotionally dominated in yesterday's 80-37 butchering against Illinois in front of a packed house at Assembly Hall.

As Penn State men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis would later say on the Penn State Sports Radio Network, "You can't do anything right when you lose by 40-some points."

The anemic point total challenged Penn State's all-time low of points scored, 33, which occurred against Navy on Feb. 9, 1974, but two garbage time free throws by Aaron Johnson with less than two minutes remaining kept the team just out of the record books.

The largest losing point differential in team history is 53, against Navy on Dec. 4 1985, and the last time Penn State was defeated by this large a margin was on Jan. 9 1993, against Indiana.

Yet the result didn't always seem so bleak.

Yesterday's game opened similarly to last Wednesday's road loss to Michigan State, with the Lions burned in transition and hurrying shots. Penn State (8-7, 2-3 Big Ten) bounced back midway through the first half, and the Lions, sparked by Johnson's arrival, shrunk Illinois' lead to four, 20-16.

But the optimism would end there, and Penn State would never recover. Illinois (12-4, 3-2 Big Ten) maintained a red hot shooting hand and the Lions wilted, with the home team assembling a 21-5 run to enter halftime leading, 21-41.

And that was just the beginning of the breakdown, as Illinois began the second half by amassing a 12-0 run. The clock read 15:47 before Penn State would again find the scoring column, and the deficit snowballed from there, as the Fighting Illini opened the gap to 40 points midway through the second half, 67-27.

Penn State freshman guards Marlon Smith and Ben Luber were again exposed, the two muffled by tenacious defense and combining for seven turnovers and just five points on 2-for-26 shooting.

Jan Jagla also struggled, scoring five points on 2-for-7 shooting.

If Penn State were forced to look past its 21 percent shooting accuracy and classify a bright spot it would be Johnson, who finished with 15 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes of play. For Illinois, forward Roger Powell led all scorers with 16 points, in a total team effort that featured 23 assists and caught Johnson's eye.

"They moved the ball around, they shared it and played as a complete team," Johnson said. "That was one of the best all around team games I've seen."

According to DeChellis, this is a game Penn State would like to move forward from.

"It's a loss, there's things to be learned and we need to take advantage of that," he said. "It was a complete meltdown by everybody, and an embarrassing night for all of us."