"We played the first half exactly the way we needed to play," Penn State men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis said on the Penn State Sports Radio Network. "We were patient. We were taking good shots."
In several of the Lions' other recent games, they had to fight from behind after seeing their opponent take the lead early in the contest.
The one major difference in the first ten minutes of this game, though, was the presence of sophomore forward Aaron Johnson in the post.
Johnson earned his first career start on Saturday after putting up big numbers in the past few games, including a career-high 28 points and 15 rebounds against Indiana.
After sitting out the first seven minutes in that game, he said he hated watching his team fall behind and having to claw back.
This time was different. There were eight lead changes in the first half and Penn State had the edge at the break.
But that was also the last time the Lions would have the lead.
In the beginning of the second period of play, Jan Jagla, who didn't start for the first time this season, knocked down an off-balance fade-away. The problem was that those were the Lions only two points for the following nine minutes.
The Wildcats went on a scoring tear and soon found themselves well ahead of Penn State with the score 53-27. The score in the second half alone was 30-2 and Lions' confidence was already back on the bus to State College.
Anyone tuned in to Penn State's first national broadcast of the season on ESPN2 could see the fatigue, frustration and embarrassment on the players' faces. They couldn't hang for more than 20 minutes and no one could turn that around.
"It's tough when you've got young kids," DeChellis said. "There's no leadership on the floor."
In one scary incident during the second half, Northwestern's Evan Seacat was blindsided by a mid-court screen set by Jagla. The collision knocked Seacat onto the court where he laid until he was carried off on a stretcher.
Reports said he endured a concussion but was able to move all of his extremities. There was no foul on Jagla's pick. The replay showed that it was completely legal.
The Wildcats exploited Penn State's shallow bench by running a fast transition offense throughout the game, creating 21 fast break points and 24 points off of turnovers. The Lions only had six and nine points in those categories, respectively.
Penn State still struggled down low defensively. Though the Lions had 20 more rebounds than Northwestern, the Wildcats still had 16 more points in the paint.
The loss is Penn State's fourth in a row, and with a game at Michigan on Wednesday things don't look to get any easier.
