The Penn State men's basketball team hasn't been in a lot of close games this year, and a lack of experience was definitely evident in the second half of Saturday's 66-58 home loss to Illinois.

Unlike Illinois, Penn State desperately suffered from an absence of a go-to presence late in the game against the Fighting Illini.

On the contrary, Illinois was carried in the second half by clutch shot after clutch shot by its sophomore guard, Dee Brown. Brown is one of five Illinois starters to average in double figures this season, a classic case of a balanced scoring attack. Any number of Illinois players could have stepped up, and did to a certain extent -- it was just Brown's night.

Brown, who only took four shots in the first half, felt a sense of urgency to take over midway through the second half of Saturday's game.

Illinois men's basketball coach Bruce Weber called Brown's performance "magical."

"You knew it was going in," he said.

On any given night, Illinois can count on someone from its club to step up and will its team to the win.

The Nittany Lions are still searching for a couple of guys to step up to the plate and accept the challenge. These are lessons that this extremely young team will learn with maturity.

On Saturday, the Lions were led by inspired play from their freshman guard, Marlon Smith.

Smith, who finished the game with 16 points, has at times during the season shown signs that Penn State fans can look forward to in the future.

However, he has been somewhat consistent in his first season as a Nittany Lion.

After scoring in double digits in each of the Lions first three Big Ten games, he scored only three points against Illinois in the teams' first meeting in Champaign, Ill. He was back in double digits for the next three games, but fell short in the next two.

Jan Jagla, the man who Penn State fans invested a lot of faith in at the start of the season added 10 points, shooting 4-for-6 from the field.

After scoring in double digits in 12 of the first 13 games of the season, Jagla has been erratic during the Big Ten season.

His average has fallen off from 17.4 points per game in the first 13 games to 10.4 in the last nine.

To its credit, Penn State displayed great resiliency all game, a trait that has been missing recently.

For the first time all season against a worthy opponent, the Lions exhibited crisp passing, solid ball movement, and for the most part, intense defensive pressure.

In a game that had nine lead changes, the Lions did not go down without a fight.

Penn State basketball coach Ed DeChellis felt good about his team's performance even in a loss.

"We played with some determination and some grit. I thought we played well," he said.

Apparently, playing "well" wasn't good enough against Illinois, the second-place team in the Big Ten. On arguably their best performance of this dismal season, the Lions still came up a bit short.

"They don't have many guys," Weber said. "Give Eddie credit."

Penn State, who has no senior players in the starting five, is indeed a very undeveloped team.

This is a young team that on Saturday against Illinois showed miniature signs of promise and for Penn State fans, hopefully this is an indicator of things to come.

Although Penn State displayed signs of new life at home on Saturday, the road doesn't get any easier as they travel to Wisconsin on Wednesday to take on the only top 25 team in the Big Ten.

Wisconsin, who is coming off a disappointing loss at the hands of Michigan, will be looking to rebound in a big way against Penn State.

The Badgers, who feel they should have beaten Michigan, will look to prey on Penn State, while the Lions hope to follow a strong performance against Illinois with a stronger performance, and maybe even, get a win.