For the first 32 minutes, the game was very seesaw in nature; it was as if no team wanted to take control.

Then Illinois State (1-0) decided to turn its game up a notch and took control of the game late with an 18-5 run that turned a two-point Penn State lead into a 74-63 margin in favor of the Redbirds. They never looked back, defeating Penn State 82-73 last night at the Black Coaches Association Classic in Milwaukee.

"They played with a lot more energy than we did [in the second half]," Penn State sophomore guard Marlon Smith said in an interview on the Penn State Radio Network.

"I think they kinda wanted it more because I think the first five minutes is very crucial and we didn't come out and play."

It was a tale of two halves for Penn State (0-1). The Nittany Lions played like they were in mid-season form in the first half, shooting 53 percent from the field, with junior center Aaron Johnson leading the way, shooting 4-for-8. Penn State finished the first half on a 14-5 run that took the score from a four-point Illinois State lead to a 37-32 Penn State advantage.

It wasn't all good in the first half for the Lions because they could not find a defender to hold Redbirds junior college transfer Lorenzo Gordon, who tore up the Penn State defense and finished with 26 points on 10-of-15 shooting.

"They kept going to the big guy, Gordon, inside and we really had no answer for him," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "We kept fouling him and putting him on the line. We didn't do a good job [defending Gordon]."

When the Lions' defense finally slowed Gordon down a little bit in the second half, Illinois State found a different hero in Nedu Onyeuku, who filled in when Redbirds guard Neil Plank was injured.

Onyeuku, also a junior college transfer, finished with 16 points on 6-for-13 shooting.

The lone star for Penn State was freshman Geary Claxton. In his first collegiate regular season game, Claxton led the Lions with 16 points and was a terror on the glass, grabbing 10 rebounds. The freshman didn't play like one last night.

"Geary really played well," DeChellis said.

"He really rebounded the ball well. He got to the glass. That dunk he had was a real big-time play."

What got the Lions in to trouble in the second half was foul trouble for forwards Travis Parker and Jamaal Tate, who each had four at the nine-minute mark. This required the Lions' forwards to become less aggressive because of a lack of depth up front, which allowed the Redbirds to drive the ball down the lane and kick it out to open shooters game for most of the half.

With the loss, Penn State will play today against Western Carolina (0-1), a team that DeChellis should know very well from his days at East Tennessee State.

The Catamounts return their leading scorer from last season, junior forward Kevin Martin, who averaged 24.6 points per game last season. The game tips off at 3 p.m.

If the Lions win, they will get the winner of the Jacksonville State-South Carolina State game, which starts at 1 p.m. tomorrow.