It was just another Penn State-Northwestern game.

Staying with tradition, the Nittany Lions (7-11, 1-4 Big Ten) slipped by the Wildcats, 65-62, in front of a national television audience on Saturday.

The victory gave Penn State its first Big Ten victory in almost a year, which also came against Northwestern (8-9, 1-4) at home in overtime, 63-61.

The game was back and forth for the first 25 minutes until the Lions started to find their range from the outside.

Freshman Mike Walker and juniors Aaron Johnson and Travis Parker hit four straight 3-pointers to spark a 12-4 run. Penn State finished the game with a season-high 53.8 percentage from behind the arc.

Even with that offensive explosion, the Lions almost threw away the game in the final two minutes. Penn State had a nine-point lead, and everything went downhill from there.

First, Walker turned the ball over on a alley-oop attempt, which as he said, "made [coach's] head spin." Another turnover on an inbound pass resulted in an easy lay-up for Northwestern's Davor Duvancic.

Then, Walker's miss on a deep 3-pointer led to another Duvancic lay-up that brought the Wildcats within two. The score went from 60-51 to 60-58 in a little more than 90 seconds.

"It was a little bit like déjà vu," Walker said. "We've had games like that before. The Buffalo game was like that; we kind of just struggle at the end. But [on Saturday] we made the plays."

And make the plays they did, with Walker leading the way. With the shot clock running down, Walker found himself 30-plus feet from the basket with six seconds left. He dribbled in, crossed-over Wildcat Evan Seacat and launched up an NBA-range 3 and hit it with 13 seconds left to give Penn State a cushion.

Things got close again when Northwestern stole the ball from Walker on an inbound pass for an easy lay-up, but two clutch free-throws by Parker sealed the deal.

"That happens in a lot of games, there is a sense of urgency," Northwestern coach Bill Carmody said about his team's comeback in the last two minutes. "But I saw that Penn State's players were hustling their tails off. Offensively, we got decent shots, making some plays, getting some lay-ups. But we didn't have enthusiasm, the zest and the heart that they had, which isn't easy for a team that is 0-4. They have some good, young guys who rose up and played well."