The Penn State men's basketball team couldn't get the monkey off its back last night as the Nittany Lions (7-14, 1-7 Big Ten) lost their 28th straight Big Ten road game. This time in Bloomington, falling 68-63 to the Indiana Hoosiers (10-9, 5-3).

The Lions fell for the 12th straight time at Indiana, but this was the closest game at Assembly Hall in Penn State history. Penn State has also lost 11 of its last 13 games overall.

The Lions seemed to shake off the beating Wisconsin delivered on Saturday and played one of their better defensive games of the season. Penn State's forwards held Indiana's highly touted freshman center D.J. White to just six points on 2-for-3 shooting. The Lions double-teamed the freshman-of-the-year candidate all night, but the defensive strategy came back to burn them late in the game.

With a little under two minutes to go, Indiana fed the ball into White -- who was immediately doubled -- and he kicked it out to little-used senior guard Ryan Tapak, who drilled his first 3-pointer of the season to put the Hoosiers up seven.

"The kid [Tapak] hit a big shot for them," Penn State coach Ed Dechellis said on the Penn State Radio Network. "Sometimes you just have to pick your poision. We were trying to play the percentages."

Freshman 3-point shooting specialist Mike Walker quickly answered the Tapak shot, which could have very well been a dagger for the Lions. Penn State had a chance to tie it in the final 30 seconds, but superfrosh Geary Claxton, who finished with a team-high 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting, missed a lay-up to put the nail in the coffin. Just like in their last road game, the Lions allowed an opponent to get out to an early lead.

The Hoosiers started the game on a 6-0 run, but, just like the Ohio State game last Wednesday, Penn State battled back and remained competitive throughout the game. The Lions went on a run after the Hoosiers reached their largest lead of the game at 56-46, which coincided with Indiana star Bracey Wright injuring his ankle.

Even with the so-called "Lion killer" in the locker room, Penn State couldn't make the big shot at the end of the game and fell short. To make matters worse, the Lions lost freshman guard Danny Morrissey late in the first half with a left knee injury. He will have an MRI today. DeChellis was forced to play one lineup, which consisted of Walker, Claxton, sophomore Ben Luber and juniors Aaron Johnson -- who recorded his 10th double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds -- and Travis Parker the entire way in the second half.

"We didn't have a whole lot of options," DeChellis said. "We did everything we practiced, and I am proud of these kids. We just came up a couple of points short."

Coming up short is something this team has had to deal with all season, but one player said that he has not lost faith in the system.

"[Losing's] horrible, it's really horrible," Walker said. "I've lost two-times as many games here as I did in my high school career. It's just frustrating. I still have faith in our coaches and I will still keep working hard."