The arena, the fans, the 85-degree game-time temperature -- most everything about Saturday's Penn State men's basketball game at Texas A&M was different from the team's last.

But in losing to the Aggies (4-0), 60-55, after coming out of the gates slowly, getting down late in the first half and having a late comeback fall short, the Nittany Lions (3-2) came away from Reed Arena with the same result.

Turnovers and poor shooting helped put Penn State in a 33-18 halftime deficit, after being down by only five with five minutes to play in the half. But A&M used two consecutive Lions turnovers to bring the lead to 10 and jumpstart the process.

"Obviously we played very, very poorly in the first half," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said in a press release.

Overall, Penn State had 12 of its 16 turnovers and shot just 33.3 percent in the first half, including an 0-for-7 effort from 3-point territory. That's comparable to the 14 (of 16 overall) first-half turnovers the Lions committed in their Nov. 29 loss to Clemson.

In that game, Clemson used a 20-8 run over the final 5:34 of the first half. On Saturday, the Lions again found the game slipping away as the Aggies went on a 14-4 run in the final 4:28 of the first half, shooting 7-of-8 in the process.

Unfortunately for the Lions, sophomore guard Geary Claxton -- who led the Lions with a 15-point, 12-rebound double double -- only played 10 minutes of the first half due to foul trouble.

Claxton and freshman forward Jamelle Cornley scored 12 and 10 points, respectively, in the second half to turn the game back into a contest. Down 38-21 with 16:12 left in the game, the Lions used a 6-0 run to spark the comeback, slowly whittling the Aggies' lead down to three with 3:11 left.

A&M brought its lead back to eight with 1:24 left thanks to a 3-pointer from freshman Josh Carter and a jumper from junior guard Acie Law. The Lions would never get closer than four points from there on, as the Aggies hit just enough free throws (4-of-8), capped off by two by Law with 14 seconds left, to effectively ice the game.

DeChellis said a few Aggies stepped up to make crucial free throws, but his team once again proved its step-up abilities once it gets into the rhythm of the game.

"We're the kind of team that's got some grit and determination and heart, so we kept fighting and battling and started playing some basketball," DeChellis said. "We made some basketball plays in the second half."

It's getting into that rhythm, however, that's the trouble, especially when the Lions faced a pressure defense for the second straight game.

"They really do a good job of getting out there and pressuring," DeChellis said. "I thought in the first half they really did a good job of that and got into us and took us out of our stuff."

Clemson used a full-court press and up-tempo style to dig the hole into which Penn State would jump, and A&M provided another defense for which DeChellis said the Lions couldn't really prepare for.

"The problem is we just can't simulate that kind of pressure in practice because we're not that athletic and long and so forth," DeChellis said. "So sometimes it takes us a little longer to get into the speed of the game."

Once they did, though, they found success. No Aggie scored in double digits in the second half, as they shot just 32.1 percent from the field. Penn State outscored them 37-27 in the half, similar to how it outscored Clemson 58-47 in that second half on Tuesday.

"Does it need to take a half? I don't think so," DeChellis said. "We tried to prepare for it, but we just didn't do a very good job the first half."