If the first half of Saturday's men's basketball game took place at the O.K. Corral instead of the Bryce Jordan Center, history would be written far differently.

Rather than successfully firing shots at rivals, these two gangs of gunslingers would have left bullet holes in the General Store and horses' hindquarters -- noticeably off the mark.

Though both Penn State and Ohio State would turn it around in the second half, an especially poor first-half shooting performance left the Nittany Lions hanging around at halftime, but with a wasted opportunity to capitalize.

"Earlier in the game, we would get the rebound and go back up the floor, we just couldn't hit the shot," freshman forward Jamelle Cornley said. "Or maybe even take a bad shot every now and then."

Whatever the reason, the numbers were not good: 28.9 percent field goal shooting in the first half, a season low for one half, and 2-for-12 from 3-point range.

The Buckeyes only shot 33.3 percent from the field in that period, but the Lions took 11 more shots.

For perspective, Penn State entered the game shooting 47.3 percent from the field, fifth in the Big Ten. And if 11 more shots in one half don't seem like much, the Lions' opponents average more shots per game than they do: 58.2 to 56.1.

But when the dust of the first half settled, Penn State jogged into the locker room with empty six-shooters and empty results.

"We were getting anything we wanted," junior guard David Jackson said. "We just didn't convert."

Penn State started out dismally, making just one of its first 10 shots. And even on that shot, senior forward Travis Parker grabbed the rebound of his own missed layup and put it back up -- this time for two.

The Lions didn't endure any dry spells that long for the rest of the half, and dominating the boards for follow-up shots helped them hang in the game. Penn State grabbed 11 offensive rebounds to Ohio State's five, and out-rebounded the Buckeyes under their own basket.

Ohio State coach Thad Matta said his team played very passively in the first half, and it showed. More than half of Penn State's field goals came off of offensive rebounds (6-of-11), including several tip-ins by sophomore guard Geary Claxton.

"The rebounding and the put-backs, they crushed us," Matta said of the Lions' first half.

Despite that, Penn State found itself down five at halftime. Close, but no cigar, especially considering a 3-for-8 free-throw shooting performance that wouldn't have lit the driest stogie.

Penn State men's basketball coach Ed DeChellis cited many reasons for the outcome of the game, but said the free throws were critical and the Lions needed to make them.

It did that in 6-of-7 second-half free throws, the same period in which Penn State shot 62.5 percent. But by that point, too much had changed: Cornley said the Buckeyes boxed out more for rebounds and were more aggressive, and also shot over 60 percent.

At that point it was trading baskets, and Jackson said "you're not going to win" that way.

Cornley added that the Lions have to keep working hard so eventually, their shots might fall.

But in the first half Saturday afternoon, they missed their target and hit the horse instead.

"We needed somebody to really have a good game shooting the ball, we really didn't have that," DeChellis said.