The Penn State men's basketball team was thoroughly lambasted last night in a 72-43 thrashing at the hands of No. 21 Wisconsin. With a game at No. 12 Michigan State on Saturday, the Nittany Lions (10-7, 2-4 Big Ten) might want to make themselves comfortable in the proverbial woodshed.

Like many teams with talented long-range shooters, the Badgers (15-4, 5-1) found Penn State's 2-3 zone much to their liking, taking advantage of open looks from beyond the arc all night long. Wisconsin also had little trouble getting to the line and converting.

Combined from the three-point line and free throw line, Wisconsin outscored the Lions 54-17. Penn State took only four foul shots on the evening.

"We came in here today and we had nothing, and we got embarrassed," Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said on the Penn State Sports Radio Network.

The Badgers were able to score at will in the first half, which became abundantly clear when Wisconsin sank one open three-pointer after another to go on a 21-0 run and take a 26-5 lead.

Geary Claxton was Penn State's only scorer until the 5:15 mark, when David Jackson made a three-pointer to bring the score to 32-12.

The Nittany Lions shot 33 percent from the field in the first half, while Wisconsin hit 50 percent of its total shots, including eight of 17 threes.

"They were just making shots and coming up with some key rebounds," Claxton said.

Alando Tucker hit his third trifecta of the half as the buzzer sounded to give Wisconsin a 40-18 advantage at the break.

Turnovers plagued the Lions throughout the game. Penn State went through phases in which it had difficulty attempting a shot because the players could not hold onto the ball long enough without turning it over or committing an offensive foul. The Lions committed a total of 18 turnovers.

Claxton was a lone bright spot for the Lions, finishing with 17 points on 8-12 shooting in 30 minutes of court time.

"Other than Geary I don't think we had a good performance out of anyone else," DeChellis said. "We had no energy tonight other than him."

The Lions played respectably for the first 10 minutes of the second half, outscoring Wisconsin 13-9 during that stretch and showing spurts of energy from time to time.

That's when the Badgers decided to make up for some lost time. Wisconsin took an 18-point lead and stretched it to 28 with 7:10 to play. Penn State's largest deficit was 31 points.

"We didn't have the energy we needed and we didn't play like we needed to in order to come out on the road and win," DeChellis said.

Tucker led Wisconsin with 17 points, while guards Kammron Taylor and Ray Nixon each collected 14.

Taylor led all players with six assists.

The effort was Penn State's lowest scoring output of the season, 11 points under its total in the 91-54 loss at Pittsburgh.

"If we go to East Lansing [to play Michigan State on Saturday] and play the game we played today, it'll be a repeat," DeChellis said.

Cornley quelled

Penn State freshman forward Jamelle Cornley had an off night against the Badgers, tallying eight rebounds, but just six points and three turnovers.

That may be due, in part, to a foot injury.

"He has a bad foot, but that isn't an excuse," DeChellis said. "He didn't practice the other day because he had a bad foot. And, you know, he is a freshman."