Travis Parker sat hunched over on the sidelines with a towel draped over his head. He leaned forward, resting his face in his hands.

Maybe he didn't want to see more than half of the 6,186 fans exiting with their backs to the court. Or maybe he didn't want to see the scoreboard, Penn State down by 11.

Regardless, it was a painful experience for the team's lone senior. Sure, he paced the Nittany Lions with a game-high 19 points and nine rebounds -- but he still felt the sting of hitting the lowest of lows.

A loss to the last-place team, following a win against the first (Illinois). What could be a bigger letdown?

"It's disappointing, not because we fell to the last place Big Ten team," Parker explained. "This was a very important game that had a lot to do with whether we could go on to the postseason."

Parker, of course, was referring to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). Penn State needs three more wins to qualify, and last night was crucial with the Lions competing in only two more "winnable" games -- or games against conference opponents with losing Big Ten records.

Still, it was an impressive sight to see the veteran leader continue to step up his play.

Before this past weekend, Parker was on a cold streak. The last five days, Parker has scored 40 points while garnering an eye-popping shooting percentage.

Parker followed up Saturday's 8-for-11 performance by going 7-for-12 last night. And the lone senior on the team was one of the main reasons Penn State stayed in the game as long as it did.

When the game started to get out of control, Parker nailed a key trey to cut the lead to four. And when the Lions were down by eight with two minutes to go, the 71.4 percent free throw shooter nailed a crucial pair of shots at the charity stripe.

"I thought he tried to bring us back," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "He made some big shots, some big plays in the second half to get us right back into it."

Like DeChellis hinted toward, it wasn't just in the shooting statistics where Parker made an impact. The forward made a few efforts that weren't shown on the stat sheet.

At the 12:59 mark in the second half, Parker drove to the basket and was surrounded by Minnesota's red jerseys. Parker didn't hesitate, dishing the rock out to freshman Milos Bogetic for a 3-point play.

Parker's 15-point second half wasn't good enough, however, to lift the Lions to a win. He fouled out with 1:36 remaining, and Penn State was outscored 9-4 soon after he left the game.

"Like coach said, the game's over," Parker said. "We gotta move on.

"We got Wisconsin at home Saturday, so we're gonna come to practice tomorrow, practice as hard as we can, and try to win that one."