Southwest of State College, in Portage, sits Len Chappell Gymnasium. Its namesake is the leading basketball scorer for the area high school, also the father of Wisconsin forward Jason Chappell.

So as the latter, along with fellow forward Brian Butch, gave the Lions fits in all facets of Saturday's men's basketball game, the 60-mile distance between State College and Portage got a lot shorter.

First you'd notice their size -- Chappell is 6-foot-10, Butch an inch taller. Big men fill the Big Ten, in which seven teams regular play at least one guy their size. But Lions freshman forward Jamelle Cornley said the Badgers played more physically and aggressively than some other conference teams.

"When you're that size and you're able to go bang down low, it wears on us because we're 6-5, 6-6," Cornley said.

Butch and Chappell fronted an effort resulting in down-low dominance: a 45-24 Badgers rebounding advantage, as well as 42 points in the paint to the Lions' 18. Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said his team prepared for it, but fell short again save for a nine-rebound effort from sophomore Geary Claxton.

"We couldn't keep them off the glass," DeChellis said. "Guys gotta go rebound the ball. We just didn't block out again."

It wasn't just rebounding. Re-concentrating after a relatively quiet first half, Butch went on to score 18 second-half points and Chappell dished out seven total assists. Other Badgers contributed -- guard Kammron Taylor scored 24 -- but their offense flowed through the duo.

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said his strategy remained the same, only that the Badgers moved the ball better and found better passing angles. They use the screen at the top of the key to get the ball to the post which, when it's working, opens up the perimeter for shooters.

"The first half me and [Chappell] were standing around a little bit too much," Butch said. "In the second half me and him kind of talked and were like, 'Let's just get some movement.' "

Ryan said they did a good job of working through a tough Lions squad that plays hard. But he also said Butch "moved better, positioned himself better, banged better" than he had in recent games, and played with impressive tenacity going back after the ball.

They both asserted that tenacity the whole game. DeChellis said allowing Wisconsin to get offensive rebounds was the only bad part of an otherwise good first half. Butch and Chappell had more than half of them.

With a mental second-half adjustment, however, the duo's potency showed that much more. Size and aggressive play led to rebound after rebound. Combined with better ball movement and smart decisions, it led to more points and assists -- and a loss for the Lions.

[Butch] was sure getting it done today," Ryan said. "The way he moved the ball against the zone. A tall guy who can pass? Those are good players to have."

The both of them. Ryan said Chappell was looser than usual after Ryan's old coach traveled to Saturday's game, with a brief trip through Portage.

"[He] was kidding around with Jason today at the shoot-around about how he blinked and was outside of town, how small it is, 'Do they have a traffic light?' " Ryan said. "He loosened Jason up."

And together with Butch, Chappell helped the Badgers light up the Lions.