The Penn State men's basketball team ended the Big Ten regular season last night the same way it started -- on the losing end of a blowout.

While the drubbing to start the conference slate was at Ohio State, the Nittany Lions (14-13, 6-10 Big Ten) were clobbered at No. 24 Iowa last night, losing 65-38.

The 38 points were the fewest for Penn State since the Lions lost 80-38 at Illinois on Jan. 21, 2004.

"If you told me they'd score 65 points, I'd have thought we'd have a pretty good shot," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis told the Penn State Sports Network.

Neither team played well in the first half, but it did not take very long for the Hawkeyes to establish their superiority on this evening.

Travis Parker's jumper at 6:41 cut the Iowa lead to 14-12. The Lions, however, did not score another point for next five minutes while Iowa went on a 15-point run.

Penn State shot 5-27 from the field in the first half, and missed 30 of its first 35 shots. For the game, the Lions sank a pathetic 25 percent of their attempts.

The Lions were still in the game at halftime, trailing 30-17. It was only that close because of Iowa's 10 turnovers to Penn State's five.

"I didn't feel horrible going into halftime because I thought we couldn't possibly shoot as bad in the second half, but we almost did," DeChellis said.

The Lions wasted little time in the second half making up for their lack of turnovers in the first. Penn State gave the ball away four times in the opening four and a half minutes of the period alone, nine for the second half in total.

The early Penn State turnovers helped Iowa launch an 11-0 run to start the half. Ben Luber's 3 at 13:18 gave the Lions their first points of the period and made the score 41-20.

In 13 minutes of play Penn State scored five points.

Then, with the game well out of reach, it looked as if the Lions decided to be good sports and play along as Iowa conducted dunking and lay-up practice. In five minutes of play the Hawkeyes converted on six field goal attempts -- all either dunks or lay-ups.

"Our lack of offense affected our defense tremendously. No one could make a shot."

Iowa's starting front court, Greg Brunner and Erek Hansen shot a combined 10-14 while blocking five Penn State shots.

Parker made went four of seven from the field, leading the Lions with 13 points. He was the only Penn State player in double digits.

The Hawkeyes outrebounded Penn State 38-27 while shooting 54 percent on the evening. Iowa's Mike Henderson led all scorers with 16 points, going 6-7 from the field.

The Lions will try to forget last night's debacle as they prepare for the first game of the conference tournament, to be played a week from today in Indianapolis.

"You can't come in here and not execute offensively and expect to win the game," DeChellis said.