INDIANAPOLIS -- Forget the X's and O's, the film study and the game planning. As the Penn State men's basketball team learned on Friday, the most significant action in the sport is simply putting the ball in the basket.

The Nittany Lions could not get their shots to fall in the final minutes of the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, losing to No. 1 seed Ohio State, 63-56, after squandering a double-digit, second-half lead.

Despite the loss, the Lions earned a spot in the NIT, their first appearance in postseason play since 2001. Penn State will face Rutgers in the first round at the Bryce Jordan Center tomorrow.

"It's an important step," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "I waited all day because I really wanted our players [to have the] opportunity to play again. In the long term it's important for us -- we've shown drastic improvement the last two seasons ... It gives our kids a sense of accomplishment."

Against the Buckeyes, Penn State (15-14) missed eight of its final 10 shots, scoring just five points in the last five minutes of play.

"Our guys gave it a great run, but we were a basket or two away from where we needed to be," DeChellis said.

Travis Parker's lay-up after catching David Jackson's air ball

sent the supposedly neutral and multi-colored Conseco Fieldhouse crowd into an instant frenzy.

With a 35-25 Penn State advantage and 16:21 to play, the fans -- representing several Big Ten schools -- smelled blood and began to rally around the underdog Lions.

"I was excited to have Indiana fans and Michigan State fans and Iowa fans rooting for us," Parker said. "I felt good about that."

The good feeling would not last.

From that point the Buckeyes (25-5), who went on to lose to Iowa in the tournament's title game, hit eight of 15 shots from beyond the arc, quickly closing the gap and quelling the Big Ten fans looking for the ouster of the league's hottest team.

The shots that wouldn't fall for Ohio State in the first half started to drop in the second, during which the Buckeyes fired at a 44 percent clip from the perimeter.

"From the first half to the second half, the difference was that the ball went in the basket," Ohio State coach Thad Matta said, explaining that the Buckeyes actually got the same looks in each half.

Geary Claxton, Jamelle Cornley and Parker accounted for 25 of Penn State's 27 points in the first half, when the Lions found open looks down low. The trio's combined 17 points in the second were not enough to preserve the 27-24 lead at the break.

Claxton was in foul trouble for much of the contest, finally committing his fifth as the Lions tried to mount a comeback in the game's waning moments. In 37 minutes on the court, Claxton accumulated a dozen rebounds and a dozen points, four of which came on a pair of alley-oops.

"You can look at our front court all you want, but our back court didn't score," DeChellis said.

Point guard Ben Luber did improve upon his performance from the last time the teams met in January, when his turnovers were frequent and costly. On Friday, the junior recorded a season-best nine assists to just one turnover.

Though Big Ten Player of the Year Terence Dials recorded a double-double, no Buckeye was more instrumental in the Ohio State comeback than reserve guard Ron Lewis, who nailed four 3-pointers in the game's final 15 minutes.

Success against Penn State is nothing new for Lewis, who was a 37 percent 3-point shooter during the Big Ten season, but shot at a 58 percent rate in his three games against the Lions this year.

"Lewis is a great athlete, man," said Ohio State guard Je'Kel Foster after the game.

Before Lewis' heroics on Friday, though, the Lions clobbered Northwestern in the first round on Thursday, beating the Wildcats for the third time this season.

As the top seed in the tournament, No. 7 Ohio State received a first-round bye. DeChellis, however, dismissed the notion that Penn State's late-game woes were a product of playing two games in as many days.

"We weren't tired -- we were just missing shots," DeChellis said.