The game plan seemed basic enough, but it was still one of the toughest tasks Penn State faced all season: stop Quincy Douby.

Douby, the Big East scoring leader, changed the face of the game by dropping 32 points on 11-for-19 shooting -- totaling the most treys and points Penn State had allowed an individual player all season.

"He's the best guard I've played against this season, hands-down," Lions guard Ben Luber said.

Douby's performance dictated the pace of the game. When the junior's touches were limited, Penn State continued to play the 2-3 zone. But when Douby started to catch fire, the Lions were forced to play a man-to-man defense -- something they hadn't played since the non-conference season.

The zone defense appeared to work well in the first half, but Penn State guard Mike Walker said it was Douby's long-range shots that "messed up the zone defense."

Douby would routinely attempt 3s from three-feet beyond the perimeter, and Walker acknowledged that forced the Lions into having to play out of position.

According to Rutgers coach Gary Waters, that's exactly what he intended.

"We had to stretch the defense, and we saw they were doubling [Douby] every time he went on a screen or every time he received the ball they ran at him," Waters said.

"One of the other things we wanted to do was isolate him at [the] top with the smaller guards."

The plan certainly paid off -- Douby hit eight 3-pointers on 14 attempts. The Lions as a team shot 8-for-31 from behind the arc.

Douby, who CBS Sportsline.com hailed as the third best player in college basketball, actually started out slowly. And for a while, it looked as if Penn State had bottled up the Scarlet Knights' lightning bolt.

Douby had only six points to his name through the contest's first 16 minutes. Of course, Rutgers' best player nailed a pair of 3-pointers in the last three minutes to close out the first half of the game.

"I knew my points were gonna come because a lot of the games in the season I didn't score until about eight minutes left in the first half," Douby said. "I could score in spurts, so I really didn't let it frustrate me."

Douby's 32 points was his fifth-best scoring output this season.

His most came against Syracuse in early February when he collected 41 points, breaking a record previously held by current Detroit Piston Richard Hamilton for most points scored by a Big East player in a road conference game.

Lighting up the scoreboard was a common sight for Douby; he averaged 27 points per game in conference play. But Penn State senior Travis Parker said allowing it was far from the Lion's norm.

"He's a different type of player," Parker said. "Most of the Big Ten, it's a team thing, but not Douby, he gets the ball and you're not sure what he's gonna do next."

Most teams had weeks to prepare for lining up against Douby. The Lions had less than 48 hours, and it showed -- especially in the second half.

Douby connected on two treys in the first 3:30, extending the lead to 19 points. He went on to score 20 second-half points, ending the Lions hopes at advancing in the National Invitation Tournament.

"I have a bad taste in my mouth," Parker said. "We could have had a good run in the NIT if we had won tonight."