The Penn State men's basketball team opened many eyes with what it accomplished this season.

Unfortunately, the Nittany Lions (15-15) were caught asleep at the wheel for much of last night's 76-71 loss to Rutgers in the opening round of the National Invitational Tournament, effectively ending Penn State's best season since 2001.

The Scarlet Knights went on a 17-0 run while Penn State suffered through a six-minute scoring drought in the first half, the type of dry spell that has plagued the Lions in many of their losses this year.

This stretch of offensive ineptitude was no different from all the others, replete with offensive fouls, airballs, turnovers and puzzled looks on the faces of Penn State's players.

Penn State was out-rebounded 22-12 in the first half and went into the locker room down by a dozen.

"We can't dig ourselves in a hole like that and expect to win," Penn State point guard Ben Luber said.

Quincy Douby carefully selected the proper times to show why he was the Big East's leading scorer, taking just eight shots in the first half. The rub for Penn State was that Douby made four of those shots -- all from 3-point range.

"I knew my points were gonna come," Douby said. "I really didn't let it frustrate me."

Containing forward Marquis Webb proved just as difficult for the Lions. Webb surpassed his average of nine points just 10 minutes into the game, finishing the first half with 11 and the game with 17.

Rutgers came out for the second half taking -- and making -- shots from all over the court.

Webb fired up a 32-footer as the shot clock went off, finding nothing but net.

Douby and Webb added their names to the long list of perimeter players who enjoyed facing the Penn State zone defense this year.

Webb did a solid job of neutralizing Penn State forward Geary Claxton, the leading scorer and rebounder for the Lions.

Claxton finished with 10 points and just four rebounds.

"As Clayton goes, the team goes," Rutgers coach Gary Waters said, adding insult to injury before repeatedly referring to the sophomore as "Clayton."

Facing a 19-point deficit, the Lions switched to a full court press with just over 14 minutes to play. The energy that Rutgers displayed to start the half quickly transferred to the home team, as Penn State created turnovers and clamped down on the Knights' scoring efforts.

"We tried to get some steals from the pressure because we needed to get more possessions," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said.

With 2:22 to go, the Lions pulled to within six points when a Mike Walker pass found Jamelle Cornley in the paint for a dunk.

Fifteen seconds later, Walker tried to pass the ball inside again, but it instead rolled out of bounds. It appeared as though the pass hit a Rutgers defender's leg, then rolled out, but the officials did not see it that way.

The Lions on the bench reacted with indignation, which turned into disappointment five seconds later when Douby nailed an open 3, giving the Knights a nine-point edge and plenty of momentum.

"It was a big play at that point and time in the game," DeChellis said.

Voicing its disapproval of the controversial call, a contingent of the student-heavy Penn State crowd of less than 7,000 people threw towels onto the court after the 3-pointer.

Douby lit up the Lions for 32 points, scoring 24 from downtown.

"We just wanted to play Douby tough in the area he was in," DeChellis said. "Defensively, we didn't do anything that we talked about doing."