Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said he didn't see it. But he did.

When, with 2:05 left in Tuesday's NIT game vs. Rutgers, the referees called sophomore guard Mike Walker's pass out of bounds -- rather than off the leg of a Rutgers defender -- the men's basketball team's greatest chance of winning came into view. Then vanished.

By now, the situation is familiar: the Nittany Lions had been down by as many as 19 shortly into the second half before lacing up their Nikes tighter and pressing their way back into the game.

But then the call happened, Rutgers' Quincy Douby hit a 3-pointer, and the Lions wouldn't get within six points until the final second of the game. Having eventually lost the game, 76-71, one wonders what might have been.

"That was one of the, if not the, most important possession of the game," freshman forward Jamelle Cornley said. "We understand that all referees make mistakes, but that was probably the biggest mistake because it actually did go off his leg."

At the time you pick this paper up before your 8 a.m. class, the call will have been dead for nearly 34 hours. Though it baffled many of the players at the time and after the game, dwelling on it is fruitless.

The Lions appeared to do so, albeit temporarily, as Cornley said the ensuing Rutgers possession caught them out of position. Walker said he didn't know how the referees missed the call, but also said the Lions needed to move on.

"We didn't move on, and Douby hit a three and that pretty much changed the game," Walker said.

But the game had changed drastically by then -- much, much earlier. The severe temptation to focus on one play would ignore how the Lions dug themselves into a 40-28 halftime hole.

The game appeared competitive with 10:11 left to play in the first half. Penn State trailed Rutgers just 16-14 despite shooting 4-of-14 from the field. Making just one of their first eight shots, the Lions were more off the mark than the costume of Rutgers' mascot -- a quasi-spacesuit that looked like it had been fashioned from old sleeping bags.

In one view, it was a case of merely not making shots.

"It's not like we weren't getting good looks," Walker said.

Cornley agreed the Lions got open looks but said they took them too early in possessions. On the other hand, if the look is there, why not take it? Walker, who missed two 3-pointers in the game's first 10 minutes, said Rutgers was double-teaming down low in the post, which led to kick-out passes to open shooters on the perimeter.

"A lot of people say, you know, [we took] quick shots, but we have confident players who can knock down shots," Walker said.

Just not Tuesday night. The Lions shot 2-of-9 from the perimeter in those first 10 minutes, including one from freshman forward Milos Bogetic at the pleading of the crowd. Exciting, yes. Effective, no.

Cornley said Penn State's halftime deficit was more its own doing than Rutgers' defense. DeChellis had a similar view, and said his players let their offensive woes dictate how they played on defense.

"We let our offense affect our defense, and that's a sign of a young team that really doesn't understand," DeChellis said.

So DeChellis tried to make them understand, and got on his players in the locker room at halftime. The adjustment led to an improvement from 34.5 percent shooting to 42.1 percent in the second. And the team's near comeback, on the heels of an emotionally charged full-court press effort, nearly worked.

"We just had to swallow our pride and go ahead, do it his way," Cornley said.

But Cornley also said the number of shots they did make in the second half wasn't enough. Senior forward Travis Parker led the Lions in scoring with 21 points but might have had more if not for picking up his fourth foul with 9:53 to go in the game.

Sophomore forward Geary Claxton had been neutralized by the Scarlet Knights' Marquis Webb, who Rutgers coach Gary Waters called "the best defender in the Big East." Finishing the game with 10 points and four rebounds, Claxton's off-night was a bit strange for at least one player.

"He's had 20, 25 points against the best players in the country," Walker said. "Nights like this are going to happen for Geary. I mean, he's just like all of us other players. But he's so much better. He's on a different level than all of us; it's weird seeing him have a night like this."

Walker said the team almost felt bad for not starting the game the way they should have, and said it needed to do something to try to get back in the game. He said the Lions' second-half press wasn't a move of desperation.

But the senior who played his last game nodded and muttered that it was. For him, there wasn't much Penn State could do. Botched call or full court press be damned, the contest was already over.

"We just weren't hustling, we didn't have no energy at the beginning of the game," Parker said. "And basically, that's when we lost the game."