After holding off winless Morgan State, 80-71, Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center, junior guard Mike Walker was asked if the Penn State men's basketball team is a victim of playing to the level of its competition.

"To be honest, yeah. It's not something you like to be titled as, that we play down to our competition," Walker said. "They definitely came out and played well, but we just came out flat and had no energy."

The Nittany Lions (5-2) were up 33-30 on the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Bears (0-6) at halftime. But considering Morgan State's record and that their closest margin of defeat before Saturday was 14 points, the Lions felt the lead should have been larger.

"They talked about it at halftime, 'They're 0-5.' I said 'Forget they're 0-5,' " Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said. "Don't play the shirt, play the game."

Walker came off the bench to score 16 points, and hit three 3-pointers, one of which finally extended the Lions' lead to double-digits with 3:33 remaining.

Sophomore forward Jamelle Cornley scored a game-high 18 and junior forward Brandon Hassell finished with 14 points and nine rebounds. Junior forward Geary Claxton started his first regular season game in place of Danny Morrissey, who had a sore neck. After playing just seven minutes in the first half, the preseason All-Big Ten pick scored 13 of his season-high 15 points in the second half.

"It is important to have different guys step up. Everybody can't play well every night," DeChellis said. "I think our frontline guys played pretty well tonight. If you look at the numbers, Ben [Luber] goes out and with Danny being hurt, someone has got to step up and help us. Tonight, it was Mike Walker coming off the bench."

Luber left the game early in the second half after getting elbowed in the face and did not return. After the game, DeChellis said Luber was experiencing a "bad headache" and was going to be reevaluated over the weekend.

Senior guard David "Mooch" Jackson ran the offense in place of Luber and Walker assumed the other guard spot. The Lions' depth in the backcourt helped them prevent an upset, Walker said.

"I don't think we would have won this game when Brandon [Hassell] and I were freshmen," he said.

A concern coming into the game, DeChellis said, was that Morgan State was averaging 70.4 points and their opponents were scoring 87.4 points a game. Penn State averaged just 64 points a game before Saturday.

The Lions held Morgan State close to its average, but DeChellis still seeks improvement on the defensive end.

"We are a team right now that doesn't have any defensive energy. We have some offensive energy. We will get an offensive rebound, and battle under the boards for it," DeChellis said. "We don't have any defensive energy. To be the kind of team to play in this league, you need to have defensive energy too, because there are going to be nights when you're not going to score."

Notes & quotes: After being banned by the NCAA for eight years, Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman is glad to be coaching anywhere, even if his team is winless. "I might be the happiest 0-6 guy you've ever seen in your life because I'm back in the game," Bozeman said.

At age 29, Bozeman became the youngest coach to reach the Sweet 16 when his California team defeated Duke in the second round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament. The ban, which ended June 1, 2005, came after Bozeman admitted to paying a recruit's family $30,000 while at Cal.