Little wins don't show up in a team's record, so they are labeled "moral victories," intangible, and Danny Morrissey can't stand them for that reason.

He hates losing, in general.

But even Morrissey can agree with Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis, who hopes his team will look at last Wednesday's 64-62 loss to No. 2 Ohio State as the closest a conference opponent has come to the giants from Columbus and not as another tally in "L" column.

One Mike Walker three, and the Nittany Lions walk away a winner a week ago.

"We know we can play with just about anybody in the country," Morrissey said.

"The unfortunate thing is we can lose to almost anyone in the country, as well."

If this 11-game losing streak has taught Penn State (10-15, 1-11 Big Ten) anything, it's that at 8 tonight, when it visits Big Ten leader Ohio State, there will be a chance to win, even if it happens to be against the No. 1 team in the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll.

There will also be equal opportunities to keep on losing. The Buckeyes (24-3, 12-1), conversely, have won 11-straight games heading into tonight's contest.

Unless you look at the Buckeyes lone in-conference defeat at the hands of AP No. 1 Wisconsin, or at their two-point, close call against Michigan State on Jan. 27, the Lions stuck with Ohio State as well as any team.

In last week's game, freshman phenom Greg Oden got just about his average, 15 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, and Penn State closed a 21-point halftime deficit when the Buckeyes shot a dismal 18 percent from three-point range in the second half.

Now the Lions head back onto the road, where they haven't won a game all season.

In order to keep his team loose prior to last Wednesday's game, DeChellis allowed a spontaneous dunk competition in warm-ups to continue on.

"Normally we might say, 'Hey, we don't want you to turn an ankle the day before a game,' stuff like that," DeChellis said, "but I thought it was important for these guys to have some fun, to have some smiles on their faces."

Morrissey doesn't have a smile on his face, as he has only scored in double figures once in the last nine games.

As the team's third-leading scorer with 10.2 points per contest, Morrissey scored just three against Ohio State last Wednesday. With two years remaining in his collegiate basketball career, via a medical redshirt last season, Morrissey still cannot afford to look ahead.

Big Ten opponents are guarding him farther out to the arc, preventing the 43-percent three-point shooter from getting off shots. On Saturday, Wisconsin held Morrissey to two shots.

Now, he wants to get open looks for his teammates, or even start finding open shots on his own off the dribble.

"Finish strong," Morrissey said. "Do not quit. Don't give up. Keep playing hard at all moments. Don't give up on the season. Just because things aren't going well doesn't mean you quit."

Sophomore forward Milos Bogetic, who used the Rocky series as inspiration for saying last week that Oden "has a weakness, every man has a weakness," always has a light way of thinking about something.

Bogetic's hope is that a win against Ohio State could make people forget about Penn State's struggles. That would be a real moral victory, plus the "W" bonus.

"It would mean so much to us," Bogetic said. "A lot of people would forget about our losses and talk about our victory. It's a huge motive for us to work hard."