Mike Walker stood, smiled and pumped his fist. Then he walked over to the front row of the student section at the Bryce Jordan Center and handed out high-fives.

Instead of sitting on the floor with his head in his hands, like he did after the Nittany Lions' loss at home to Ohio State two weeks ago, Walker had reason to celebrate.

And a few minutes later the junior guard could say two words in confidence for the first time in 13 games: "We won."

After Iowa guard Mike Henderson missed a desperation three-pointer as time ticked away, the Penn State men's basketball team defeated Iowa last night with the score 74-72.

The Lions (11-17, 2-13 Big Ten) ended their 13-game losing streak, and won for the first time since their conference opener Jan. 3 against Northwestern.

"It's nice to see guys with smiles on their faces," Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said. "We haven't been able to smile in a long time."

During this conference season, the Lions had found plenty of ways to lose, and few to win.

Penn State had been blown out from start to finish (at home against Michigan State and Illinois) squandered early leads (at home versus Indiana) and overcame large deficits only to end up losing anyway (at Northwestern and home against Ohio State).

But last night, the Lions played extended minutes of consistent basketball -- and they had to. Adam Haluska, Iowa's go-to senior guard, scored a game-high 30 points and did what he could to keep the Hawkeyes' (16-13, 8-7) NCAA tournament hopes alive.

Haluska, the Big Ten's leading scorer, tallied 22 of his points in the second half as he tried to single-handedly shed Penn State, which led 33-30 at halftime.

Forward Jamelle Cornley kept pace for Penn State though, which was playing for a long sought-after good feeling. Playing injured with a hip pointer, he scored a team-high 20 points and tied a career-high with 13 rebounds.

Walker, David "Mooch" Jackson and Geary Claxton all scored in double-digits, and Penn State tied a season-high with 10 three-pointers -- half of them coming from Walker.

"I thought everybody played well, played with a lot of heart," DeChellis said.

Cornley went almost basket for basket with Haluska late in the second half and kept the Lions in the game, hitting lay-ups, jumpers and even dunking through severe pain that he said he was masking on purpose.

"It comes to a point where you say, 'Forget it. I'm just going to take matters in to my own hands,' " Cornley said. "I just don't like to wear my expression on my face a lot and let the other team know I'm hurting."

The sophomore scored 14 points in the second half, setting up Penn State's two-point lead with a minute to go. Then Iowa had the final possession.

The Hawkeyes tried to get the ball to Haluska, but Claxton took that possibility away. Henderson, the Iowa guard, ended up with the ball beyond the three-point line and let it go with a defender in front, and with less than three seconds to go.

"I thought it was going in, for sure," Walker said. "So many of those shots go in and they don't fall in for us."

But the ball landed on the court without doing any damage.

"Guys were cheering their brains off on the bench," DeChellis said. "They were all wanting to win badly."

They finally did.