CHICAGO -- As Mike Walker's last three-point attempt of the night sailed wide, Penn State forward Milos Bogetic stood on the sidelines with his hands on his head in disbelief.

Once again, the Nittany Lions (11-19) fell just short of another upset bid. Penn State's furious comeback was not enough to surmount a large second-half deficit as Illinois (22-10) survived for a 66-60 victory.

"We've been a very resilient team all year," Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said. "Our kids have fought back and I would have been disappointed if we hadn't made a comeback tonight."

The Lions raced out to a 13-2 lead to start the game, which shocked the pro-Illini crowd and draped the United Center in silence. The Penn State run was helped in large-part by icy Illinois shooting. The Illini started the game 1-for-6 from the field.

But veteran Illini Head Coach Bruce Weber showed no signs of panic. Instead of calling a timeout, he opted to allow his team to play its way out of the rut. The result is the reason why Illinois is expected to have its name called for the NCAA tournament on selection Sunday.

The Illini shooting quickly warmed as Illinois went on a 25-9 run to close out the half with a five-point advantage.

The fiery Illinois shooting continued in the second frame as guard Chester Frazier found his stroke from beyond the arc. His team-high 21 points included a season-best five threes, four of which came in the second half.

"Chester Frazier was the x-factor tonight," DeChellis said. "He played well and hit some big shots for them."

DeChellis added that Penn State's game plan called for allowing Frazier to shoot from long-range. The Illini sophomore had only connected on 29 threes all year. But as has been the case this season, another non-typical shooter lit up the scoreboard against the Lion zone.

Frazier's hot touch allowed Illinois to amass a 41-25 advantage with 12:53 remaining.

Just as Penn State appeared to be out of the game, guard Mike Walker took over. The junior sharpshooter hit a Big Ten tournament record seven three's, including six in the second half to finish with a career-high 22 points.

"Obviously I got it going a little bit," Walker said. "You get down 10 or 15 and a little more pressure sets on the shooters and luckily today they went in."

Walker went shot for shot with Frazier and kept Penn State in the game. He was the key cog in the torrid Lion comeback which saw the Illini lead reduced to two with less than two minutes to play.

But as quickly as Penn State caught fire, their shots began drawing iron instead of nylon and the Lions were forced to foul to stop the clock. Penn State came up just short once again and saw their disappointing season come to a disheartening close.

"All games like this are tough," sophomore forward Jamelle Cornley said. "You're always that one play away and it just seems like the ball hasn't been on our side [this season]."