Penn State tops Illini 68-64

CHAMPAIGN -- Here's how frayed everyone's nerves are in IlliniLand these days:

"One of our kids broke down and cried in the huddle during the game," said Illinois coach Bruce Weber. "I guess there's some tenseness there."

And it's not going away any time soon after Penn State banged into the Assembly Hall on Sunday afternoon and seized a 68-64 Big Ten victory.

The Nittany Lions outrebounded the hosts by an astonishing 49-24 margin, which manifested itself in a 21-2 advantage in second-chance points. Powerful forwards Jamelle Cornley (18 points, 12 rebounds) and Geary Claxton (11 points, 11 rebounds) almost outrebounded an entire Big Ten team for the second time in five days.

"Obviously they punked us and it became the difference in the game," Weber said. "You give them so many opportunities, sooner or later they're going to win the game."

And, yet, the Illini had a terrific chance late to avoid their third home loss in eight days.

(By the way, this marks the first time in 80 seasons Illinois has lost three home games in such a short amount of time).

Freshman guard Demetri McCamey, who delivered a career-high 18 points as well as 5 assists, tried his best to rally the Illini (8-7, 0-2) from a 6-point deficit in the final 35 seconds.

McCamey, who earned a spot in the starting lineup Thursday at Wisconsin for his efforts, swished two 3-pointers to get Illinois within 65-64 with 10 seconds to go.

After Penn State's Stanley Pringle made the second of 2 free throws to bump the margin to 2, McCamey flew down the floor and tried a runner that bounced off the glass and the rim before being swallowed up by the 6-foot-4, 239-pound Cornley with less than a second to go.

"I think I could have taken one more step in," McCamey said. "I thought Claxton was going to take a charge, so I tried to throw a floater and it just didn't go in."

Nothing seems to go Illinois' way these days.

Senior forward Brian Randle delivered just 2 points and 2 rebounds in his 14 minutes before fouling out.

Senior center Shaun Pruitt (9 points, 5 rebounds) tweaked his back in the early going and finished with just 4 shot attempts in 31 minutes.

Starting guards Trent Meacham and Chester Frazier each went 0-for-4 from 3-point range against Penn State's zone defense. That helped Illinois shoot less than 30 percent from beyond the arc for the eighth game in a row.

"I think just a lot of our players on our team don't have confidence in themselves," said junior forward Calvin Brock, who contributed 15 points. "They just have to pick it up and be positive every time they go out on the court."

Kind of like Penn State (10-4, 2-0), which is riding a seven-game winning streak.

"We come into games expecting to win now," Cornley said. "We're a different Penn State team as opposed to in the past."

Just like Illinois is a different team as opposed to the past.

"We've had some pretty good times here," Weber said. "We've had some bad times. Now we've got to deal with it."