Lions beat Illini, lock up NCAA bid

◊ The ball hung on the basket for what seemed like an eternity. Ed DeChellis, Bruce Weber, the players on the benches, more than 16,000 at the BJC, and thousands more in their living rooms stopped breathing. Then the ball fell through, ending a wild affair tonight in Happy Valley.

Penn State came up with one of the most individually significant wins in recent Nittany Lions basketball history. With tonight's 64-63 victory over No. 23 Illinois, Penn State will go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years.

This was a 'WOW' game; an instant classic. And fittingly enough, it was Big Ten player of the year front runner Talor Battle who scored the final basket.

We also have to give due credit to DeChellis. He could have lost his team on several different occasions, but wouldn't let his Lions fail.

But the best storyline of the night was easily the effort put forth by senior Jamelle Cornley. He hurt his shoulder with a few minutes left in the game, went out for a few minutes, but returned shortly after. Cornley's arm was visibly out of commission, but he played like a man possessed.

Before I say (very) goodnight, let's just take one last moment to observe the horrendous game by the officiating crew. The funny part was that it got so bad in the second half, the refs had to give Penn State a free call to make up for the earlier missed (and very obviously bad) calls. Andrew Ott's putback that was clearly legit, but was called off, and Illinois' basket that was blatantly a shot clock violation.