by Jeff Rice, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa. , Centre Daily Times

"You play 40 minutes, but the game doesn't really matter until the last five minutes," Battle said Monday, "and that's what happened out there in Wisconsin."

Saturday in the Kohl Center, where the host Badgers have lost a mere eight games in the last eight years, the Nittany Lions held a two-point lead with five minutes remaining. It would be their last lead of what wound up as a four-point loss.

Too many times in the past, Penn State rarely did enough in the first 35 minutes of games against the Big Ten's top teams to give itself a chance to win in clutch time. The current Nittany Lions (12-3, 1-1 Big Ten ) believe they're made of tougher stuff, and have a chance to prove it at 9 p.m. tonight in the Bryce Jordan Center against No. 14 Purdue (11-3, 0-1).

"We think that we can play with anybody in the league," Penn State coach Ed DeChellis said.

With the possible exception of No. 8 Michigan State, the Big Ten appears to be filled with good but not great teams this season. The Boilermakers, tabbed as preseason favorites by the media, could fit either description.

The freshman class that took the league by storm last season continues to carry Matt Painter's team, which emerged from a tough non-conference schedule with just two losses (No. 4 Duke and No. 11 Oklahoma) but lost at home to Illinois in overtime last Tuesday.

Six-foot-eight forward Robbie Hummel averages 13.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game and does a bit of everything. Shooting guard E'Twaun Moore leads the team with 14.6 points per game and 6-10 forward JaJuan Johnson (12.6, 5.5) has rounded out his offensive game and averages better than two blocks per contest.

The arrival of freshman point guard Lewis Jackson (3.2 assists per game), who has started the last eight games, gives Painter a bench, paced by defensive stopper Chris Kramer and versatile forwards Nemanja Calasan and Marcus Green, that rivals any in the conference and makes the Boilermakers' tendencies tough to pinpoint.

"We have to prepare for some different guys off the bench," DeChellis said. "Talk about some different guys and different roles for them and who's going to guard who in the game."

The emergence of Johnson as a shot-blocker has made Purdue's guards even tougher on the perimeter. The Boilermakers, who rank 12th in the nation in scoring defense (57.1 points per game), will play tireless defense during the first 35 minutes as well as the final five. They held Stephen Curry, the nation's leading scorer, to 13 points on 5-of-26 shooting during a 76-58 defeat of Davidson last month.

"We can't let them be the aggressor," Battle said. "We've got to attack them, and try to draw fouls and be strong with the ball, expect them to hit us."

Battle lost his Big Ten scoring lead in Madison, when the Badgers held him to six points -- 13 below his average -- on 2-of-11 shooting. But if the game is close in the final minutes, the Nittany Lions will look to him and seniors Jamelle Cornley and Stanley Pringle to make plays.

"Sometimes it comes down to one possession," DeChellis said. "The last five minutes of the game, you've really got to be focused. You can't make a mistake defensively or offensively, or it could be over."

Notes: Purdue, the first ranked team to face Penn State this season, leads the all-time series 20-9 and has won each of the last four meetings, including a 22-point win in the Jordan Center last January. ... DeChellis said the Nittany Lions, many of whom were hit by flu-like symptoms last week, will enter tonight's game with clean bills of health.

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