CHICAGO, Ill. - Welcome to live in-game coverage of the Nittany Lion basketball team.

Take a look back at the running blog from Penn State's season-ending 83-66 setback to No. 6 Michigan in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.




Starting Lineups:
Penn State - G - Marshall, G - Newbill, G - Colella, F - Travis, F - Borovnjak
Michigan - G - Burke, G - Hardaway Jr., G - Stauskas, F - Robinson III, F - Morgan


13:36 1st Half - Penn State 14, Michigan 7
The Nittany Lions blasted out of the gate with a red-hot offensive start.  Big Ten Player of the Year Trey Burke opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, but the Lions answered with 14-straight tallies, including eight points from the man in the middle, Sasa Borvnjak.  Borovnjak has been active on every possession.  The Lions started 7-for-9 from the field and led by 11 until Michigan answered with back-to-back buckets to make it a seven-point game.  Nonetheless, Penn State could not have asked for a better start in tournament action.

11:24 1st Half - Penn State 14, Michigan 14
Following Penn State's strong offensive start, the Wolverines countered with a big run of their own to square the game at 14-14 in Chicago.  Mitch McGary accounted for six of the 11 points during the 11-0 scoring run.  Penn State is still shooting 7-for-13, but the Lions need a basket to answer Michigan's push.

7:27 1st Half - Michigan 26, Penn State 20
The Wolverines took a 19-16 lead after a Nik Stauskas 3-pointer at the 9:59 mark.  Jermaine Marshall answered with a runner in the lane, which pulled the Lions within one.  However, two more baskeys from McGary, who now has 10 points and a 3-pointer form Tim Hardaway Jr. had the Wolverines up six at the under eight-minute media timeout.  Penn State's shooting is still better than 50 percent (10-19), but the Lions need to settle in on offense.

3:42 1st Half - Michigan 32, Penn State 26
The Nittany Lions weathered the Michigan surge and kept the game within striking distance heading into the final media timeout of the first half.  Playing with two fouls, Borvonjak converted on a lay-in, which made it a 32-26 game after a runner from Burke put Michigan up eight, marking its larges lead of the afternoon.  Michigan's offensive rebounding has been huge in the first half.  Eight offensive boards have led to 17 second-chance points for the Wolverines, which has largely been the difference in the first half.

Halftime - Michigan 35, Penn State 33
Penn State opened the game 7-for-9 from the field, which fueled a 14-3 lead in the opening 5:33.  Michigan came back with a 16-2 surge, which made it 19-16 Wolverines.  From there, Michigan led by as much as eight points at 32-24 with under five minutes to play in the half.  However, Penn State stormed to a 7-0 scoring run to close the half, which pulled the Lions to within two at the break.  Borovnjak was tremendous in the first half finishing with 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting.  Newbill led the Penn State scorin with 12 points on 6-for-12 shooting.  Ross Travis was active on the glass throughout the opening 20 minutes, finishing with six points and nine rebounds.  McGary paced the Wolverines with 10 points and 10 rebounds.  The difference in the opening half was Michigan's ability to score after offensive rebounds.  Michigan had 17 second-chance points to Penn State's six tallies.  The first half was very well played on both sides with the teams finishing with a combined three turnovers.  Penn State's late run has the Lions toe-to-toe with the sixth-ranked Wolverines.

14:14 2nd Half - Michigan 48, Penn State 45
Travis is having one of the best games in his Nittany Lion career.  With back-to-back put-back buckets, the Lion sophomore now has 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Lions.  Michigan's largest lead of the half has been three points, largely because of the six-straight tallies from Travis on the offensive end of the floor.  Hardaway Jr. is beginning to heat up for Michigan.  After back-to-back baskets, he has 12 points to lead the Wolverines.

11:48 2nd Half - Michigan 54, Penn State 47
Michigan mounted an 8-2 scoring surge to make it a 54-47 game at the 12:14 mark before Coach Chambers used a timeout.  Michigan's Jon Horford will go to the foul line after the media timeout with two foul shots looking to make it a nine-point game.  The Wolverines have scored 28 points on 15 offensive rebounds.  Penn State has 10 second-chance points on seven offensive rebounds.  The Lions will be looking for a scoring surge out of the break to trim the deficit.  The Lions can ill afford to go down by double digits.

7:29 2nd Half - Michigan 68, Penn State 52
With 14:40 to play, the Michigan lead was one point.  Since then, the Wolverines have out-scored the Nittany Lions 22-7.  That stretch included a 16-2 scoring spurt covering nearly three minutes of game time.  Taylor snapped a 3:02 dry spell for the Nittany Lions with a free throw, but Michigan came right back with a basket from Hardaway.  The Lions need a push to get it under double figures heading into the final media timeout.

2:58 2nd Half - Michigan 79, Penn State 61
Michigan pushed its lead to 19 points on two different occasions, both of which coming after tallies from Burke, who has 15 points on the afternoon.  A Colella transition 3-pointer from the corner in front of Penn State's bench cut the deficit down to 16, but a Horford dunk extended the Wolverine lead back up to 18.

FINAL - Michigan 83, Penn State 66
Penn State played like a team that had nothing to lose in Chicago on Thursday afternoon.  The Nittany Lions stormed to an 11-point lead in the opening minutes and went toe-to-toe with the sixth-ranked Wolverines until mid-way through the second half.  Penn State's offense went dry for a 3:02 span, and Michigan made Penn State pay.  With the score reading 46-45, Michigan, the Wolverines scored 16 of the next 18 points to claim a 15-point lead.  From there, Michigan never allowed Penn State to get any closer than 15.

Newbill led the way for the Nittany Lions with 20 points and six rebounds.  Borovnjak capped off his Nittany Lion career with a terrific game, finishing with 15 points on a blistering 7-for-10 shooting.  Travis finished with a strong 12-point, 11-rebound effort against the Wolverines.  Big Ten Player of the Year Trey Burke led Michigan with 21 points.  Penn State shot 48 percent from the field in the game.

"I'm proud of our kids," Chambers said after the game. "They competed. They played hard. The last month has been a lot of fun...And I am really proud of these players and how they competed down the stretch."

The Nittany Lions wanted to play their best basketball at the end of the season, and that was without question the case.  The final score was not indicative of the type of effort Penn State turned in on Thursday afternoon.