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women went on to sell out Rec Hall on Feb. 6, 1994, when they were No. 1 and were facing No. 8 Iowa. The Lady Lions held on for a 63-61 victory in front of 7,264 fans. Yet, despite these and other historic games, the agonizing overtime loss to Indiana in Penn State's first year of Big Ten competition remains the most memorable and springs readily to mind with the team getting set to revisit its former home court on Dec. 14 with the "Return to Rec" matchup against Princeton. It wasn't just the fact that the gritty Nittany Lions had been heavy underdogs that night, having lost nine of their previous 11 games, including a 105-57 trashing at Indiana a month earlier. It wasn't just because they so clearly outplayed the Hoosiers that even legendary Indiana coach Bob Knight admitted in the locker room, "Penn State should have won the game. " What is truly burned in the memory of Penn State fans is the controversial foul call by referee Sam Lickliter with 17.3 seconds remaining in regulation that denied the Nittany Lions a shocking victory. The crowd had been in a raucous mood even before the game started. Minutes before tipoff, the Nittany Lion mascot had fired up fans with a midcourt parody of Knight, who had referred to Penn State's rural location as a "camping trip" when it had been officially announced that the university was joining the Big Ten. Rec Hall had sometimes been an imposing, intimidating place for visiting teams, but even more so after Bruce Parkhill became head coach in 1983-84, with Penn State's rabid students cheering and jeering as they stood right behind and virtually alongside the visitor's bench. And despite a roster of talented, highly recruited players, including the eventual national Player of the Year, Calbert Cheaney, the Hoosiers seemed a bit rattled by the loud and hostile ambience. Cheaney scored the game's first two points on the opening tipoff, but the score was surprisingly close most of the way. At one point in the first half, Penn State led by five, and at another point it trailed by seven. But at intermission, Indiana was ahead by just two, 34-32, and the game continued to be tight throughout the second half. With 19 seconds left, the Lions were up by two, 68-66, and were trying to inbound the ball along the Indiana sideline between midcourt and the Indiana basket. As Eric Carr prepared to throw the inbounds pass, guard Greg Bartram broke toward the Indiana basket, a stride ahead of Hoosiers backup guard Chris Reynolds with no one else close. A couple of yards past the midcourt stripe, Bartram gathered in the ball with his outstretched left arm as Reynolds reached in and grabbed Bartram's jersey with his right hand. They were separated by inches for a split-second, but Bartram batted away Reynolds' arm, broke clear by several feet, dribbled once and scored a layup as the fans went wild. Lickliter had been standing below the Penn State basket, and when his whistle blew, everyone in the sweltering arena was certain the foul was on Reynolds. The crowd was stunned when Lickliter called a foul on Bartram, apparently for pushing. Another official stationed at midcourt, Gene Monje, seemed to have a better view of the incident but didn't blow his whistle. ESPN's replay clearly showed Reynolds pulling on Bartram's jersey, and Reynolds admitted later he had committed the foul. The crowd booed, but it didn't matter. Then, with less than a second of regulation time remaining and the Lions still leading by two, Indiana's Greg Graham attempted a 3-pointer from the left corner. He missed and the crowd cheered, but Bartram was again called for a foul. The crowd jeered, but this time the foul call was correct. Graham missed his first free throw but hit the next two to send the game into overtime. Parkhill's scrappy Lions continued their battle for 10 more minutes, holding leads in both overtimes, but it was not enough. Hoosiers guard Damon Bailey made two foul shots with 1.4 seconds in the second overtime to seal the four-point victory. "If I was a fan – and I'm not – I'd be rooting for Penn State because they deserved to win, Knight told reporters. "It's " a shame Penn State had to lose this game. " Parkhill agreed. "It's really a shame, he " said in the locker room. "I wish there was some way I could take the pain away." UPSET CENTRAL Another official's decision that was not so clearly incorrect occurred late in another memorable Rec Hall game during the John Bach coaching era from 1969-78. Bach's best season was 1971-72, when the team finished 17-8 and upset sixth-ranked Virginia, 86-74, on Feb. 16 before an estimated 8,000 fans. Penn State had been ahead most of the first half, jumping out to an early 18-8 lead, but Virginia had tied the score by halftime, 30-30. The teams traded leads after the intermission, but with 1:08 left, the Lions were ahead 74-70 when, as The Daily Collegian reported, co-captain Chuck Crist "disgustedly threw the ball down on the floor" after a play. Virginia coach Bill Gibson thought Crist had committed a foul. "I seriously question why the official didn't call a technical, " Gibson complained in his postgame news conference. Bach would not comment directly on Gibson's complaint but told reporters, "I feel the game was decided by two teams and nothing else. We outshot, outplayed and outrebounded the sixthbest team in the nation. " There is one memorable game immortalized in a photograph in the Penn State All-Sports Museum that is believed to have drawn the largest basketball crowd ever in Rec Hall. An estimated 8,100 spectators were jammed inside the arena on Feb. 28, 1966, for a game against No. 16 Syracuse, which featured All-American Dave Bing and future Orange coach Jim Boeheim. The crowd showed up so early that the doors were locked a 30 minutes before tipoff. Hundreds of fans were sitting on the floor close to the court, and hundreds of others were standing two-deep on the running track above. They watched – screaming, cheering, jeering and booing the officials and even throwing objects on the court – as coach John Egli's squad stormed back from a 43-22 halftime deficit to win at the buzzer, 80-79. With seconds remaining and the Lions trailing 79-78 sophomore guard Jeff

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