(U-WIRE) UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Saturday night’s men’s basketball matchup at the Bryce Jordan Center had David and Goliath written all over it.

In one corner was the powerful Wisconsin Badgers, featuring a veteran-laden lineup ranked 18th in the country.

In the other corner was youthful Penn State, a struggling underdog if there ever was one, having lost 10 of its last 12 games.

Only this time, there was one problem: David forgot to bring his slingshot.

In what Penn State coach Ed DeChellis called one of his team’s worst performances on the court, the Badgers (14-4, 5-2 Big Ten) crushed the Nittany Lions (7-12, 1-6) 76-50.

“I told the team I think we picked a really, really bad night to play our worst game I think we’ve played in a long time,” DeChellis said. “But that’s what we just did. … We really had no answers tonight. They beat us in every fashion.”

And the Badgers defeated the Lions with the help of an old friend, former Penn State guard Sharif Chambliss, who transferred to Wisconsin shortly before DeChellis arrived two years ago. Penn State’s leading scorer from 2001 and 2002 was booed heavily nearly every time he touched the ball. But the crowd didn’t affect Chambliss, who had the final laugh in the end.

It wasn’t Chambliss who led Wisconsin on the stat sheet, but guard Kammron Taylor instead. Filling in for the Badgers’ leading scorer, sophomore Alando Tucker, the quick sophomore weaved and darted his way through the Penn State defense, gathering a team-high 20 points. Tucker missed the contest with a right foot injury.

The Lions were in trouble right from the start when freshman Geary Claxton picked up his second foul less than two minutes into the game. Wisconsin would go on a 17-3 run later in the first half to take a 30-15 lead and never looked back.

“There’s no room for error,” DeChellis said. “The margin for error for us in our end is really, really small because they’re not going to turn it over. They’re going to take good shots, they’re big and they’re strong and they know what they’re trying to do.”

Junior forward Travis Parker was a little more blunt.

“We took a huge step back,” Parker said. “It wasn’t about the crowd, it wasn’t about us, but geez, it’s disappointing because we’re tired of losing. It may not seem that way, but we want to win. We’ve been practicing and trying to win here, but it seems like we can’t [ever] bring our intentions from practice to the game. We just can’t do it.”

The Lions were outplayed in nearly every area on the court. And for DeChellis, the rebuilding process hasn’t been getting any easier as his young roster looks overwhelmed at times.

Wisconsin’s starting five included four seniors; Penn State had three freshmen and two juniors. Of course, it would have helped if the senior Chambliss was still wearing a blue and white jersey – the Lions don’t even have a starting senior on their roster.

“There’s no magic. I can’t make young guys into old guys over two days,” he said. “I can’t do that, I can’t make them stronger. It’s just a building process and it’s just kind of where we are at the bottom. And we need to continue to work to try to get to the top. I think our players are upset they didn’t play better, and they should be upset because we didn’t play very well.”

-Mark Ludwiczak