COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Twice before No. 6 Penn State trailed at halftime and didn't recover.

With the Nittany Lions behind Ohio State trailing by three points at halftime Sunday, coach Rene Portland wasn't so concerned with technique as team unity.

"We had to value the ball, stop blaming the situation and just play the game," Portland said, after the Lions came back to beat the Buckeyes 56-50.

"What we had to talk about at halftime was us, about what we had to do better," Portland said. "In the second half, we calmed down. You can't cast blame. We did some soul searching."

Andrea Garner scored 15 points, including the go-ahead basket with 4:30 to play, to fuel the Nittany Lions' eighth consecutive win and their 20th in 21 contests. Penn State (24-3), which won the Big Ten title outright with a 15-1 record, will be the top seed in this week's conference tournament.

Yet Ohio State (12-14, 5-11) didn't back down. Playing a rotation that includes only one senior, the Buckeyes hit 4 of 8 shots from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes and stayed away from Penn State's bigger, stronger frontcourt.

But then the Nittany Lions flexed their muscles on defense.

"I always say that defense wins and it did," Ohio State coach Beth Burns said. "Their aggression in the second half -- they went to that three-quarters, even-front pressure -- was the difference. They let you have something and then they close it before you get there."

Ohio State led by six points early in the second half and was tied at 41 after Lauren Shenk, who led the Buckeyes with 21 points, scored on a fast-break layup with 4:48 left.

But Garner countered almost immediately inside for the Nittany Lions to give them the lead for good. After Ohio State's Latoya Turner hit a free throw, Maren Walseth took a pass back from Garner and nailed a 15-foot jumper to make it 45-42 with 3:57 remaining.

The Nittany Lions, shooting 72 percent at the line, scored nine of their final 11 points at the charity stripe, missing just two attempts. The Buckeyes never got closer than five points.

Ohio State went without a field goal for four minutes until a 3-pointer by Jamie Lewis with 48 seconds left.

"We got the shots we wanted," Burns said. "But when we had to get a good look -- and we tried a lot of things -- we couldn't get them."

Penn State won the earlier meeting 73-62 by pounding the ball inside, forcing fouls and hitting free throws. That plan worked again, with the Lions going 15-for-24 from the free-throw line, including a 12-for-19 performance in the second half. Ohio State hit just 6 of 15 for the game.

Portland said she had difficulty getting her team's attention pinpointed on Ohio State, which lost its fourth in a row and sixth in seven games.

"We had senior night the other night. Then the weather got to 70 degrees. You talk about distractions," Portland said. "We had trouble focusing."

Walseth finished with 13 points and Lisa Shepherd added 12 for the Lions, who came in averaging 78 points a game. Garner added 12 rebounds.

Point guard Helen Darling, playing her final regular-season game in her hometown, struggled most of the day and had 10 turnovers to go with eight points and four assists. But she did hit three of the Lions' free throws in the final 1:04.

"I really wanted to win too much," Darling said. "I did a better job of letting the game come to me in the second half."