It's a new year, but Thursday night marked another agonizing road loss for Northwestern.

Brooks Barnhizer and Nick Martinelli scored a combined 38 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome four double-digit Penn State scorers and an overwhelming disparity at the free-throw line, as the Wildcats dropped an 84-80 decision to the Nittany Lions in Big Ten play in State College, Pa.

The Wildcats are now 0-4 away from home this season, with the losses coming by an average of three points, and all four of them being decided in the closing seconds.

Northwestern had the ball, trailing 82-80, with 5.7 seconds to play. Ty Berry missed a 3-pointer that Jalen Leach rebounded near the rim. His put-back attempt was blocked by D’marco Dunn, and the officials inadvertently blew the whistle, thinking Dunn was guilty of goaltending. The whistle wiped out the put-back by Barnhizer, who had gathered the loose ball and dropped it in the basket.

After a lengthy review, the officials gave the ball to Northwestern for an inbounds play with 6.7 seconds left. The play was a disaster, with Matt Nicholson putting the ball on the floor and driving baseline before his attempted pass was intercepted by Ace Baldwin Jr. Baldwin made both free throws to produce the final margin.

The story of this game, however, was free throws: Penn State attempted 45, more than double Northwestern’s 21, and made 36 of them, 18 more than the Wildcats’ total.

Barnhizer led Northwestern with 20 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh straight double-double, plus a career-high eight assists. Martinelli was the only other scorer in double figures with 18.

Zach Hicks led Penn State with 20 points, while Baldwin scored 15 of his 17 points at the charity stripe.

Here are our takeaways from the loss that drops Northwestern’s record to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in Big Ten play:

The Cats couldn’t overcome the fouls disparity: Northwestern was whistled for 30 fouls in this contest, and Penn State was in the double-bonus for more than 10 minutes in the second half. The Nittany Lions were whistled just 17 times.

The Lions attempted 23 more free throws and scored 18 more points than the Wildcats at the charity stripe.

Not only that, but Northwestern had key players in foul trouble all night. No one fouled out, but five Wildcats finished the game with four fouls: Leach, Berry, Barnhizer, Angelo Ciaravino and Justin Mullins. Berry picked up two fouls early in the first half and his third early in the second, so he was limited to just 14 minutes, more than 12 minutes less than his average.

The Wildcats did a good job defending Baldwin, Penn State’s leading scorer, limiting him to just 1-of-7 shooting from the floor. But the Lions’ point guard made 15 of his 16 attempts from the free-throw line as he drew foul after foul.

The Wildcats’ bench came through: While Northwestern’s starters had problems with fouls, shooting or turnovers, it was the bench that shined with a whopping 25 points.

Ciaravino finished with 8 points, all in the first half, 3-of-5 shooting, while KJ Windham also added 8. The two were pressed into heavy duty in the first half, when Leach and Berry were both on the bench with foul trouble. Leach and Berry combined for just 2 points in 15 combined minutes in the first half, while Ciaravino and Windham produced 11 together.

Justin Mullins finished with 7 points, while Luke Hunger added 2 to round out the reserves’ scoring.

Northwestern head coach Chris Collins gets regularly criticized for playing a short bench and not giving freshmen like Ciaravino and Windham many minutes early in the season. But both of them showed up big in the first game the Wildcats really needed them.

The Wildcats uncharacteristically had problems with turnovers: Northwestern came into the game as one of the best ballhandling teams in the nation, averaging just 8.9 turnovers per game. The Wildcats matched that total by the half and finished with 16.

Leach was bothered by the Nittany Lion pressure throughout the game and finished with five turnovers, while Barnhizer had four. Credit both of them for making up for their ballhandling deficiencies in other ways: Leach had three steals and three assists, while Barnhizer led all players with eight assists, coming up two dimes short of a triple-double.

Still, the sheer number of turnovers didn’t decide this one because Penn State had 17 giveaways and the Wildcats held a 19-18 advantage in points off turnovers.

But in a tight game decided in the final 10 seconds, a couple fewer turnovers could have been the difference.