If you thought the officiating in Penn State’s 84-80 win over Northwestern on Thursday night was one-sided, you’re not alone. Fans and pundits took to social media to voice their opinions, and they all weren’t Wildcat fans’ sour grapes.

Penn State took more free throws (45) than shots from the floor (44) in the game. Think about that for a moment.

Northwestern took 17 more shots than the Nittany Lions did, but took 23 fewer free throws, 45-22.

In all, the Wildcats were whistled for fouls 30 times, 13 more than the Nittany Lions.

In an otherwise even game that was decided in the final five seconds, it was a disparity that stood out like a pimple on the end of Sydney Sweeney’s nose.

Northwestern has been on the wrong end of a game with heavy foul disparities before, of course. Just last year, Purdue had a 46-8 edge in free-throw attempts in the Wildcats’ overtime loss in West Lafayette.

This game, though, was worse. Why? In that game, Purdue was the No. 2 team in the country and eventually made the national championship game. They featured 7-foot-4 Zach Edey, the national player of the year and a man no one could handle in the paint, who attracted foul calls like a dog attracts fleas. He took 17 free throws all by himself.

It’s sort of an unwritten rule in college basketball that elite teams get the benefit of the whistle. The Boilers were going to get more calls in their favor than the Wildcats.

But this is Penn State we’re talking about here. The Lions are off to an impressive 12-2 start this season, but they’ve gone 19-21 in conference play over the last two years. They didn’t deserve to get all those calls, even on their home floor.

To take it a step further, you have to ask why Penn State, and not Northwestern, is getting all those foul calls in the first place. The Wildcats have 24 Big Ten wins over the last two seasons, third-most behind Purdue and Illinois. They’ve made the NCAA Tournament the last two years running. Why don’t they get more whistles in their favor?

Northwestern head coach Chris Collins took the high road after Thursday night’s debacle. You might remember that he let the officials have it after the Purdue game last year. He got ejected with 1.7 seconds left for yelling at a referee and then got a $5,000 fine and a public reprimand.

He was much more measured in the post-game press conference, but he still mentioned the foul difference and asked why his team doesn’t get more calls.

"They put pressure on the officials to call fouls,” he said. “But I think we do, too. I have two guys in [Nick] Martinelli and [Brooks] Barnhizer that drive like that, too. I thought they should have been shooting some free throws, as well.”

Those two players, Martinelli and Barnhizer, each average 20 points per game, more than any player in the Big Ten not named Dylan Harper. They are not long-range bombers, but old-school players who do most of their work in the paint.

Yet against Penn State, Martinelli and Barnhizer combined took fewer free throws (13) than Penn State’s Ace Baldwin Jr. had on his own (16). Baldwin is an aggressive point guard who specializes in getting to the rim, so he’s going to get his share of calls. But he shouldn’t draw as many fouls as a bona fide star and massive force like Edey.

To take it a step further, last year the Wildcats had Boo Buie, a first-team All-Big Ten point guard and maybe the second-best player in the league behind Edey. Yet he didn’t take a single free throw in that game against the Boilers.

Last night’s game was not what James Naismith intended when he invented the game. Northwestern did a lot of the things against Penn State that normally win basketball games.

The Wildcats took 17 more shots than the Lions, and made six more. They struggled with turnovers throughout the game but still had one fewer than Penn State. They had five more rebounds and a 16-9 edge in offensive boards. Their bench outscored PSU’s 25-17. They made two more 3-pointers.

But they couldn’t overcome Penn State’s 18 more points from the charity stripe.

Not only did the Wildcats have to deal with the points deficit, but they had to battle foul trouble all night. Five Wildcats finished the game with four fouls. Ty Berry, who typically plays 26.4 minutes per game, played just 14. Jalen Leach, averaged 30.4, played 24.

To top things off, the officials also took away a game-tying put-back from Barnhizer in the closing seconds that would have sent the game to overtime. Instead, they called goaltending, and the whistle wiped out Barnhizer’s basket. Upon review, the referees determined that there was no goaltending.

Still, the Wildcats had a chance to at least tie, or potentially win the game with 6.7 seconds left. But Penn State herded center Matt Nicholson out of bounds on a drive and his hurried pass into traffic was intercepted by Baldwin who – what else? – hit two free throws to ice the game.

The full sequence with the game on the line that drew the ire of CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, one of the loudest voices in college basketball. He called it “the ABOMINATION of all ABOMINATIONS.”

Penn State is a tough team. They have five starters who average double figures. The Wildcats have now lost 20 of their last 27 games at the Bryce Jordan Center for a reason.

It’s tough enough for the Wildcats to beat the Nittany Lions straight up. When they have to overcome the referee’s whistles, too, it’s all but impossible.