Thursday night belonged to Alex Marcotullio.

The senior guard’s final game at Welsh-Ryan Arena will be memorable despite the fact Northwestern could not pull out the victory. Marcotullio set a career high with 22 points and hit a career-best six 3-pointers in the Wildcats’ 66-59 loss to Penn State.

“It hurts,” Marcotullio said. “I wanted to go out on top here, but sadly that’s not the case. I left everything out there and so did (senior guard Reggie Hearn) and everyone else. I’m just happy to be a part of this great program and university.”

Penn State coach Patrick Chambers said he expected Marcotullio to have a big night.

Marcotullio entered the night shooting a career low from behind the arc, stuck at 30 percent for the season. Thursday night, the senior hit 67 percent of his shots, all of which came from behind the three-point line.

Marcotullio’s night was overshadowed by a plethora of Cats’ (13-17, 4-13 Big Ten) errors that allowed the Nittany Lions (10-19, 2-15) to escape Evanston with their second Big Ten win. NU’s mistakes began with 10 first-half turnovers, which led to 16 points for Penn State on the other end. The Cats ended the game with 15 turnovers, but the Nittany Lions did not capitalize on them in the second half.

— Josh Walfish