Temple 72, Penn 61 (January 15, 1958)
One horrendous stretch of eight
and a half minutes midway through the second half, when the
Quakers could not score a single point, spelled defeat for Penn's
hustling, fighting, cagers, as Temple took its opening City Series
contest of the season, 72-61, at the Palestra. With sixteen
minutes left in the game, the Quakers trailed by only two points,
41-39, to the No. 12 Owls, and had an assemblage of 3288 screaming
in disbelief. But Temple ripped off 14 consecutive points before
Jack Saxenmeyer snapped the Quaker drought with a jump shot to
make it 55-41. The Penn battlers still wouldn't give up, however,
and one last spurt, led by Saxenmeyer, who topped all scorers with
20 points, brought them to within six, 57-51 with three minutes
remaining. Eighteen seconds later, Jay Norman, an outstanding Owl
all night, tapped in a bucket and finished off a three-point play
with a foul conversion on Saxenmeyer's fifth personal, upping it
to 60-51. Any chance for a Quaker win went down the drain as Penn
missed six fouls in the closing two minutes. Click
to
watch footage from this game.
Penn 78, St.
Joseph's 77 (3 OT) (December 22, 1962)
Penn led by
nine twice in the second half and by 67-60 down the stretch. With
just four seconds to go in regulation, Ed Walsh hit a long jumper
for St. Joseph's to send the game into overtime, 68-68. Bob
Purdy's 60-footer at the buzzer would have won it for Penn, but it
bounced off the rim. The Hawks' John Tiller had a tap go in and
out at the end of a scoreless first overtime. Purdy's follow for
the Quakers at 1:21 forged a tie at 72, which is how the second
extra frame ended. Joe Kelly opened the scoring in the third
overtime, giving the Hawks a 74-72 lead. Penn tied it 28 seconds
later, 74-74, on John Wideman's two free throws. The Hawks' Jimmy
Lynam then froze the ball until 35 seconds remained. He was fouled
by Wideman and made one free throw, giving St. Joe's a 75-74
advantage. With 18 seconds remaining, Purdy hit Wideman under the
basket for a layup and a 76-75 Quaker lead. With just seven
seconds left, Penn's Jeff Sturm made two free throws, extending
Penn's lead to 78-75. Lynam drove the length of the floor for a
layup at the buzzer, making the final score 78-77. Click
to watch Ed Walsh's jumper which sent the
game into overtime.
Penn 91, Columbia 81
(February 8, 1969)
There are great Palestra
doubleheaders... and then there are Great Palestra
Doubleheaders!!! In this opener, the Columbia Lions, featuring Jim McMillian and
Heyward Dotson, invaded the Palestra ranked No. 14 nationally. Penn came into the game with a 10-8
record, 5-2 in the Ivy League. The Lions --15-2 and fresh off suffering a drubbing at Princeton the
night before -- became among the first to suffer what would become
the three-year wrath of Bilsky and Wohl. The sophomores scored 57
points (Steve Bilsky had a career-high 35, including 17-for-20 from the free
throw line), combined
to shoot 17-for-34 from the floor and dealt eight assists (Dave
Wohl totaled five). They also managed a cool 23-for-27 from the
line. The 91-81 upset win was the Quakers' fourth in a row, the
very early stages of a two-year stretch in which they would go
61-5. Oh, by the way,
the nightcap featured the #7 La Salle Explorers (17-1) against the
#8 Villanova Wildcats (16-2). Sophomore Ken Durrett (20 points, 15
rebounds) led the Explorers to a 74-67 win over sophomore Howard
Porter (21 points, 21 rebounds) and the Wildcats. Click
to watch highlights of Penn's upset win.
Penn 71, Ohio State 64
(December 12, 1970)
Penn fans had
known long before the season began that the Columbus trip would be
the toughest game of the early season. Ohio State was hungrily
eying a possible Big Ten title, which they subsequently won. Penn
trailed at the half, 29-28, and was down seven points with 6:45
remaining. Then Dave Wohl (20 points) reentered the game and lit
the fire to the Quaker offense. With just over three-and-a-half
minutes remaining, an 18-foot jumper by Wohl gave the Quakers a
brief one-point lead, before baskets by Luke Witte and Alan
Hornyak put the Buckeyes back on top, 64-61, with 2:10 to go. A
pair of free throws by Corky Calhoun (17 points) with 1:54 to go
and a layup by Calhoun, with 1:27 left, put the Quakers ahead for
good, 65-64. Steve Bilsky converted two one-and-ones in the final
50 seconds to put the game on ice for Penn. Click
to watch some of the highlights or
click
to listen to highlights of Penn's
exciting comeback win.
Penn 107, La Salle 88 (December 19,
1970)
Both teams entered the Big 5 contest undefeated. During the
opening six minutes, Penn used an awesome fast-break offense to
take control. The Quakers jumped out to an 18-5 lead as guards
Steve Bilsky and Dave Wohl dominated the scoring. Bilsky and Wohl
combined for 29 first-half points as the Red and Blue led, 49-26,
at halftime. Penn also sparkled on defense as Jim Wolf held La
Salle All-American Ken Durrett to just four field goals on 10
attempts. In the second half, with the game out of reach, Penn
substituted liberally. It was only then that Durrett managed most
of his game-high 31 points. La Salle never got back in the game,
however, losing by a score of 107-88. This was the only time Penn
scored 100 points in a Big 5 game. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
QUAKER CITY TOURNAMENT: Penn 85,
Syracuse 77 (OT) (December 26, 1970)
Steve Bilsky scored 10 points in overtime as Penn defeated
Syracuse, 85-77, in the first round of the 10th annual Quaker City
tournament. Penn had to rally in the second half before subduing a
surprising Syracuse team, which led by as many as five points in
the second half. Syracuse led, 67-66, with 1:27 remaining. Penn
tied the score on a free throw by Corky Calhoun a second later.
When neither team could score, the game went into overtime.
Bilsky, who failed to score in the first half, sent Penn ahead,
69-67, on a pair of free throws with 17 seconds gone in the
overtime period. Jim Wolf and Bilsky followed with field goals to
raise the Quakers' lead to 73-67. The closest Syracuse could get
after that was four points. Bilsky wound up with 21 points, while
Bob Morse led the Penn scoring with 30 points. Dave Wohl dished
out 12 assists. Click
to watch some
of the action as Syracuse took an early second-half lead.
“QUAKER CITY CHAMPIONS”: Penn 76,
Temple 55 (December 29, 1970)
Dave Wohl, one of two “small” men on Penn's towering
basketball team scored 25 points as the sixth-ranked Quakers
defeated Temple, 76-55, to win the 10th annual Quaker City
tournament. Wohl, a 6-2 senior, hit 10 field goals and five free
throws as Penn won easily despite a cold-shooting game. Wohl's
jump shots from outside broke Temple's zone defense earlier and
helped Penn move to a 35-26 halftime lead. Corky Calhoun
contributed 14 points while Bob Morse and Steve Bilsky added 11
points apiece. Ollie Johnson led the Owls with 19 points. Click
to watch some of the action.
Penn 62, Temple 48 (January 20, 1971)
Fourth-ranked Penn, led by the clutch shooting of Dave Wohl,
Bob Morse and Steve Bilsky, rallied in the second half for a 62-48
victory over Temple. The Owls survived a poor start to take a
22-19 halftime lead by scoring the last six points of the period.
With 3:06 left in the game, the unbeaten Quakers then spurted for
11 straight points and their 14th victory of the season. The Owls
shot just 29.8 percent from the floor. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
Penn 78, Villanova 70
(January 23, 1971)
This was the
game people waited to see ever since the Palestra schedule was
published. Penn entered the contest with a 14-0 record, ranked 4th
in the nation, while Villanova was 14-3, ranked 14th. The Quakers' Bob Morse picked up
three fouls after only six minutes of play and spent the rest of
the half on the bench. The Wildcats' Hank Siemiontkowski dominated
the early scoring with some hot outside shooting, and Villanova
led at the break. In the second half, trailing 44-36, the Quakers
began their comeback. After a Corky Calhoun layup, the Penn
defense forced Villanova into taking some bad shots while the
Quakers ran off three baskets to bring them to within one, 47-46.
After a Howard Porter foul shot, Jim Wolf hit two free throws to
tie things up, 48-48. Morse, who came back to score 15 second half
points, popped from the outside putting Penn ahead, 50-48, with
13:30 remaining, a lead they never relinquished. Click
to watch highlights, including
Corky Calhoun's “amazing shot”.
Penn 92, Columbia 79 (February 6, 1971)
Penn broke its
first-place Ivy League tie with Columbia by defeating the Lions,
92-79, before 8,580 fans at The Palestra. It wasn't until the
second half, when Columbia was giving them a battle, that the
Quakers made sure of their triumph. Ahead once by 20 in the first
half, and 46-29 at the break, Penn saw its margin dwindle to six
points after 11 minutes of the second half. But Bob Morse and Jim
Wolf led the surge that overcame any chance that Columbia might
have had. Morse was the strong man off the boards, getting 16 of
the Quakers' 51 rebounds. Columbia had 31. Twelve of Morse's
rebounds were off the offensive board and enabled Penn to sustain
its attack. The shorter Lions tried hard, but couldn't keep pace.
Wolf, who had 18 points, matching his career high, hit on all
seven of his floor shots down the stretch of the second half. He
seemed to have a funnel leading to the net. Click
to watch some of the highlights,
including an amazing 15-foot hook shot by Jim Wolf.
“PENN SCORES 100 POINTS
TWICE”: Penn 103, Harvard 72; Penn 102, Dartmouth 75 (February
19-20, 1971)
For almost two years, the Penn
fans had been screaming for Corky Calhoun to go out and score a
bundle of points, something he hadn't had to, and so hadn't done.
During the same period, in which the Quakers had gone 47-2, the
fans had clamored for big wins, where the Red and Blue really blow
someone out. They got both their wishes. Fourth-ranked Penn
disposed of Ivy challenger Harvard with unexpected ease, 103-72,
Friday night at the Palestra. Leading
18-17, the Quakers slowed the Crimson running game and picked up
its own to outscore Harvard, 30-7, for the remainder of the
half. Saturday
night the home forces pounded Dartmouth, 102-75, on the court
where they'd won thirty straight games. Calhoun was better than
normal, which is saying quite a lot. Against the Crimson he added
a career-high 28 points to his always outstanding all-around game
and even had coach Dick Harter admitting, “I guess this is the
best night he's had for us.” Saturday night there was almost
no reason to be high, as a mediocre Dartmouth quintet came to
town. The Quakers had another easy one. For the second night in a
row everybody played and eleven men scored, as Penn surpassed 100
points in two straight games for the first time ever. Click
to watch highlights of the
Dartmouth game.
“THE PERFECT SEASON”:
Penn 70, Columbia 58 (March 6, 1971)
Considered by
many to be the the greatest Penn basketball team of all time, the
1970-71 team completed
its first undefeated regular basketball season since 1920-21 by
defeating Columbia, 70-58, at University Gymnasium. It was the
26th victory for the Quakers, the 43d in a row in regular season
play and the 28th straight in the Ivy League. The Quakers put the finishing
touches on their perfect season in spite of losing their starting
point guard, Steve Bilsky, to injury in the contest. In coach Dick
Harter's fifth year guiding the Red and Blue, the Quakers made a
clean sweep of the regular season with wins over Ohio State,
Syracuse and Utah. Penn also defeated each of its city foes to
claim the Big 5 title. Bilsky and Dave Wohl manned the back-court
for the Quakers, as only two of their regular season victories
were decided by five points or less. Penn ascended the national
rankings to as high as No. 3 and defeated Duquesne and South
Carolina in the NCAA Tournament, before falling to Villanova,
90-47, in the East Regional final. The Wildcats later had to
forfeit the game due to an ineligible player. Click
to listen to the final seconds of Penn's perfect
season.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Penn 70, Duquesne
65 (March 13, 1971)
When the NCAA
Tournament pairings were announced, No. 4 ranked Penn was to take
on No. 11 Duquesne, the top Eastern Independent, in the opening
round. The Iron Dukes entered the game with a record of 21-3 and a
15-game winning streak. The Quakers' injured guard, Steve Bilsky,
was replaced in the starting lineup by forward Phil Hankinson,
moving Corky Calhoun to the backcourt. Bob Morse connected on nine
20-footers in the first half, helping Penn take a 32-28 halftime
lead. In the second half, Penn controlled but could not break the
game open. But Duquesne could not catch up. The lead varied
between three and nine points. With 3:10 to go, and Penn leading
by three, 61-58, the Quakers went into the Bilsky-Wohl freeze,
putting the game away. The Quakers were finally relieved of the
terrible burden that the previous year's first round NCAA
Tournament loss to Niagara had placed on them. Click
to listen to some of the original radio broadcast.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Penn 79, South Carolina 64 (March 18, 1971)
The 3rd ranked
Quakers took on the ACC Champion, the 6th ranked South Carolina
Gamecocks, in the NCAA Tournament's second round in ACC country
-- Raleigh, North Carolina. The first half was extremely
close, and Bob Morse kept the Quakers in the game, scoring 16
points, as Penn trailed, 37-36, at halftime. With five minutes
remaining in the game, Penn held a slim 61-58 lead, before the
poised Quakers really took control. Dave Wohl canned a one-and-one
and followed with another. Then Corky Calhoun made two free
throws, upping the score to 67-58 with 4:03 to go. On the
Gamecocks' next possession, All-American guard John Roche was
called for an offensive foul, which was followed by a technical
foul on Roche. Wohl converted the technical foul shot. Then Wohl
made another one-and-one and Bilsky made two. Penn had completed
an 11-0 run, all on foul shots, and led 72-58. Morse led all
scorers with 28 points and Wohl added 20. Click
to listen to some of the original radio broadcast.
“90-47”: Villanova 90, Penn 47 (March 20, 1971)
As the day
dawned in Raleigh, N.C., all the Penn Quakers had going for them
was a No. 3 ranking, an undefeated season and victories in 61 of
their previous 65 games, including three straight against
Villanova, the only team between them and the Eastern Regional
championship. But what unfurled was - quite simply - the most
shocking score in Big 5 history. Villanova 90, Penn 47. The
19th-ranked Wildcats led 9-1 early, then 13-3, 43-22 at
intermission... and then they opened the second half by scoring
the first 16 points, making it 59-22 and leaving only the final
numbers to be determined. Howard Porter shot 16-for-24 en route to
35 points and 15 rebounds. Hank Siemiontkowski was 10-for-15 and
finished 20 points and seven rebounds. The Wildcats wound up
shooting 37-for-60, a 61.7 percentage. Meanwhile, not one Penn
player was able to reach double digits. While the season ended for
Penn, the Wildcats would go on to defeat Western Kentucky in a
double-overtime semifinal, 92-89, and lose to Sidney Wicks and
UCLA in the championship game.
KODAK CLASSIC: Penn 88,
USC 67 (December 28, 1971)
No. 14 Penn
upset the nation's fifth-ranked team, Southern California, 88-67,
in the first round of the Kodak Classic at Rochester's War
Memorial Coliseum. The Quakers got outstanding shooting in the
game's early stages from Corky Calhoun and Bob Morse to build a
31-13 lead. USC cut the deficit to 41-37 at halftime but Penn,
behind the shooting of Morse and Phil Hankinson pulled away midway
through the second half after the Trojans lost their back-court
ace, Paul Westphal, on fouls. Hankinson had 21 points and Morse
20. Joe Mackey led USC with 17. Click
to listen to the first 1:40 of the
second half.
PENN'S 1,000TH WIN: Penn 80, La Salle 66 (January 26, 1972)
Penn became the
fifth major college to win 1,000 basketball games as the
ninth-ranked Quakers pulled away in the second half for an 80-66
victory over La Salle, before a crowd of 6,589 at The Palestra.
Penn, with an 11-2 record, joined Kentucky, Kansas, Oregon State
and St. John's in the 1,000-win club. Phil
Hankinson and Bob Morse led the Quakers with 18 points apiece.
Corky Calhoun added 16 points and Craig Littlepage chipped in with
11. In the first game of the doubleheader, St. Joseph's defeated Xavier, 75-63. Click
to watch some of the second-half
action.
BIG 5 CO-CHAMPIONS:
Penn 77, St. Joseph's 64 (February 29, 1972)
Alan Cotler
scored 25 points to lead Penn to a 77-64 victory over St.
Joseph's, before a crowd of 9,122 at The Palestra. The win gave the fourth-ranked
Quakers, who improved to 21-2 on the season, a share of the Big 5
championship. Click
to watch the first two minutes of
the second half.
IVY CHAMPS: Penn 37,
Brown 33 (March 4, 1972)
Brown almost
pulled off the miracle of Marvel Gymnasium by holding the ball
against the Penn, but the Quakers overcame Brown's stall and
scored a 37-33 victory to clinch their third straight Ivy League
title. The victory was Penn's 500th in Ivy League play. Brown
jumped out to a 4-0 lead before baskets by Phil Hankinson and
Corky Calhoun tied the score, 4-4. The Quakers took their first
lead, 8-6, on a Calhoun field goal with 12:05 to play in the half.
There were five ties and five lead changes after that, with Penn
going to the dressing room at halftime leading by two points,
18-16. Calhoun, who had nine points in the first half, shared
scoring honors with Arnie Berman of Brown. Each had 13 points.
They were the only players in double figures. Ten of Berman's
points came after intermission. Click
to listen to the final 50 seconds.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Providence 87, Penn
65 (March 15, 1973)
Providence exploited the fast break for short spurts to beat
Penn and move to the East Regional final of the NCAA tournament.
The Friars used their speed to take command and trounce Penn,
87-65, before a crowd of 11,400 in the Charlotte Coliseum.
Providence established the pattern for its victory quite early by
running and breaking fast enough so that the Quakers were unable
to set their defenses. Guard Ernie DiGregorio and center Marvin
Barnes, who scored 10 points in the early stages, helped the
Friars take a 32-19 lead. Providence led, 36-29, at halftime.
Barnes finished with a game-high 20 points on perfect 10-for-10
shooting and DiGregorio, who had 10 assists, scored 18, including
10 in the second half. When Barnes picked up his third personal
foul late in the first half, the Friars switched from a man-to-man
defense to a zone. But Penn was unable to hit well over that
defense and the Quakers' poor shooting was a big factor in their
elimination. During the first half, Penn hit only 12-of-44 field
goal attempts for 27.3 percent while Providence connected on 60
percent of its floor shots. The Quakers didn't improve much
against the zone and were 33.7 percent for the game. Phil
Hankinson led the Quakers with 19 points and Ron Haigler added 18. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
“THE SHOT”: Penn 84, La Salle 82 (December 19, 1973)
A lot can happen on one play... With
the score tied, 82-82, in the closing seconds, Eddie “The
Shot” Stefanski drove toward the basket and launched
a 12-footer from just outside the lane.
Just after he released the ball, Stefanski charged into La
Salle's Bill Taylor. Meanwhile, about two feet from the
basket, the Explorers' Joe Bryant swatted the ball
away. One referee called Stefanski for an offensive
foul while the other called Bryant for goal-tending. After a
lengthy discussion between officials Norb
Cadden and Tom McCormick,
Penn was awarded two points on the goal-tending call and
Taylor was awarded a one-and-one free throw opportunity with
0:02 remaining. Taylor subsequently missed the front end of
the one-and-one and and Ron
Haigler's rebound secured the
84-82 victory for the Quakers, who had trailed by nine with
5:33 remaining. John Beecroft led the Red and Blue with 21
points, while Stefanski added 15.
Click
to watch Ed Stefanski's “shot” and the
ensuing controversy.
Penn 43, Temple
42 (January 8, 1974)
Temple
led, 40-37, with 4:21 to go. Both teams turned the ball over
before Penn's John Beecroft hit a jumper at 3:20 to cut the Owls'
lead to 40-39. At 2:50, Temple's Wes Ramseur hit a 12-footer to
extend the lead to 42-39. Ramseur fouled John Engles at 1:38 and
he converted both to close the gap to 42-41. With 1:24 to go,
Kevin Washington was called for an offensive foul and the ball
went over to the Quakers. With just 25 seconds remaining, Beecroft
hit a 15-footer for the winning Penn points, 43-42. Click
to
watch highlights as the Quakers outlasted the Owls.
“JOHN
BEECROFT'S BUZZER-BEATER”: Penn 55, Harvard 53 (January 12, 1974)
Junior guard John
Beecroft's shot in the last second lifted Penn to a 55-53 victory
over Harvard at The Palestra. With eight seconds to play and the
score tied at 53-53, Beecroft tipped a jump ball to Penn's 6'11"
center Henry Johnson. Johnson shot from the corner, the ball
bounced off the rim and into the hands of Beecroft in the key.
Beecroft's running one-hander fell through the net with one second
left on the clock. Harvard played inspired and disciplined
basketball throughout the game. Beecroft's heroics negated Lou
Silver's 25 point, 12-rebound effort for Harvard. The Quakers were
led by junior forward Ron Haigler who scored 21 points, shooting 9
for 16 from the floor. Beecroft hit for 12. Click
to watch the final dramatic
seconds.
WHITEY VARGA'S BUZZER-BEATER: Penn 55, St. Joseph's 53 (January 15, 1974)
Between
7:07 and 1:54 of the second half, the Hawks' Mike Moody and Penn's
Ron Haigler exchanged goals until Moody's shot tied it at 53-53.
At 1:39, Penn called timeout. St. Joe's Jim O'Brien knocked the
ball out of bounds with 58 seconds to go. The Quakers inbounded
and froze the ball until nine seconds remained and then called
timeout. With just three seconds remaining, Penn's Whitey Varga
missed a baseline jumper but was fouled by the Hawks' Craig Kelly.
He made both to give the Quakers a 55-53 lead. Penn knocked the
ball out of bounds with two seconds left on the inbound pass.
Moody then inbounded the length of the court to Kevin Furey, whose
17-footer was off the target and the Quakers survived. The win
improved Penn's Big 5 record to 3-0, winning the three games by a
combined five points. The Quakers were either tied or trailing
during the final half minute of all three games, but found a way
to pull out each of them. Click
to watch highlights of Penn's exciting City
Series win.
“JOHN ENGLES'
SEASON-ENDING KNEE INJURY”: La Salle 67, Penn 65 (January 18,
1975)
With 2:57 remaining and the score
tied, 65-65, Penn's leading scorer, Ron Haigler (20 points and 11
rebounds), fouled out. Earlier in the game (at the 11:24 mark),
Penn's second-best scorer and rebounder, John Engles (12 points
and 14 rebounds), suffered a knee injury and was lost for the
remainder of the season. After the Quakers' Ed Stefanski missed
the front end of a one-and-one with 2:11 remaining, Joe Bryant (25
points and 11 rebounds) rebounded and the Explorers controlled. La Salle sat on the ball for over
two minutes. Bryant got the ball in low with just six seconds
remaining and hit an eight-footer to win the game for the
Explorers, 67-65, with a little help from a malfunctioning shot
clock. The Big 5 coaches agreed to have an experimental 30-second
shot clock for all of its City Series games during the 1974-75
season. Ironically,
the shot clock malfunctioned 11:37 into the game, and Penn's Chuck
Daly and La Salle's Paul Westhead decided to play without it. That
allowed the Explorers to hold the ball for the final game-winning
shot. The La Salle win gave the 11th-ranked Explorers the City
Series title and ended Penn's run of five consecutive Big 5
championships. It also ended the Quakers' record 12-game Big 5
winning streak. Click
to listen to
John Engles' season-ending knee injury.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Penn 92, St. Bonaventure 83 (March
12, 1978)
Playing in his first NCAA
tournament game, Keven McDonald scored a career-high 37 points to
lead Penn to a 92-83 victory over St. Bonaventure, in the first
round of the Eastern regional, before a sellout crowd of 9,208 at
The Palestra. McDonald
kept the foul-riddled Quaker team from total collapse in the first
half with 19 points, and he then paved the way for his team's 62
percent shooting in the second half. The Bonnies tried to stop
McDonald with a zone defense, and later Tim Waterman and Greg
Sanders took turns guarding him man-to-man. Nothing worked.
McDonald made 16 of his 25 shots and grabbed 11 rebounds. St.
Bonaventure led 42-37 at halftime, and its advantage could have
been bigger if it had made its free throws. The Bonnies went to
the free-throw line for 22 shots and made 14. By comparison, Penn
had five free throws and hit on three. Villanova defeated La
Salle, 103-97, in the first game of the NCAA tournament
doubleheader.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Duke 84, Penn 80 (March 17, 1978)
Duke rallied from eight
points back in the last nine minutes and beat Penn, 84-80, in the
second game of an Eastern regional semifinal doubleheader, before
10,689 in the Providence Civic Center. 6'11" sophomore Mike
Gminski was the hero of the Duke comeback. He stopped Penn dead
when the Quakers were threatening to pull off the upset. Gminski
simply slammed three successive Penn layup attempts back at the
Quakers. Following each of those blocked shots, Duke came up with
the ball and scored a total of six points. The defense helped Duke
to run off 12 straight points and gain a 70-66 lead with five
minutes to go. Duke never trailed again. Duke freshman Gene Banks
had a game-high 21 points. Villanova surprised Indiana, 61-60, in
the first game.
“VINCENT'S ARRIVAL”: Penn 80,
Virginia 78 (November 29, 1978)
With less than six
minutes remaining and Penn clinging to a 75-67 lead, freshman
Vincent Ross -- in his first collegiate game -- supplied a
highlight-reel rejection of a shot by Virginia's Lee Raker,
sending the Palestra crowd into a frenzy. The Quakers went on to
defeat the Cavaliers, 80-78, as they converted 22-of-24 free throw
attempts (91.7 percent). Tony Price paced Penn with a career-high
29 points and 11 rebounds. Bobby Willis had 15 points for the
Quakers, Matt White added 14 and James Salters 12. Click
to watch Vincent Ross' emphatic rejection.
“TONY PRICE'S PUT-BACK
JAM”: Penn 79, Temple 74 (January 10,
1979)
At The Palestra, Tony
Price delighted the sellout crowd of 9,208 with a memorable
one-handed put-back jam. With Penn leading, 4-2, in the opening
minutes, Price raced between three Temple players and rose over
the Owls' Walt Montford to slam home the rebound of a James
Salters miss. The Quakers shot 30-of-45 from the floor (67
percent) in defeating No. 18 Temple, 79-74. Salters led the
Quakers with 21 points. Price had 19 points and Tim Smith added
18. Penn and Temple would wind up sharing the City Series
championship with 3-1 Big 5 records.
Click
to watch Tony Price's one-handed put-back
jam.
Penn 43, St. Joseph's
42 (January 16, 1979)
Just another
step on the way to the final four -- might as well be dramatic on
the way. Three days after taking Princeton to overtime and finally
escaping Jadwin Gym with a one-point victory, the Quakers returned
to the Palestra for another ritual rivalry. Another annual event,
another one-point victory. In Jim Lynam's first career Big 5 game
as coach of St. Joseph's, the over-matched Hawks played evenly
with Penn and had a shot at the buzzer to win the game. With five
seconds remaining in the game, St. Joseph's Luke Griffin let his
only shot of the night fly, but when Penn's Tony Price grabbed the
rebound, the result was sealed. Click
to watch the exciting final seconds.
Georgetown 78, Penn 76 (January 20, 1979)
Craig Shelton tossed in
21 points to spark No. 10 Georgetown to a 78-76 victory over Penn,
at The Palestra. Georgetown (14-2) trailed, 74-73, with 1:45 to
play, but Tom Scates' stuff-shot and two free throws by
John Duren gave the Hoyas a 77-74 edge. Bobby Willis scored for
Penn with 10 seconds left, but Duren's
foul shot with two seconds remaining provided the final score.
Georgetown led through most of the first half, but Penn (11-3)
came back on four straight points by freshman Angelo Reynolds, to
take a 32-29 lead at the intermission. Click
to watch Angelo Reynolds' four straight points give Penn a
32-29 lead.
“THE TOM
SIENKIEWICZ GAME”: Villanova 89, Penn 80 (February 13, 1979)
Tom Sienkiewicz sank a
pile of free throws - and teammate Ron Cowan sank his head into
the backboard - as Villanova became the first 0-3 city series team
to defeat a 3-0 team by outlasting Penn, 89-80. Sienkiewicz, a
6-foot-2-inch sophomore, made 21 of 23 free throws - including all
four ones-and-ones he attempted in the final 57 seconds - and shot
9-for-14 from the floor to score 39 points. He connected on 13
straight free throws in the second half. Cowan, a 6-11 senior
substitute who finally got some significant minutes, scored eight
points. But his more dramatic contribution took place when he
blocked a driving shot by Quaker freshman Angelo Reynolds as the
first-half buzzer sounded, in the process ramming his head on an
unprotected part of the backboard. He received three stitches
above his right eye and returned to play in the final two minutes.
Villanova jumped out to a 19-3 lead in the first 5:21. The
Quakers, led by Tony Price's 27 points, got as close as four in
the final minute, but Sienkiewicz nailed the door shut each time.
Click
to watch highlights of the Tom
Sienkiewicz show.
“BLACK SUNDAY”: Penn
72, North Carolina 71 (March 11, 1979)
Unranked Penn
shocked North Carolina -- the East Region's No. 1 seed and the No.
3 team in both national polls -- by a 72-71 score in a
second-round match-up at the Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C.
Neither the national media nor the 12,400 screaming Tobacco
Roaders in attendance gave the Quakers much of a chance. Penn's underrated Ivy League champions didn't say
much publicly, but they had plenty to to each other, and they said
it often. What they said was: “We've got a secret.” The secret was
that the Quakers could beat national power North Carolina even in
the home territory of the Tar Heels. With the Quakers leading by one, 66-65,
Tony Price pulled down his ninth rebound of the game and threw a
long bomb to a breaking James Salters down court, who did a jump
stop and converted a power layup while being undercut by a
flagrant foul from Al Wood. Salters stepped to the line with 33
seconds remaining and nailed his first free throw, putting the
Quakers up by four and all but icing the game. Penn closed the
door on the greatest victory in school history. No. 10 seed St. John's then capped off
the doubleheader by beating sixth-ranked (No. 2 seed) Duke, 80-78.
The day has forever been recalled as “Black Sunday” in North Carolina. Click
to listen to the conclusion.
“WE'SE GOIN' TA UTAH”: Penn 64, St. John's 62 (March 18,
1979)
One game away from their
goal, the Quakers caught a break when they drew St. John's, an
underdog in its own right, in the regional final. Penn's courageous Quakers earned a berth in the
Final Four by outlasting dogged St. John's, 64-62. The Quakers
trip to Mormon country in Salt Lake City was not assured until
freshman Vincent Ross intercepted a length-of-the-court pass by
the Redmen with just one second showing on the Greensboro Coliseum
clock. The pickoff finally killed a series of chances St. John's
had to at least tie the game in the final seconds. Diminutive
guard James Salters provided the margin of victory with two
pressure free throws with just 23 seconds to play, being fouled
while Penn was holding for one shot to break a 62-62 tie. Eastern
Regional MVP Tony Price led the Quakers with 21 points. Click
to listen to the dramatic conclusion.
NCAA FINAL FOUR: DePaul
96, Penn 93 (OT) (March 26, 1979)
DePaul raced out to a 44-21
first-half lead before the Quakers finally showed some signs of
life. Penn cut the deficit to single digits by halftime, 54-45.
After intermission, the Red and Blue continued their comeback
finally tying the game at 85 and again at 87 at the end of
regulation. Penn went on to lose the consolation game to DePaul,
96-93 in overtime, but the dream had died two days earlier.
Click
to watch highlights of the final
31 seconds of regulation and overtime.
St. Joseph's 60, Penn 56 (3 OT) (January 23, 1980)
Whenever you see a scoreboard
clock counting down the final minute in tenths of a second, remember this
triple-overtime classic: Trailing Penn, 48-46, with a second to go in regulation,
St. Joseph's Bryan Warrick threw a court-length inbounds pass to Boo Williams, who
couldn't quite get the handle on it. With the clock showing 0:00, but before the
buzzer could sound,
Penn's George Noon was called for a foul by referee Jody
Sylvester, sending
Williams, a 60 percent foul-shooter, to the free-throw line with
the game in his
hands. But, first, a Penn timeout. Then another Penn timeout. Then a Williams swish. Another Penn
timeout... (“I couldn't have taken another one,” Williams said later)... And
finally, Swish! St. Joe's Luke Griffin missed an 18-footer at the end of a 2-2
first overtime, but made a 20-footer with 33 seconds left in the second overtime to
force the third. His
two free throws 54 minutes and 44 seconds into the seemingly
endless game gave the
Hawks a 60-56 victory. Vincent Ross had 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Quakers.
Williams (27 points, 11 rebounds) finished 11-for-11 from the line. Click
to watch the final seconds of
regulation.
“KEN HALL'S BUZZER-BEATER”: Penn
51, Temple 49 (January 14, 1981)
Temple led, 49-47, before George Noon's layup
tied the game at 49 with 2:25 remaining. With 2:06 to go, Temple
guard Jim McLoughlin was called for an offensive foul. Penn sat on
the ball but, with 1:13 left, the Owls forced a jump ball. The
Quakers controlled the tip, ran some clock and called a timeout
with 56 seconds to play. With :42 to go, Terrance Stansbury stole
the ball and drove to the basket, but was called for an offensive
foul. Penn called another timeout with 23 seconds remaining,
before holding for the last shot. With :04 remaining, Ken Hall
drained a 25-foot jumper from the left wing to give Penn a
dramatic 51-49 win. Click
to watch the final 56 seconds.
St. Joseph's 63, Penn 61 (January 28, 1981)
A Jeffrey Clark layup gave St. Joseph's a 60-53
lead with 1:18 to go. Ken Hall connected on two free throws at
1:11 to cut the lead to 60-55. John Smith converted one of two
free throws at :51 to push the Hawks' lead to 61-55. David Lardner
made two foul shots with :42 remaining, closing the gap to 61-57.
Bryan Warrick then connected on one of two foul shots, extending
the lead to 62-57 with :40 left. Hall's layup closed the gap to
62-59 with :30 to go. A steal and layup by Hall cut the margin to
a single point, 62-61, with :21 remaining. Warrick was fouled and
again hit one of two free throws, with :13 left, pushing the lead
to 63-61. Lardner then rebounded an Angelo Reynolds miss and
followed it in but, prior to the shot, a foul was called on the
Hawks with :03 to go. Lardner missed the front end of the
one-and-one and the Quakers' comeback bid fell just short. Click
to watch the final 48 seconds.
“STANFORD TIP-OFF
CHAMPIONS”: Penn 71, Stanford 63 (December 5, 1981)
Trailing 63-57, Penn held
Stanford scoreless for the final 4:49 and scored the game's final
14 points to stun the host team, 71-63, and capture the inaugural
Stanford Invitational. The Cardinal eased to a nine-point halftime
lead by making 23 of 26 first-half foul shots, and led 58-51 (with
8:55 to go) and 63-57
before Tournament MVP Paul Little (who scored 14 of his 16 points
after intermission, including four
during that final 14-0 run) led the Quakers' charge. Little's 12-foot jumper with 2:30 left put Penn
ahead for good, 65-63. David Lardner
added 14 points, including four points in the final 2:00, in helping to give the Quakers
their first tournament championship since December 1974. Lardner also grabbed five rebounds and
joined Little on the All-Tournament team as the Quakers opened the season with
their third consecutive win. Nine straight losses would follow,
but the Quakers would then win 14 straight en route to the Ivy
League title. Click
to listen to highlights of Penn's 14-0 run to
close out the game.
IVY CHAMPS:
Penn 68, Cornell 50; Penn 45, Columbia 43 (March 5-6, 1982)
You've just beaten the Big
Red in a basketball game with the excitement of a wet lint
exhibit. You're sitting on a bus waiting to drive five hours into
the night toward New Jersey. What could you possibly do for fun?
If you're the Penn Quakers you whoop it up over news that Columbia
had just lost to Princeton, and you'll go to the NCAA Tournament
as the Ivy League champions. It wasn't backing in by any stretch.
But after playing cat and mouse with Cornell to the tune of 68-50,
the Red and Blue won a championship on a Greyhound. Six minutes
into the contest the Quakers were up 12-8. Eight minutes later it
was 21-8. Four minutes later it was 31-9. That was with only 1:11
left in the first half. Penn played outstanding defense in
tallying a 36-12 halftime lead. That spells no letdown. The Columbia game had the
potential to be a championship showdown. Princeton foiled that the
night before. The “Horrible Hankies” were out en masse, making the
south stands a sea of sky blue. The 45-43 victory wasn't decided
until Richie Gordon's 25-foot desperation shot hit the rim for the
third time and fell out of the cylinder to the sound of the final
buzzer. Thus the Red and Blue had completed a six-point comeback
and clung on to preserve the win. Click
to listen to
the dramatic final seconds against Columbia.
“QUAKERS SHOCK THE WILDCATS”: Penn 84, Villanova 80
(December 11, 1982)
It
was the kind of upset for which the Big 5 is noted. Forget that
Villanova was ranked ninth by United Press International and
tenth by the Associated Press. And forget that the Wildcats had
beaten Penn in their previous seven confrontations. The Quakers
certainly did. They got career-high scoring efforts from seniors
Paul Little (23) and Avery Rawlings (16), plus 10-for-10 free
throw shooting from 5'11" sophomore
reserve guard Anthony Arnolie in the final 2:29, enabling them
to turn back Villanova, 84-80, at the Palestra. Villanova twice
inched ahead by two points midway through the first half, but
that was the last time the Wildcats were on top. From the moment
the Quakers took the floor with their 37-35 halftime lead, they
kept getting better. And in the last three minutes, as Villanova
pressed in a desperate effort to catch up, it was Arnolie who
put this one in the win column for Penn. Click
to watch the
closing seconds and the ensuing celebration.
“PAUL
LITTLE'S TOMAHAWK JAM”:
Illinois-Chicago 76, Penn 74 (OT) (January 22, 1983)
A short jumper
in the lane by George Noon gave Penn a 40-21 lead late in the
first half. Illinois-Chicago responded with six straight points
before a David Lardner baseline jumper with 0:07 left in the
opening stanza gave the Quakers a 42-27 lead at the break. The
Flames closed the gap to 70-68, as the clock wound down to the
final minute of regulation, and Penn went into a stall, but an
Anthony Arnolie turnover led to a game-tying fast-break layup by
Illinois-Chicago, which forced overtime. A 20-foot jumper by Paul
Little, from the top of the key, put the Red and Blue back on top,
72-70, on their first possession of the extra session. But the
Flames would score the next six points to take a 76-72 lead. In
fact, Penn would not score again until the game was out of reach,
when Karl Racine hit a driving layup at the buzzer to make the
final score 76-74. Click
to watch footage of Paul Little's tomahawk jam off a steal by
Anthony Arnolie.
“THE
JACK-IN-THE-BOX GAME”: Temple 61, Penn 53 (2 OT) (February 9, 1983)
Terence Stansbury
scored 24 points, six during the second overtime, to lead Temple
to a 61-53, double-overtime win over the Quakers. Penn took a
51-49 lead on a layup by Paul Little with 22 seconds left in
regulation. With 12 seconds left and Temple in possession, the
Owls called time. With five seconds left, Stansbury was fouled and
awarded two free throws. After Stansbury missed the first free
throw, he missed the second one intentionally. Penn got the
rebound with three seconds left and immediately took a timeout.
When play resumed, Stansbury fouled Penn's Karl Racine on the
throw-in. Racine missed the free throw, Temple grabbed the ball
and took time out with two seconds left. In the sideline huddle,
Coach John Chaney called for ''Jack-in-the Box,'' the play
designed for this situation. ''The key,'' said Chaney, ''is the
pass. It's a 100-1 shot, but you have to try.'' Temple tried.
Kevin Clifton, a freshman, took the ball out of bounds under the
Temple basket and threw a baseball pass three quarters the length
of the court toward the opposing free-throw circle. There,
Stansbury leaped, caught the ball, dribbled once and shot a
17-foot jumper. The shot was good. Clifton raised his arms in
triumph. Stansbury was mobbed by his teammates. Chaney just
smiled. Neither team scored during the first overtime as the
Quakers held the ball for 4 minutes 20 seconds. After a turnover,
Jim McLoughlin of Temple missed a corner jumper. Click
to watch the “Jack-in-the-Box”
play.
“OKORODUDU'S DUNK OVER CHUCK
EVERSON”: Villanova 65, Penn 51 (February
21,
1984)
Dwayne McClain scored 15
points to lead Villanova to a 65-51 victory over Penn, in front of
a crowd of 7,539 at The Palestra. The highlight of the game occurred during the
closing seconds of the first half when Penn freshman Abe Okorodudu
drove the baseline and threw down a two-handed power-jam over
Villanova's Chuck Everson. Click
to watch Abe Okorodudu's two-handed power-jam.
“LA SALLE IS LA WINNER”:
La Salle 77, Penn 74 (January 29, 1985)
The Quakers led,
66-60, with only five minutes to play, but the Explorers, led by
23 points from both Ralph Lewis and Steve Black, rallied for a
77-74 win, and the headline on the sports page of the The Daily
Pennsylvanian read, “La Salle is La Winner”. The Quakers opened
strong enough in the contest, surging to a 33-29 lead shortly
before the half, before trailing only by one point at the break.
But the Quakers box-and-one defense -- designed to stop Black,
La Salle's strongest player and
leading scorer -- was thwarted in the second half by Lewis, who
scored over half of his points in the second 20 minutes. The
Quakers were led by Perry Bromwell, who scored 19 points in the
loss. Click
to watch Perry Bromwell
give Penn a late six-point lead.
Penn 63, USC 54 (December 2,
1985)
Before they
transferred across the city of Los Angeles to play in the
run-and-gun attack for Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymount, Dobbins
Tech products Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers matriculated at Southern
Cal. They made an appearance at The Palestra as freshmen with the
Trojans, who were upended by Penn, 63-54. The Quakers trailed by eight twice
in the second half and by 46-40 with 5:23
remaining in the game, before Penn went on a 10-0 run against the
defending Pac-10 champion Trojans. Bruce Lefkowitz reached for a
rebound off of a Tom Lewis jumper and was subsequently fouled over
the back by Derrick Dowell. At the other end of the court,
Lefkowitz sank both free throws. On the ensuing inbounds play, the
Quakers pressured USC with a trapping defense. Kimble surrendered
the ball to John Stovall, who alertly passed to Phil Pitts under
the Penn basket. Pitts wheeled under the net, around the sideline
and gently lofted the ball up away from Dowell. Fouled in the act,
Pitts turned the three-point play and the USC lead was cut to one,
46-45. With a chance to pad its slim advantage on the next
possession, USC again coughed up the ball to Stovall and company.
A Chris Elzey 17-foot jumper from the left side of the key, with
4:20 to go, gave the Quakers a 47-46 lead that they would never
again relinquish. Click
to
watch footage which includes the late Hank Gathers as a USC
freshman.
BUZZER-BEATER: Vanderbilt 71, Penn 70 (December 13, 1986)
This
loss to Vandy was as disappointing a loss as any in recent memory.
The 6-1 Commodores won on an 18-foot jumper as the clock went to
:00. John Stovall had a career-high 19 points in the game, and
sank two foul shots with 17 seconds left to give Penn a one-point
lead, 70-69. Playing against a bigger team which had dumped Bobby
Knight's Indiana Hoosiers in its previous game, the Quakers led
almost throughout the first half and through most of the second. Click
to watch some
of the first half highlights.
PENN SQUANDERS 19-POINT LEAD:
Harvard 93, Penn 91 (OT) (January 9, 1987)
Penn
dominated the game early, scoring the first nine points on its way
to a 22-6 lead with 12:23 left in the first half. Harvard did
manage to narrow the lead to 41-35 at the half, but the second
half started just like the first as the Quakers outscored the
Crimson 19-8 during the first seven minutes and led 60-43.
Eventually, the lead ballooned to 19 points, 64-45, with 11:50 to
go on a Bruce Lefkowitz tip in. Harvard utilized a full-court
press and scratched to within four, 80-76, with 2:43 to play. Two
Lefkowitz free throws made it 82-76 with 1:54 remaining, but
Harvard eventually tied the game at 83-83 with 34 seconds left.
With one last chance to win in regulation, John Stovall missed a
nine-foot jumper and Lefkowitz's tip-in at the buzzer fell off the
rim. In overtime, points by Perry Bromwell and Lefkowitz enabled
Penn to grab an 89-86 lead with 2:20 to play. Harvard again tied
the score but a Stovall bucket with 32 seconds left gave the Red
and Blue a 91-89 lead. Harvard's Neal Phillips, however, tied it
with nine seconds left and a Keith Webster steal at half-court
allowed Webster to launch the eventual game-winner as the horn
sounded. The setback offset an outstanding performance by
Lefkowitz, as he scored a career-high 33 points and had eight
rebounds. Click
to watch the exciting finish.
“PHIL PITTS' ALLEY-OOP SLAM”: Penn 80, Lafayette
64 (January
20, 1987)
Senior
center
Bruce Lefkowitz scored 17 points, leading five Penn players in
double figures, as the Quakers defeated Lafayette, 80-64, at The
Palestra. Penn led 49-44 with 12:39 to play, then scored 15
straight points -- six by John Stovall -- to take a 64-44 lead on a
jump shot by Phil Pitts with 7:41 to go. Midway through that
stretch, Pitts had a very athletic, reverse slam dunk off an
alley-oop pass from Perry Bromwell. Penn's biggest lead came at
76-51 on a jumper by Bromwell with 2:38 to play. Bromwell,
Stovall and Pitts each scored 15 points for the Quakers, while
Chris Elzey added 13. Bromwell also dished out a career-high 10
assists. Otis Ellis scored 26 points to lead Lafayette. Click
to watch Phil Pitts' alley-oop slam dunk.
“NICE REVERSE, TYRONE!”: St.
Joseph's 83, Penn 81 (January 27, 1987)
The
Hawks used a potent scoring attack to take a commanding 49-30
halftime advantage, and the St. Joe's lead ballooned to as many as
21 points, 63-42, with 15 minutes left in the game. However, the
gutsy Quakers never quit. Shots that wouldn't fall in the first
half began falling and Penn stormed back. Slowly but surely, the
Hawks' lead diminished. Trailing 77-72 with 4:20 showing on the
clock, consecutive baskets by Tyrone Pitts and John Stovall sliced
the lead to one, 77-76, with 1:06 to play. Twice down the stretch,
the Quakers had opportunities to tie the game with a three-point
shot, but two blasts rolled off the rim and one of the comebacks
in Big 5 history fell two points shy of success. Pitts, who played
an instrumental role in the comeback with 19 second-half points, including a crowd-pleasing reverse
dunk, led the way
with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Stovall added 19 points, while
Perry Bromwell chipped in with 16. Click
to watch Tyrone
Pitts throw down a reverse slam or click
to watch some
of the highlights.
Villanova 71, Penn 60 (February 10, 1987)
Harold
Jensen scored 18 points as Villanova rallied in the second half,
after trailing by seven points at the break. A Perry Bromwell steal and slam
had given Penn a 43-34 lead. After the Wildcats scored six straight points,
Bromwell's three-point play gave Penn a 46-40 edge with 15
minutes to play. But the Wildcats scored the next 10 points, six
by Gary Massey, to go ahead by 50-46. A layup by Bruce Lefkowitz
cut the Penn deficit to 63-58 with two minutes to go, but Jensen
and Kenny Wilson each hit two free throws to insure the 71-60
victory, before 6,209 fans at The Palestra. Mark Plansky had 16
points and Massey 12 for Villanova, and Bromwell had 23 points
and Lefkowitz 15 for Penn. Click
to watch
Perry Bromwell's steal and ensuing slam.
Penn 94, Columbia 73; Penn 93, Cornell 59 (February 20-21, 1987)
Entering
the weekend, Cornell was in first place in the Ivy League at 8-2.
Penn was a game-and-a-half back at 6-3. On Friday, Bruce Lefkowitz had 27
points and Perry Bromwell had 25 as the Quakers defeated the
Lions, 94-73, at The Palestra. The pair combined to make 19 of
their 26 field-goal attempts as Penn shot 62.5 percent. Sean Couch
led Columbia with 20 points. Cornell was defeated the same evening, 69-63, at Princeton,
bringing Penn to within a half game of the first-place Big Red. The next night, Bromwell scored 20
points and John
Wilson recorded a school-record eight steals, to go along with a
season-high 10 assists, as the Quakers romped past Cornell and into first place in
the Ivy League. The victory improved Penn's record to 8-3 in the
league, while Cornell dropped to 8-4. The Quakers jumped to a 21-7
lead on a Lefkowitz layup with 9:39 remaining in the first half.
Penn made 12 of its last 15 shots in the half to lead by 48-24 at
intermission. Penn scored the first five points of the second half
to take a 53-24 lead. The lead ballooned to 46 points (85-39) when
Tyrone Pitts delighted the crowd with his third dunk of the night.
Click
to watch Tyrone Pitts slam one
home against Columbia or click
to watch Tyrone Pitts throw down three more against Cornell.
Penn 66, La Salle 61 (December
5, 1987)
Tyrone
Pitts scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the Quakers
to a 66-61 upset victory over La Salle, before a crowd of 5,251 at The Palestra. Ben Spiva scored 14 points and Walt Frazier added 12
points for Penn. Sean Dineen chipped in with nine points and 10
rebounds. Click
to watch Tyrone Pitts throw one down or click
to watch Walt Frazier ice the
game, followed by the ensuing celebration.
Penn 70, Dartmouth
69 (February 13, 1988)
Dartmouth's
Brian Randall converted a pair of free throws with 27 seconds
remaining to give the Big Green a 69-66 lead. Penn called timeout
with 24 seconds to go. Dane Watts' jumper just inside the free
throw lane cut the lead to 69-68, and the Quakers called timeout
with seven seconds remaining. On the ensuing inbounds play,
Dartmouth's Jim Barton was called for an offensive foul. Ben Spiva
converted both ends of the one-and-one, and suddenly Penn had a
one-point lead without any time moving off the clock. When
Randall's three-point attempt -- with Tyrone Gilliams' hand in his
face -- rimmed out at the buzzer, the Quakers had pulled off a
miraculous one-point victory. Although the picture quality is
poor, click
to watch the unbelievable finish.
“QUAKERS SHOCK THE WILDCATS” (Part II): Penn
71, Villanova 70 (December 6, 1988)
Villanova was ranked 17th in
the nation. Penn was on its way to a 13-13 record. For one
night, it didn't matter. For 40 minutes, the Penn men's
basketball team dodged fate. Villanova brought a top-20
national ranking, a 7-foot-3 center, a star guard and a
five-year winning streak over the Quakers into the game. But
Penn shocked the Wildcats, 71-70, before 5,710 fans in The
Palestra. Every time the Quakers forged ahead to create whispers
of an upset, the Wildcats, or more specifically center Tom Greis
(career-high 32 points), came back to silence them. But in the
last minute Penn roared. Quakers forward Jose Tavarez converted
an offensive rebound for a 67-65 lead, which Penn never
relinquished. “This is the greatest win of my
career,” said Penn guard Walt Frazier, who led the Quakers with
25 points. “We hustled, we fought and we scrapped. Everybody
contributed and we were able to play our game.” Click
to watch the
closing seconds and the ensuing celebration.
Temple 55, Penn 54 (November
28, 1989)
Temple came into the game with the nation's #16 ranking and
the Quakers came within a shot of victory. Penn led, 27-26, at the
half as Paul Chambers hit a baseline jumper as time expired.
Chambers again hit a critical basket with 1:40 left in the game to
make the score 55-54. Penn had a final shot at victory as Vince
Curran had Temple's throat in his hands. Unfortunately, the
6-foot-7 Penn forward also had 7-foot, 230-pound Donald Hodge in
his face. All Curran could do was throw up a 17-foot, off-balance,
double-clutch prayer - which sailed wide right - and the Owls
escaped with a 55-54 victory, in front of a crowd of 7,271 at The
Palestra. Mark Macon shot 8-for-17 and scored 21 for the Owls, who
went without a field goal for the final 4:48. Jerry Simon had 19
to lead the Quakers, who also had a chance to go ahead with 15
seconds left when Paul McMahon (15 points) missed an uncontested
layup. That rebound went out of bounds off a Temple player to set
up the final sequence. Click
to watch highlights of this
typical Big 5 game.
HASSAN DUNCOMBE SCORES 44: Penn 90,
Navy 81 (OT) (December 8, 1989)
This was a night
for Hassan Duncombe. After starting 52 consecutive games
throughout his freshman and sophomore years, the junior center was
on the bench. Slowed by an assortment of preseason injuries,
Duncombe played the role of the Quakers' sixth man. But starting
forward Vince Curran's stress fracture in his right foot pressed
Duncombe into his accustomed starting position against Navy in
snowy Annapolis, Md. Duncombe was expected to pick up his scoring
and rebounding numbers a bit to compensate for the loss of Curran.
What he did was bring his game to a level rarely seen in Penn
basketball history. Duncombe exploded for a career-high 44 points
in leading the Quakers to a hard-fought 90-81 overtime victory
over the Midshipmen. Simply put, he gave a clinic in low-post
basketball. Duncombe, whose previous career high was 23 points,
hit his first 11 shots, scored 24 in the first-half and shot 20-of
26 on the game. In the overtime period, Duncombe scored only two
baskets before fouling out with 1:55 left in the contest. Both of
those tallies put the Quakers ahead, and put them in the lead to
stay, 82-81. Click
to
watch Hassan Duncombe score his final four points of his 44-point
game.
La Salle 86, Penn 83
(December 11, 1989)
After falling behind by 16 at the half, 46-30, the Quakers
stormed back in the second half, before a crowd of 5,163 at the
Philadelphia Civic Center. Penn's Hassan Duncombe scored a
game-high 26 points, six more than National Player of the Year
Lionel Simmons. La Salle would end the season as the Big 5 champ
with a 30-2 overall record. Jerry Simon added 19 for the Quakers
while La Salle's Doug Overton had 22. Click
to watch
highlights of the Quakers' furious second-half comeback attempt.
HASSAN DUNCOMBE
SCORES 37: Penn 90, Colgate 84 (January 20, 1990)
A close game all
the way, the difference in the contest was Hassan Duncombe, who
riddled the Colgate defense for 37 points and nine rebounds.
Duncombe also blocked five shots. Four other Quakers -- Jerry
Simon, Paul McMahon, Paul Chambers and Ray Marshall -- each netted
double figures. Click
to watch
highlights of Hassan Duncombe's 37-point game.
La Salle 84, Penn 80 (OT)
(December 1, 1990)
Doug
Overton sank a 10-foot driving shot in the lane with eight
seconds left to force overtime, then scored nine of his 35
points in the extra session to carry La Salle to an 84-80
victory over Penn in the season's city series opener at the
Palestra. Overton, coming off a 31-point game in La Salle's
season-opening win over Loyola (Baltimore), had converted both
ends of a one-and-one with 33 seconds left in regulation to give
La Salle a 70-69 advantage. The Quakers' Paul McMahon then hit a
scoop shot and made a free throw to give Penn, who had trailed
by 10 with 17 minutes to go, a 72-70 lead with 22 seconds
remaining before Overton tied it. Click
to watch Paul McMahon's
three-point play put Penn ahead with 22 seconds left.
“WILL THE THRILL”: Penn 73, Dartmouth 59 (February
2, 1991)
Will
McAllister scored a career-high 21 points, including a
high-flying slam dunk that delighted the Palestra crowd, to lead the Quakers to a 73-59
victory over
Dartmouth. Click
to watch Will “The Thrill” McAllister's crowd-pleasing jam.
“The 'E'
in the Game of H-O-R-S-E”:
Temple 69, Penn 65 (December 3, 1991)
Mik Kilgore
scored 17 points, including a crucial free throw with 11 seconds
left, as the Owls held off the Quakers. The Owls led by as many
as 16 points in the first half and held a 63-52 lead on a jump
shot by Aaron McKie with 8:55 to play. But Penn went on a 13-4
spurt and closed to 67-65 on a layup by Barry Pierce with 1:23
remaining. And
when Temple's
Vic Carstarphen missed the first of two free throws with
0:32 remaining, the Quakers had a chance to tie. Then came what Jerome Allen, at
his 2009 Big 5 Hall of Fame induction, would describe as his
best Big 5 memory. As the clock wound down, Allen stood wide
open in the corner of the court and watched teammate Vince
Curran miss a three from the right side of the hash. Despite the
loss, Allen remembers the game for a memorable quote by Curran.
“[Vince]
said 'That was the 'E' in the game of horse,' and we rode him
for probably the rest of the season about that comment. It was a
shot I've definitely seen him make so it was just funny hearing
him describe it as such.”Allen said. Click
to watch the 'E' in the
game of H-O-R-S-E.
“BARRY PIERCE'S INFAMOUS
DEUCE”: St. Joseph's 82, Penn 81 (December 9, 1991)
Trailing by
three points in the closing seconds, Barry Pierce drove to the
hoop and drained a short jumper with 0.5 seconds remaining.
Unfortunately for Pierce and the Quakers, that bucket left the
Red and Blue one point short, and Penn fell to St. Joseph's,
82-81, in the first game of a Big 5 doubleheader, before 14,737
fans at the Spectrum. The Quakers
trailed at halftime, 44-38, and were down by 11 points with just
over seven minutes left, before Will McAllister led a Quaker
comeback, scoring 16 of his team-high 18 points in the second
half. In the second game, La Salle defeated Villanova, 79-75.
Click
to watch the final seconds.
“QUAKERS UPSET PENN
STATE...TWICE”: Penn 87, Penn State 86 (OT) (January 25, 1992)
The scoreboard read: Penn 70,
Penn State 69. The clock displayed nothing but zeros. Nittany
Lions forward DeRon Hayes had just missed a 25-foot desperation
heave at the buzzer, and a controversial foul called on Penn
forward Shawn Trice seemed to have been waved off by one of the
officials. The Quakers, apparently having pulled off a huge upset,
briefly celebrated at center court before triumphantly trotting
off to the locker room. And with good reason. They thought they
had just defeated a team that reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA
Tournament the previous year. Then the players got the news from
their coach, Fran Dunphy. And the news was not good. The official
had been waving his hands merely to indicate the foul was not a
shooting foul, and thus Hayes would get two foul shots instead of
three. So after Hayes
gave Penn a new lease on life, hitting only one of two foul shots
to send the game into overtime, the Quakers had to continue
playing a game they thought they had already won. Allen opened up
the overtime period with a clutch trey to put Penn up, 73-70, and
the Quakers clung to that lead for dear life. The Lions were able
to tie the score at 75, but were never able to pull ahead, as Penn
hit 10 of its final 11 free throws to seal the Quakers' fourth
straight win and second major upset in a week. When the game finally ended this
time for real with Penn on top, 87-86, the Quakers had, in their
minds, upset Penn State for the second time in less than an hour.
Only this time it counted. Click
to watch the final 26 seconds of
regulation
“JEWISH JORDAN JAMS”:
Penn 74, Harvard 62 (February 21, 1992)
After suffering
a stress fracture in his foot late in the 1990-91 season, Mike
Milobsky broke his foot in a practice prior to the start of the
1991-92 season. It wasn't even a certainty that Milobsky would
play a game during his senior season. But he did, and he rattled
the rim, much to the delight of the Palestra crowd. Click
to watch the Jewish Jordan's Michael Jordan-like
dunk.
“JEROME ALLEN'S
PUNCTUATION-MARK REVERSE SLAM!”: Penn 92, Cornell 79 (March 7,
1992)
The first step
of the Quakers'
record 48-game Ivy League winning streak was a small one, 92-79, at Cornell
in the finale of a season that had the Quakers finishing second
(9-5). It also marked the Quakers' first win in Ithaca in seven
games. Jerome Allen led the Quakers with 31 points, including a
reverse slam in the closing seconds.
“TURN BACK THE CLOCK
NIGHT”: St. Joseph's 94, Penn 72 (January 25, 1993)
Penn and St. Joseph's brought the spirit of the Big 5
back to the Palestra – to honor the tradition of this dwindling
basketball union. Penn was cruising along in its schedule, and
faced St. Joe's on this nostalgic evening of basketball. Despite
coming off a 14-point loss to Temple at the Spectrum the week
before, the Quakers were ready to return to the Palestra and turn
back the clock. When forward Barry Pierce hit a 3-pointer with
18:11 to play in the first half, red and blue streamers flew from
the stands and rained on the Palestra hardwood. That 3-pointer
brought the Quakers within one point of the Hawks at 4-3. For
Penn, the celebration ended quickly as St. Joe's erupted for 20
unanswered points and the streamer-throwing was over for the
Quakers and their faithful, as the Hawks rolled to a 94-72 win. Click
to watch Barry Pierce's 3-pointer and the ensuing
shower of streamers.
Penn 77, USC 62 (November 27, 1993)
Penn was on a mission for national respectability, and
finally earned it with a 77-62 pummeling of Southern California,
the worst Trojan loss at home in three years. Penn dominated
Southern Cal for almost the entire game. The Quakers took their
first lead only 33 seconds into the contest and held onto it for
all but a one-minute span in the middle of the first half. After
Penn took a 41-35 lead into the intermission, the Quakers came out
of the locker room ready to prove who the better team really was.
The Quakers, led by guards Jerome Allen (16 points, 7 rebounds)
and Matt Maloney (19 points), went on an 18-5 run to start the
second half, extending their lead to 59-40. Penn held on
throughout the second half, never letting the Trojans get within
single digits and cruising to the easy victory. Click
to
listen to the Quakers run off nine straight points to open up a
commanding 59-40 lead.
Ohio State
83, Penn 80 (November 29, 1993)
The game was supposed to be a battle of the Penn's famed
backcourt against the power and size of the Ohio State
front-court. In a back and forth, see-saw battle, it finally came
down to the three-point shooting of the Buckeyes versus the
outside offensive ability of the Quakers. But in the end, Penn
fell short – a 3-pointer short – as it fell 83-80. The Quakers were up by 10, 44-34, at halftime behind the
stellar shooting of Jerome Allen and the solid defense of the Penn
front-court. In fact, Penn led the Buckeyes
throughout much of the contest, and held on to a slim one-point
lead with less than two and a half minutes remaining in the game.
Three lead changes later, the game was tied at 80. With just about
a minute left, Buckeye guard Greg Simpson penetrated through the
tough Penn defense and dished off to forward Antonio Watson in the
paint. Although Watson was unable to put the ball in the basket
initially, he was right there to tip it back in to give Ohio State
the lead for good. Click
to listen to the Quakers build an early 39-31
lead.
“GIVE IT TO ROME!”:
Penn 79, St.
Joseph's 77 (December 11, 1993)
Penn built a 41-33 lead at
halftime, and extended it to 14 points, 61-47, on a bucket by
Barry Pierce, six-and-a-half minutes into the second stanza. But
the Hawks battled back to take their first lead of the contest,
72-71, with 3:12 to go. Four lead changes later, St. Joseph's held
a one-point lead, 76-75, with 1:10 remaining. As the clock ticked
down to 45 seconds, Jerome Allen launched an NBA-range 3-pointer
that hit nothing but nylon, putting the Quakers back on top,
78-76. After the teams traded free throws, the Hawks called
timeout with 13.1 seconds left. Matt Maloney then knocked a Rap
Curry pass out of bounds, and St. Joseph's called another timeout with 4.2 seconds to play. The
Hawks' Mark Bass came off a screen and took the ensuing inbounds
pass, drove to the basket and put up a floater from five feet out
on the left side which bounced off the rim. Tim Krug managed to
swat the rebound away to preserve a 79-77 Quaker victory, before
14,573 fans at the Spectrum. It was Penn's first victory over St. Joseph's since 1979
-- a span of 14 games. Click
to
watch Jerome Allen's game-winner.
Penn 114, Haverford 73 (December 18,
1993)
The Quakers routed the Division-III Fords, 114-73, at The
Palestra. It was the first time Penn scored at least 100 points
in a game since November 30, 1981. The Red and Blue hit the
century mark when Donald Moxley followed a Nat Graham missed
shot with 6:42 still remaining. Click
to listen to Scott Graham's call of
Donald Moxley's put back.
“US WEST TOURNAMENT
CHAMPIONS”: Penn 81, Georgia 79 (December 29, 1993)
In the first-ever meeting
between Georgia and the Quakers, Penn got the best of the Bulldogs
in the championship game of the US West Cellular Air Time Tournament in Seattle, 81-79. Matt Maloney became Penn's all-time
three-point leader (105) when he nailed the game-winner from
beyond the arc with just over a minute to go, giving Penn its
first Christmas Tournament championship since December 1971.
Maloney also recorded a career-high seven steals, however, the
real star of the tournament was Shawn Trice. After scoring 19 points against
Washington in the previous night's semifinal game on a perfect
night from the field (9-of-9), Trice scored a career-high 23
points on 9-of-12 shooting in the championship game. Click
to
watch Matt Maloney's game-winner.
“BIG 5 GAME OF THE YEAR”: Temple 76, Penn 65 (January 11, 1994)
In what had
been touted as the “Big 5 Game of the Year”, the Quakers fell,
76-65, to city-rival and 13th-ranked Temple. A major upset was
still in the cards until 7:31 remained in the game. That was when
Jerome Allen committed his fourth foul on a reach around on Owl
forward Eddie Jones. Allen (26 points, four rebounds, five
assists) had to that point poured in 17 points on unconscious
long-distance shooting, not to mention his stellar defense
effectively shut down Temple star Aaron McKie. McKie finished with
24 points, but when Allen left with his fourth foul, the Owls'
long-range bomber had only amassed 14 points on unimpressive 6 of
18 shooting. A Derek Battie dunk with 6:13 left broke a 54-54 tie.
The next time down the court, Penn guard Matt Maloney had his
uncontested rainbow from the right corner go halfway down before
popping out to Temple's Rick Brunson, who then started and ended
an Owl fast break with a 3-pointer. After a Maloney pass and a
missed Penn shot were each turned into easy Temple buckets, the
game was effectively over, as the Owls had a nine-point bulge,
63-54, with three minutes remaining. Click
to watch Jerome Allen nail a 3-pointer to put the Quakers
ahead with under 9:00 to go.
Penn 88, Lafayette 71 (January
17, 1994)
Barry Pierce led all scorers
with 20 points and collected a game high 11 rebounds, yet he
missed all five of his three-point attempts and hit only 4 of 13
shots from the field. After spotting the Leopards a 4-2 lead, Penn
scored eight consecutive points to lead 10-4. Several minutes of
sloppy basketball later, Penn led 21-15, when Tim Krug stole a
pass and took it three-quarters of the court for a slam dunk. On
the Quakers next possession, Krug buried a 3-pointer and Penn was
up by 11. In the second half, the Quakers twice widened the lead
to 21 (45-24 and 54-33). Lafayette's main nemesis was its
turnovers. Thirteen of the Leopards' 25 turnovers were Penn
steals, including five by Jerome Allen, one of which he culminated
in an emphatic slam dunk that gave Penn a 59-40 lead. Then the
Leopards started a 17-8 surge to close the gap back to 10. But
poor free-throw shooting prevented Lafayette from getting closer.
Click
to watch Tim Krug's put-back two-handed jam.
“SHAWN'S CROWD-PLEASING
DUNK”: Penn 67, Columbia 55 (February 4, 1994)
Columbia quickly jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but the Quakers
remained cool. In typical fashion, they worked the ball inside to
junior forward Shawn Trice and junior center Eric Moore down on
the blocks. Columbia's center Steve Marusich and forward Jamal
Adams each picked up two fouls early on. A Trice steal and dunk at
the 15:34 mark brought Penn's lead to five and the crowd to its
feet. Columbia, who entered the game in first place in the Ivies
with a perfect 4-0 record, stayed with Penn until the closing
minutes of the first half. The Quakers, led by key passing by
Allen, broke a tie three minutes before intermission and Barry
Pierce and Moore helped to increase the lead to seven as time
expired. In the second half, Penn's lead wavered between six and
14 points, but the Quakers never could completely pull away from
the Lions. Pierce finished with 17 points, as did Maloney who also
added six rebounds, five assists and five steals in a solid
all-around effort. Click
to watch Shawn
Trice's steal and ensuing crowd-pleasing dunk.
Penn 66, Harvard 65 (February
19, 1994)
Harvard had a chance to win this tightly-fought battle when
it got the ball with 17 seconds left in the game and Penn holding
onto a one-point lead. After the Quakers put the ball in
their go-to guy's hands and Jerome Allen (13 points) was stopped,
the Crimson tried the same philosophy. Harvard's 5'10" captain
Tarik Campbell (14 points, five rebounds and three assists)
brought the ball down the court as the clock wound down to single
digits. He used a pick to squirt into the lane, which he seemed to
be able to do almost at will throughout the contest. As Matt
Maloney (16 points) got caught by the pick, the lanky Tim Krug
tried to stay with the quickest man on the court. And although
Campbell was giving away 11 inches in height and seemingly another
foot in arm length, he took the last shot of the game with his
team down by only one. But Krug blocked Campbell's drive from
behind as time ran out and the visiting Quakers escaped Harvard,
66-65, for their 24th consecutive Ivy League victory. Click
to watch highlights of the closing
minutes.
“PENN'S
MOST RECENT NCAA TOURNAMENT WIN”: Penn 90, Nebraska 80 (March
17, 1994)
The 11th-seeded Quakers had
perhaps their best shooting performance of the season, and they
definitely picked the perfect time and place, as they bombed and
ran their way past sixth-seeded and No. 22-ranked Nebraska, 90-80,
in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Barry Pierce hit 11 of 15 shots and scored 25 as
the Quakers gave the Ivy League its first NCAA victory in 11
seasons by upsetting the Big 8 champion Huskers. Penn was able to coast to victory by
beating the Cornhuskers at their very own game -- the fast break.
Nebraska ran its patented up-tempo, helter-skelter offense, but
the Huskers had only one problem -- they could not hit the broad
side of a barn from outside the three-point arc. Nebraska's
constant misses and subsequent Quakers long rebounds gave Penn the
opportunity to run. And unlike Nebraska, Penn was not missing on
this night, especially right out of the starting gate. The Quakers
hit six of their first seven shots to race out to a 15-4 lead only
three minutes into the contest. That early run was a microcosm of
the entire game, as four Quakers hit shots in the spurt,
illustrating the balance in the Penn scoring attack that was to
haunt Nebraska for the entire game. Click
to
watch Penn's most recent NCAA Tournament victory.
“NIT-MARE
ON 33RD STREET”: Canisius 81, Penn 78 (November 16, 1994)
It was supposed to be a festive
send-off to Syracuse, the first step toward an Associated Press
Top 25 ranking, and a coming-out party for Ira Bowman. For 32
minutes it was. Then reality kicked the Quakers right in the
shins. Hard. Reality came dressed as the Canisius Golden Griffins.
The Griffs dampened the expectations and the hype by rallying from
a 14-point second half deficit for an 81-78 first-round Preseason
National Invitation Tournament win in front of 3,511 stunned
witnesses who wondered if it was really happening. Yes, it was.
Matt Maloney's desperation shot bounced off the rim, the buzzer
blared and the scoreboard read Canisius 81, Penn 78. And then the
Griffins started doing the partying. Ryan Collins jumped around
madly. Michael Meeks and Javone Moore rolled around gleefully on
the Palestra floor. In the press conference afterward, Meeks and
Wise hummed the ESPN Sports Center song the Penn band joyously
played earlier. For that too, the prime-time exposure, was
supposed to be Penn's. Perhaps, though, the Quakers were too ready
for prime time. Click
to watch Matt
Maloney throw Jerome Allen a perfect alley-oop.
“GIVE IT TO
ROME!” (PART II): Penn 82, Lehigh 79 (OT) (November 28, 1994)
After Canisius, Penn fans hoped
the Quakers would thump Lehigh. No such luck. With less than 15
minutes to play, Lehigh was up by 15, and Penn had backed itself
into a corner. But once in that corner, the Quakers were able to
scratch and claw their way out. Penn still trailed by one, 70-69, before Jerome
Allen hit two free throws with 48 seconds on the clock to give the
Quakers a 71-70 lead. But Rashawne Glenn popped a 3-pointer from
the right side to put Lehigh ahead by two, 73-71. With only 16
seconds left, Matt Maloney passed the ball to Allen. As the clock ran down, Allen calmly
dribbled and rose up for a seven-foot jumper from the baseline
with five seconds on the clock. Nothing but nylon. Once Allen had
put the game into overtime, he took the game over. The senior
repeatedly slashed into the paint and scored. He posted six of
Penn's first seven points and virtually put the game out of
Lehigh's reach. Allen finished with a remarkable stat line -- 22
points, eight rebounds, nine assists and four steals. Click
to watch Jerome Allen's game-tying baseline jumper.
“IRA'S ARRIVAL”: Penn 91, Ohio State 71 (December 3, 1994)
When Ohio State invaded the
Palestra, the Quakers made their 1994-95 TV debut with Digger
(Phelps) and the Deuce (ESPN2, that is) in the house. Against the
Buckeyes, Providence transfer Ira Bowman made his point in the
first half -- with authority. His first of many thunderous slams
ignited the crowd and made him an instant hero. As the clock ran out before
halftime, Jerome Allen heaved the ball from half court. Shawn
Trice tipped it in and grinned all the way to the locker room. Penn forced 14 first-half
turnovers and turned a 28-28 tie into a 47-34 advantage at the
intermission. Eric
Moore dominated Ohio State in the paint, scoring 20 points. It was
his first game wearing No. 5, which his father donned at Penn as
captain. Scott Kegler complemented Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney
in the backcourt, tying a career high with 16 points. Click
to watch Shawn Trice's first half
buzzer-beater.
“SEND IT IN, CEDRIC!”: Penn 101, Fairleigh-Dickinson 71
(December 10, 1994)
Fairleigh
Dickinson coach Tom Green had hoped Penn would show some holiday
spirit and go easy on his hapless Knights. It didn't happen. After a re-oiling following the
first 15 minutes of this contest against the Knights, the Penn
men's basketball machine took over. The Quakers went on a 78-36
run in the remaining 25 minutes to blow it open, and forward
Cedric Laster threw it down to give Penn its first century mark
against a Division I opponent since a 1981 pasting of St. Francis
(Pa.) by that same 101-71 score. Thirteen of the 15 Quakers
scored. Ira Bowman had a career-high 17 points, and Jerome Allen
scored 25 points, helped by a 7-of-8 shooting performance in the
second half. Click
to
watch Cedric Laster's dunk put the Quakers over the century mark.
“GIVE IT TO
ROME!” (PART III): Penn 62, Michigan 60 (December 13, 1994)
The Quakers stormed out to a
28-7 lead in the first 10 minutes behind a shooting clinic from
its guards. While
Jerome Allen (3-for-11 shooting, 6 points) struggled from the
field, Matt Maloney and Scott Kegler canned 3-pointers repeatedly
with wide open looks at the basket. Penn still had a 49-30 bulge
with 17 minutes remaining before the No. 25 Wolverines stormed back to tie at 60 on a
Jimmy King layup that rattled in with 15.3 seconds left. With the
decibel level at Crisler Arena out of control, one Quaker still
had a big play left. The play broke down, but Jerome Allen would
not be denied. He twisted, turned and tossed in a running
no-trajectory one-hander from eight feet over three Wolverines. It
fell with 4.4 seconds remaining, and Penn had a win for the ages
after an open 12-footer by Maurice Taylor, at the buzzer, missed
its mark. Maloney and Eric Moore (10-for-10 from the line) each
scored 18 points to lead the Quakers. Click
to watch Jerome Allen's game-winning
eight-foot leaner that silenced the Michigan fans for good and
sent the Quaker fans into a frenzy.
“SEND IT IN,
CEDRIC!” (PART II): Penn 93, Colgate 58 (December 27, 1994)
The Quakers scored seemingly at
will on their way to a 50-28 halftime lead. They hardly let up any
in the second period, overwhelming the Red Raiders every step of
the way. Everybody got
into the scoring act. Junior center Tim Krug scored 19 points on
8-of-13 shooting. Ira Bowman was 6 of 9 for 14 points, and Jerome
Allen also had 14. Super frosh Adonal Foyle scored 18 points for
Colgate, but he didn't receive enough help. Only one other Red
Raider scored in double figures. As Penn's Madison Square Garden thrashing of
Colgate neared its end, Cedric Laster soared high and rattled the
rim. Icing the scene at Cedric's second coming were Allen and
Shawn Trice, pointing from the bench at the instant replay on the
MSG scoreboard. Click
to watch Cedric
Laster's dunk.
“HOLIDAY FESTIVAL CHAMPIONS”: Penn 79, St. John's 73 (December
29, 1994)
When Penn faced off against No.
25 St. John's at the Garden for the ECAC title, the spotlight
shone brightly. The world had come out to see Felipe Lopez hit the
big time. But on this night, Matt Maloney was unstoppable -- he
torched the Red Storm for 21 of his game-high 24 points in the
first half. After
missing his first shot, Maloney hit his next eight. Jerome Allen
took over after intermission and finished with 23 points on his
way to claiming the tournament's MVP award. Click
to watch Matt Maloney's 3-pointer give Penn a 75-66 lead with just
over three minutes left.
“OH YEAH, WATCH THIS!”: Penn, 90, Harvard 63 (January 6, 1995)
The Quakers
thumped Harvard, 90-63, to tie their own Ivy League mark (1969-72) with 30 consecutive wins. In the
first half, Harvard went on a 7-0 run. Briggs Cage was rocking,
and some people actually believed the Crimson could win.
Unfortunately, the Penn backcourt wasn't impressed -- a Matt
Maloney-to-Jerome Allen alley-oop slam silenced all. A harbinger
of things to come in the Ancient Eight. Eric Moore led the
Quakers with 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting. Click
to watch the Maloney-to-Allen alley-oop.
“NICE SPIKE, TIMMY!”: Penn 85, Dartmouth 70 (January 7, 1995)
At Dartmouth, Penn broke the
all-time Ivy League record with 31 straight wins while forward Tim
Krug supplied one of the most vicious rejections in history. The
overhead swat from behind sent a Big Green layup careening off the
backboard and back to the foul line. Soon it was in the hands of
Ira Bowman, who raced down court and finished with a high-flying
slam. Wow! Scott
Kegler (7-for-9 three-pointers) scored a career-high 26 points for
the Quakers. Click
to watch Tim Krug's block and Ira Bowman's
subsequent slam.
“UMASSACRE”: Massachusetts 93, Penn
60 (January 14, 1995)
Lou Roe (23 points, 10
rebounds), who hurt the Quakers two years earlier in the NCAA
tournament, did it again as top-ranked Massachusetts blew out No.
21 Penn, 93-60. Two years earlier, UMass struggled to beat the
scrappy young Quakers, 54-50, in the first round of the NCAA
tournament in Syracuse, NY. Penn had matured greatly since then,
and was ranked No. 21 is the Associated Press poll. The
Minutemen's No. 1 ranking and 33-point margin of victory should
tell you just how much UMass had improved. The five Penn starters
combined for an 11-of--36 shooting night while UMass shot better
than 50 percent for the contest. Using their superior size and
strength, the Minutemen scored 64 points in the paint compared
with Penn's 23. UMass used great ball movement to create easy
shots against a Penn zone defense that could not rotate fast
enough. When Fran Dunphy switched Penn to a man-on-man defense,
the Quakers were too often simply over-matched. On the offensive
end, the Quakers were taken out of rhythm early on by the
Minutemen's full-court pressure defense. Struggling to even get
the ball upcourt, Penn was slow in getting into its offensive sets
and its guards rarely got clean looks at the basket. Once Penn let
the UMass crowd into the game, it was almost impossible to climb
back. Click
to listen to some of the highlights.
“IRA BOWMAN'S COMING-OUT
PARTY”: Penn 66, Yale 55 (February 3, 1995)
It was Ira Bowman's coming out
party that enabled Penn to finally pull away from a stubborn Elis
squad and escape New Haven with a 66-55 victory. A young Yale
squad gave the Quakers all they could handle early on. With some
sloppy play on offense and the slow pace of play the Elis
inflicted on the game, Penn headed into the locker room with just
a 30-25 advantage. On the strength of a Gabe Hunterton 3-pointer
from the top of the key, the Elis jumped in front of Penn and took
a 36-35 lead with 15 minutes left in the contest. Yale was never
able to extend that advantage beyond a single point, however. The
chief reason was the play of Bowman. With the score knotted at 38,
Bowman weaved into the paint and buried a foul-line jumper.
Minutes later he backed up a couple of feet to nail a three from
the top of the key that opened up Penn's lead to five. The Quakers
never looked back from there. Bowman's entire game was also
spectacular. After that deadly three, he fired a beautiful pass to
Tim Krug who finished it off with a dunk. Then Ira was rewarded
for his own hard work. After stripping the ball from a Yale guard
and deflecting it to Jerome Allen, Allen gave it back to Bowman
who threw the ball -- and the hopes of the Elis -- down at the
other end of the court. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
MATT MALONEY SCORES 36: Penn
95, Brown 83 (February 4, 1995)
Matt Maloney found himself wide
open on the Quakers' very first possession. He let fly from behind
the arc on the left wing. Nothing but net. Fran Dunphy envisioned
nights like this from the moment Maloney transferred from
Vanderbilt three years earlier. Nights when everything the senior
guard touches on the offensive end turns to gold. He drove inside
for pull-up jumpers and hit an assortment of shots from downtown.
He finished 13-of-20 from the field for 36 points, one short of
his career high in January of 1993 against American. It was an
all-time points record for the six-year-old Pizzitola Sports
Center. The defining moment for Maloney came with just under eight
minutes remaining in the game and Penn up 71-59. He stole the ball
and was heading in for an uncontested layup when he was grabbed by
Brown's Joel Koplik. He heard the whistle blow and tossed the ball
over his shoulder just before his feet hit the floor. It went in.
His subsequent foul shot gave him 32 points and effectively ended
the Bears' chances. Click
to
watch Matt Maloney's over-the-shoulder shot.
“PENN WINS BY 30 POINTS
TWICE”: Penn 101, Cornell 71; Penn 90, Columbia 55 (February
10-11, 1995)
Cornell held
the only visiting lead of the weekend at 15-13 on Friday, but
three Ira Bowman steals and some nice passing keyed a 13-2 run
midway through the first half. A 20-2 run early in the second half
put the game safely out of reach. Two Matt Maloney threes began
the run and a Shawn Trice double-pump layup made it 67-42. All
that was left was Cedric Laster scoring the ritual 100th and 101st
points with a driving layup. It was the most points scored by Penn
in an Ivy game since 1979, when the Quakers scored 103 against
Harvard. It was more of the same Saturday. With the Quakers
up 35-22 a few minutes into the second half, Scott Kegler missed a
three from the left side, ran into the lane, grabbed the rebound,
and hit a three from the right side. It was all over, despite the
fact Penn went nine of 20 from the free throw line for the game.
For the most part, Penn did it with defense, forcing 26 turnovers.
One constant between the two nights was the spark provided by
Bowman and Tim Krug off the bench. Against Cornell, a two-handed
slam from Krug courtesy of Jerome Allen brought the crowd to its
feet. Bowman had 10 steals in the two games, including one of a
Cornell outlet pass while lying on the floor after missing his own
shot. He also had monster dunks in each game, one all over
Columbia's Chad Brown. The two juniors combined for 25 points
against Cornell and 23 against Columbia. Click
to watch Tim Krug's two-handed
slam, click
to watch Ira Bowman throw one down
against Cornell or click
to watch Ira
Bowman throw one down over
Columbia's
Chad Brown.
“HEARTBREAK ON VALENTINE'S DAY”: Temple 59, Penn 56
(February 14, 1995)
Derrick Battie's offensive rebound and subsequent layup gave
the Owls the winning basket with 12.4 seconds left as Temple
handed Penn a 59-56 loss at a sold-out Palestra. The Quakers had
another chance, but after Jerome Allen drove the lane and drew a
pair of defenders, Shawn Trice, standing just to the right of the
basket with Penn trailing by one point, could not handle Allen's
pass. Penn fouled quickly, and Owls guard Johnny Miller hit two
free throws with 1.8 seconds left. A last-second inbounds pass to
midcourt by Allen went astray and Temple held on for its 14th
straight victory over the Quakers. Penn closed the first half with
a 6-0 spurt to open up a 28-23 lead, with Ira Bowman scoring all
the points in the run, including a steal and dunk that electrified
the crowd. The Quakers' biggest lead was six points when Matt
Maloney hit a trey to stake Penn to a 50-44 lead with 7:20
remaining in the contest. Temple trailed 56-52 after Maloney
answered a Miller 3-pointer for the second time late in the game
with a 3-pointer of his own with 4:43 remaining. But Penn was held
scoreless for the rest of the game. Penn's Tim Krug missed two
free throws, then Miller hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key
with 2:22 left to pull the Owls to within one point, 56-55.
Battie's basket was the next and deciding score more than two
minutes later. Click
to watch Ira
Bowman's electrifying slam.
FRAN DUNPHY'S 100TH WIN: Penn
73, Dartmouth 62 (February 17, 1995)
Ira Bowman scored a season-high 20 points and tied a school
record with eight steals to help Penn defeat Dartmouth at the Palestra, 73-62, and
give Fran Dunphy his 100th career win as a head coach. Early on,
the Quakers offense sputtered but they still led most of the half.
Dartmouth chipped away with seven-foot center Brian Gilpin
cleaning the glass for eight first-half points, but the Quakers
led, 30-24, at the break. Dartmouth remained within striking
distance for most of the second half, but every time they got
close, it seemed like Bowman would come up with another steal. Click
to watch Ira Bowman's tomahawk jam
or click
to listen to Andrew Monfried's
call of Bowman's steal and ensuing dunk.
MATT MALONEY SETS 3-POINT MARK:
Penn 86, Harvard 73 (February 18, 1995)
Harvard scored
the game's first nine points, but
Penn senior Matt Maloney helped the Red and Blue get back on
track by scoring 12 of Penn's
first 14 points, and the Quakers took a 38-30 lead into
halftime. Maloney led all scorers with 34 points on 12-for-20
shooting, as the Quakers won their 38th consecutive Ancient
Eight game. The team co-captain shot an impressive 10-for-15
from three-point territory to set Penn and Ivy League records
for most three-point field goals. Click
to watch Matt Maloney nail his tenth trey or click
to.watch Tim Krug
throw down two within a 45-second span or click
to listen to Andrew Monfried's call of Matt Maloney's eighth, ninth and tenth treys.
“MONEY-TO-ROME
ALLEY-OOP”: Villanova 78, Penn 74 (February 22, 1995)
Penn gave one of the nation's
elite a scare, but it ultimately came up short in its hard-fought
upset attempt. A Jerome Allen three-point shot to tie the game in
the final seconds sailed off the mark, and No. 9 Villanova held
off the resilient Quakers, 78-74, in front of a standing room-only
crowd at duPont Pavilion. Trailing 50-41 at the half, Penn went on
a 12-4 run highlighted by a backdoor alley-oop, which saw Matt
Maloney lob a perfect pass to Allen for the dunk. The slam cut the
Wildcats' lead to 54-53. In the final minute, when Maloney drained
his sixth 3-pointer of the night over the outstretched arms of
Jason Lawson, Penn was within one again, 75-74. But the Wildcats
did not stumble in crunch time. Eric Eberz hit both ends of a
one-and-one to extend the Villanova lead back to three, 77-74,
before Allen's shot from well beyond the three-point line careened
off the rim. Jonathan Haynes grabbed the rebound and hit a free
throw to seal the Wildcats' victory. Click
to watch Matt
Maloney's perfect alley-oop pass to Jerome Allen.
“SEND IT IN,
CEDRIC!” (PART III): Penn 85, Brown 55 (March 3, 1995)
Penn overwhelmed an
injury-riddled Brown team, 85-55, to secure their third
consecutive Ivy title and the automatic bid to the NCAA
Tournament. The Bears, with star guards Eric Blackiston and Brian
Lloyd sidelined with injuries, did not give the Quakers much of a
challenge. As the Quakers' thrashing of Brown neared its end,
Cedric Laster soared high and rattled the rim.
NCAA TOURNAMENT: Alabama 91, Penn
85 (OT) (March 16, 1995)
Antonio McDyess
gave a career performance with 39 points, to go with 19 rebounds,
as the fifth-seeded Crimson Tide defeated the Quakers, 91-85, in
overtime, at Baltimore Arena. Alabama opened up as big as a
six-point advantage in the first half, but the Quakers whittled
away at that lead. A Matt Maloney 3-pointer that immediately
followed a McDyess thunderous dunk at the other end pulled Penn to
within one point, 37-36. Then Jamal Faulkner missed a turnaround
jumper and Ira Bowman got the rebound. Jerome Allen held for the
final shot of the half. His driving layup bounced off the rim and
Faulkner got the rebound. But Bowman stole the ball and laid it in
as the first half expired and the Quakers led 38-37 at the break.
In the second half, the Tide took a 57-46 lead on Jason Caffey's
layup with 9:32 left, but the Quakers rattled off 11 straight
points to knot the game at 57. The teams traded the lead for the
remainder of regulation, with Bowman converting 4-of-4 free throws
in the final 1:23 to force overtime. The Tide scored the first 11
points of the extra session, leaving Penn no choice but to foul.
The Quakers got within three points rallying behind a valiant
effort from Allen. He hit a 3-pointer with 23 seconds left to make
it 88-82, then stole a pass and hit another trey five seconds
later. Penn still trailed 88-85. But the Quakers' good fortune ran
out. Bryan Passink hit the second of two free throws at the other
end to ice the Tide victory.
CAMERON MURRAY AT THE BUZZER:
USC 80, Penn 78 (November 27, 1995)
The post-Jerome Allen-Matt
Maloney era officially began. As the game entered the final five
minutes of play, the crowd came alive, screaming, clapping,
stomping feet, doing anything to distract the Trojans offense.
With the bleachers rocking and the hardwood vibrating, the Quakers
forced a few USC turnovers and tied the game at 78 on a Tim Krug
3-pointer with just 43.3 seconds remaining in the game. The noise
from the stands definitely rattled USC at times. But Trojans guard
Cameron Murray silenced the crowd in the closing seconds with a
game-winning jump shot from the foul line. After the game, USC
defensive whiz Stais Boseman sarcastically slapped hands with a
fan in the first row who was on him all night. Click
to watch Ira Bowman throw one down off a terrific look-away pass
from Tim Krug.
“IRA BOWMAN'S TWO-HANDED SLAM”:
St. Joseph's 86, Penn 70 (January 16, 1996)
St. Joseph's
spent the early part of the game building a comfortable lead,
which peaked at 13 points nine minutes into the contest. But a
timely time-out taken by Penn coach Fran Dunphy gave the Quakers
time to settle down. Fifteen seconds after the players stepped
back on the hardwood, Garett Kreitz drained a 3-pointer. As the
Hawks took the ball upcourt, Ira Bowman stripped the ball loose
and tossed it the length of the court to Frank Brown who stuffed
it home. After two free throws by St. Joe's forward Reggie
Townsend, Donald Moxley and Kreitz hit back-to-back treys, cutting
the Hawks lead to just four. As the last few seconds of the first
half ticked away, St. Joe's guard Rashid Bey spun, twisted and
sidestepped his way through the lane and hit a 9-foot running
jumper to give the Hawks a 40-34 halftime lead. St. Joe's took
control of the game midway through the second half. Any hopes of a
Penn comeback were dashed with 1:52 left when Bass nailed a long
three from deep in the right corner giving St. Joe's an 82-66
lead. Click
to watch Ira Bowman's steal and
two-handed slam.
“DONALD MOXLEY'S
BUZZER-BEATER IN OVERTIME”: Penn 68, La Salle 66 (OT) (January
27, 1996)
Tied at 66 with
23.2 seconds remaining, the Quakers inbounded the ball, holding it
for the last shot. Donald Moxley, who scored a career-high 24
points, took control of the ball and the Quakers' destiny, driving
the paint and hitting a floater just before the final buzzer
sounded. That gave Penn a 68-66 overtime victory over La Salle at
the Spectrum. Penn held a 15-point lead earlier in the second
half, only to watch it slip away, as they went 13:08 without a
field goal. Before center Tim Krug took an Ira Bowman pass and
laid it in with 33 seconds remaining in overtime, Penn missed 11
straight field-goal attempts. La Salle came back from a nine-point
deficit to lead the Quakers by one during that span. While the
Quakers shot a blistering 7-of-12 from long range in the first
half, they faltered slightly in the second. However, it was clutch
free-throw shooting that proved to be the difference in the
contest. Though La Salle shot 75 percent from the free-throw line,
the Explorers were only 1-for-4 in the overtime period. Click
to watch Donald Moxley's
buzzer-beater.
“ROMANCZUK'S ARRIVAL”: Penn 83,
Hofstra 55 (January 31,
1996)
Penn absolutely
took apart Hofstra, 83-55, in its second game of the post-Nat
Graham era. Graham unexpectedly quit the team a week earlier,
saying he no longer had an interest in playing. But in only his
second career start, 6'7" freshman power forward Paul Romanczuk
stepped in and exploded for a career-high 18 points against
the Flying Dutchmen. Click
to watch a terrific look-away pass
from Ira Bowman to Paul Romanczuk for an easy layup, while drawing
the foul.
“PAUL ROMANCZUK'S
THUNDERING DUNK”: Penn 77, Cornell 63 (February 2, 1996)
When senior Nat Graham
unexpectedly quit the basketball team, freshman Paul Romanczuk was
given a golden opportunity. He would not only get a lot more
minutes, but Penn coach Fran Dunphy would also tap him as the
starting power forward for the Quakers. But even though Romanczuk
received the starting spot by chance, he proved that he may have
deserved it all along. Romanczuk scored 13 points, making all four
shots he attempted, in Penn's 77-63 win over Cornell. He also
recorded a team-high nine rebounds and showed off his stuff with a
slam dunk in the final minutes. “I think that was my second dunk
(at Penn),” Romanczuk said. “Tim made a great pass there. I
thought we were holding the ball to finish out the game. I was in
the right place at the right time.” Click
to watch Paul Romanczuk's
thundering dunk.
“ALL OVER IN HANOVER”:
Dartmouth 54, Penn 53 (February 9, 1996)
Brian Gilpin's
two free throws with eight seconds left propelled Dartmouth to a
54-53 victory over Penn. Dartmouth trailed by seven points three
times in the second half, but went on an 11-3 run that tied the
game at 50. After Gilpin hit two free throws, Penn retook the lead
at 53-52 on a Garett Kreitz free throw and a runner by Donald
Moxley with 17 seconds left. After a Penn timeout, Dartmouth
dumped the ball to Gilpin, who was fouled, made one free throw,
then followed another Quaker timeout with the winning free throw.
Ira Bowman had a chance to win the game for Penn when he was
fouled with three seconds left. As Bowman stepped to the foul
line, the capacity crowd at Leede Arena rose to its feet in
preparation for what would be the deciding shots. Clinging to a
one-point lead, the Big Green called timeout. A minute later, the
teams returned to position. And Dartmouth called timeout again.
After what may have been the longest three seconds in Penn
basketball history, Bowman took the free throw. And missed. The
triumphant capacity crowd stormed the court as Dartmouth ended
Penn's 48-game Ivy League winning streak. Penn's streak fell two short of the
NCAA mark of 50 consecutive conference wins (UCLA, Pac-10). It was the first League loss for the
Red and Blue since March 6, 1992, when Columbia defeated Penn,
71-66. Before the
ill-fated free throw, Bowman had been a key contributor in the
Quakers' attempt at consecutive Ivy win No. 49. His tenacious
defense held the Ivy League's leading scorer, Sea Lonergan, to
just 11 points. Bowman
finished the contest with 12 points and nine rebounds. Kreitz led Penn with 13 points and
Tim Krug added 11.
Click
to watch the final three seconds.
“GABE HUNTERTON'S BUZZER-BEATER”:
Yale 62, Penn 60
(February 16, 1996)
A snowstorm
brought traffic to halt, while Yale did the same thing, 62-60, to
the visiting Quakers. With the loss, the Quakers crashed out
of first place for the first time since the end of the 1991-92
campaign. Elis sophomore guard Gabe Hunterton delivered the
game-winning basket with three seconds left, a turnaround jumper
in the lane with Penn guard Garett Kreitz draped all over him.
After a close first half in which the lead changed hands eight
times, Yale emerged to take control of the game. The Elis extended
their 29-25 halftime advantage to 12 points with 12 minutes to
play. When Quakers forward Ira Bowman fouled out at the
four-minute mark with seven points, and Yale's Jim Kawahito hit a
pair of free throws seconds later to give Yale a 59-51 lead, the
situation for Penn looked decidedly bleak. But in the next two
minutes, Penn guard Donald Moxley hit a free throw, center Krug
converted a layup, and forward Frank Brown knocked down a jumper,
while the Elis could muster just a free throw from Daniel Okonkwo.
The score stood at 60-56 with two minutes left when Quakers
forward Paul Romanczuk drew a foul. He missed the first, but sank
the second to bring the Quakers within two, the closest they had
been since early in the first half. After a crucial Penn defensive
stop, Yale tied the ball up with 43 seconds remaining, but the
possession arrow pointed to Penn, and the 35-second shot clock was
reset. With 29 seconds remaining, Brown launched a potentially
game-tying 3-pointer that went astray. But Kawahito committed a
cardinal sin -- fouling the three-point shooter. The freshman
calmly sank all three free tosses to even the score at 60 apiece.
That set the stage for Hunterton's heroics. Click
to watch the final 29 seconds.
“IRA'S STUNNING DUNK-AND-A-FOUL
MOVE”: Penn 83, Brown 53
(February 17, 1996)
Penn allowed
just 17 points after intermission, and combined the aggressive
defending with a balanced offensive attack, as the Quakers rolled
to a lopsided 83-53 victory over Brown at the Pizzitola Center. In
a fast-paced first half, Penn repeatedly nudged its lead, once on
a dunk-and-a-foul move by Ira Bowman that stunned the sparse
crowd. But the Bears' timely jump-shooting and James Joseph's
inside play kept the home team close. Leading 42-40 early in
the second half, the Quakers suddenly clamped down on the Brown
offense. Over the next 10 minutes, the Bears turned the ball over
five times, while managing just a layup and a free throw. Despite
missing Bowman, who had 24 points, including 14 in the first
half, for most of that period due to foul trouble, Penn was able
to build a commanding 17-point lead, 60-43, with eight minutes to
play. Click
to watch Ira Bowman's stunning dunk-and-a-foul move.
“SWEET REVENGE”: Penn 80,
Dartmouth 51 (February 24, 1996)
The Big Green had beaten Penn
by one point two weeks earlier to end the Quakers' record 48-game
Ivy win streak. Payback was sweet for Penn. The Red and Blue took
a 33-26 lead into the locker room at the break. But Dartmouth
scored six straight points to open the second half, and the
Quakers lead was one with 17:42 to play. A Paul Romanczuk layup,
followed by a steal and coast-to-coast layup by Ira Bowman, pushed
the Penn lead to five. After a Dartmouth miss, Romanczuk hit a
12-footer from the left baseline. Then Krug blocked a shot -- one
of four he had on the night. The Quakers went the other way, and
guard Garett Kreitz sank a three from the right wing. Penn led
42-32 with 15:50 left. Moments later, after stealing the ball,
Bowman dished a no-look pass to a wide-open Krug in the lane. Krug
finished the break with a vicious two-handed jam, the crowd
erupted, and the rout was officially on. The Quakers added two
more dunks in the next few minutes -- one for Bowman, off one of
his six steals, and another two-handed stuff for Krug, this one
over Big Green 7-footer Brian Gilpin. The lead quickly ballooned
out of control. Click
to watch Tim Krug's vicious jam
off Ira Bowman's no-look pass.
“CHEESESTEAKS”:
Penn 100, Lehigh 58 (December 7, 1996)
December 7,
1996 was a special day in the hearts, minds and stomachs of
2,756 Penn faithful at the Palestra. With only one second
remaining on the clock, Penn reserve guard Nate Allison tipped
in a missed Mike Dzik 3-pointer to move the Quakers to triple
digits and send the crowd into a frenzy. His putback turned
everyone's ticket stub into a
free cheesesteak from Abner's.
The Quakers scored the first seven points and the rout was on.
They led, 17-6, after just six minutes. After the Red and Blue
held a 53-22 halftime edge, coach Fran Dunphy emptied his
bench, and was concerned about running up the score on the
Engineers. Michael Jordan led the Quakers with 20 points, and
Matt Langel and Garett Kreitz each had 18 in only one half of
action. The Quakers shot 53.6 percent from the floor,
including 15-for-24 -- a blistering 62.5 percent -- from
three-point range, a Penn record for threes made at the time.
Click
to watch Nate
Allison's field goal put the
Quakers over the century mark.
Penn 85, Harvard 68 (February 7, 1997)
Penn shot 57 percent from the
floor and routed Harvard, 85-58, at the Palestra. The Quakers shot
12-for-20 from behind the arc in the win. Penn's starting guards,
Michael Jordan and Matt Langel, opened the game with a 3-pointer
apiece. While those were Langel's only points of the night, Jordan
stayed hot for the entire game -- going 4-for-5 from long range
and scoring 18 points. Penn guard Garett Kreitz came off the bench
and got into the act as well, nailing five 3-pointers. Penn's
guard play softened up the Crimson defense inside. Forwards Paul
Romanczuk and Jed Ryan were each active all night, slashing to the
basket, posting up and getting easy baskets. Ryan finished as
Penn's leading scorer on the night with 22 points. Romanczuk had
15 points to go along with 12 rebounds in a great all-around
performance around the basket. Harvard shot only 44 percent from
the field for the game. Click
to watch Garett Kreitz nail three from downtown within one minute.
“THE COMEBACK”: Penn 76,
Yale 69 (OT) (February 13, 1998)
Penn found itself in
a precarious position -- the Quakers, who had a 5-1 record in
the Ivy League, trailed lowly Yale by 46-24 with 17:35 remaining
and by 57-37 with 10:21 left in regulation. But then over the
next six minutes, the Red and Blue --sparked by consecutive
steals by Michael Jordan and Lamar Plummer -- went on a 17-1 run
to cut the Elis' lead to only four
points. After a 3-pointer by Yale, Penn ran off seven straight
points to force the extra session with the score tied at 61. In
the final stretch, the Quakers forced nine turnovers, which
turned into 15 Penn points. Penn would go on to score the first
seven points in the extra session to extend their scoring spurt
to 31-4. Michael Jordan -- who had scored 11 through the
first 40 minutes -- hit for 11 more in the overtime, and Penn
outscored the Elis, 15-8, to complete the comeback. Click
to watch highlights of “The Comeback”.
GARETT KREITZ SCORES 33: Penn 79, Brown 68
(February 14, 1998)
On Valentine's Day, Penn came out all business and defeated Brown,
79-68. A superb shooting game from senior guard Garett Kreitz --
who finished the game with 33 points, 17 of which came in the
first half -- propelled Penn to a 38-24 lead at the break. “I mean
the past month I have been shooting like junk,” Kreitz said. “I
have been very pissed off at myself, excuse my language, but I
said tonight 'enough is enough.' That is just the mind-frame I put
myself in.” Despite the co-captain's career high -- which came on
7-of-11 shooting from downtown -- Brown crawled back into the
game, 71-66 with only 2:24 showing on the clock. But with the
contest on the line, the Quakers' Matt Langel, Michael Jordan, and
Kreitz sank 8-of-10 from the charity stripe to put the game on
ice. Click
to watch highlights of Garett
Kreitz's 33-point night.
Penn 71, Columbia 53 (February 28, 1998)
Michael Jordan made it real
simple for his fellow Quakers when the team ventured up to New
York City. “Let's get loose and have fun out there!” he spouted
to his teammates moments before the contest. The result was a
71-53 win. Part of the easygoing vibe exuded by Penn translated
into some thrilling moments. It showed when Jordan took a
gorgeous alley-oop pass from teammate Paul Romanczuk and
converted it for a layup. On the flip side, a Jordan bounce pass
between two Lion defenders produced a Romanczuk dunk on a fast
break. Both plays had Columbia coach Armond Hill calling
timeout. The Red and Blue's casual nature on the court also
produced several wide open 3-pointers for Jordan and senior
co-captain Garett Kreitz, who together sunk eight treys. In all,
the Quakers nailed 11 three-pointers -- six in the second half
when Penn built upon its seven-point half time lead. Kreitz
stood out from the rest. He bucketed three from downtown in a
six minute span in the second half to ignite a Quakers' streak.
The initial two treys helped Penn jump to a 39-26 lead in the
opening moments in the second half. Click
to watch Paul
Romanczuk's two-handed jam.
Kansas 61, Penn 56 (November
17, 1998)
Kansas coach
Roy Williams wanted his team to experience the Palestra. He was
willing to sacrifice travel time and strength-of-schedule to
make the excursion possible. However, he hadn't anticipated
sacrificing the No. 8 national ranking, much less his sanity.
With 6:15 left in the first-half and the Jayhawks trailing Penn
16-13, a mixture of questionable calls and 7,852 screaming,
partisan fans got beneath the skin of a usually mellow coach.
Williams released his wrath on the closest zebra, official Dick
Paparo. The result -- just his seventh technical foul in his
11-year coaching career. With Penn junior Matt Langel hitting
the ensuing shots from the charity stripe, the Quakers built a
five-point lead, 18-13. Welcome to the Palestra -- college
basketball's most historic arena. At halftime, Penn was leading
26-19. After intermission, the Quakers returned equally as
aggressive and the fans proved no less rowdy. But the Jayhawks
-- a team that shot so poorly from the floor in the first half
-- returned to the Palestra hardwood en fuego, lighting it up on
15-of-20 shots from the field. The Jayhawks executed the things
they needed in the closing minutes to maintain their ranking.
Click
to watch Penn build a 26-19
halftime lead.
Penn
73, Temple 70 (OT) (November 23, 1998)
The Quakers
rallied to knock out No. 7 Temple in an overtime thriller. It was
only the second game of the year, but by beating the Owls, 73-70,
in overtime, Penn proved it could compete with anyone in the
nation. The win over the Owls was Penn's first since February 1982
-- before John Chaney became Temple's coach. When Michael Jordan
nailed two free throws with 5.8 seconds left in overtime, the Red
and Blue showed that the Owls might not be the best college
basketball team in Philadelphia. Jordan finished with 22 points,
playing all 40 minutes of regulation time and the entire overtime
period. While the Quakers' junior point guard hit numerous big
shots throughout the game, the biggest came in the extra period.
With the teams tied at 58, Jordan opened the scoring in overtime,
burying a 3-pointer from the top of the key. This score gave Penn
a lead it would never relinquish. When the horn sounded and Penn
won, the Quaker faithful stormed the court. Click
to watch highlights of the exciting overtime period.
“SEND IT IN, JON!”:
Penn 86, Brown 55 (January 9, 1999)
In the 31-point Quakers romp,
Geoff Owens had three two-handed slam dunks, grabbed nine boards,
swatted four Bears attempts and scored 14 points in just 25
minutes. The Quakers exploded from the tip-off. Penn scored every
time it brought the ball past halfcourt until a three-second
violation by Owens at 13:48. Penn's torrid first-half shooting was
characterized by a Jordan play with 9:57 remaining. Off a feed
from former high-school teammate Lamar Plummer, Michael Jordan
launched a 23-foot bomb, drawing a foul from Brown's Corey
Vandiver and subsequently completing the four-point play. Even the
reserves got into the act against Brown. With Penn up 73-50 and
2:59 on the clock, Brendan Cody, Jon Tross and Dan Solomito
joined Plummer and Josh Sanger on the court. The subs erupted to
close the game on a 13-5 Penn run. With 25 seconds left, Tross
slammed one home with authority, while Solomito torched the Bears
for three rebounds and seven points in his 2:59 of play -- his
first points in a Quakers jersey. Solomito finished the Penn
scoring with 9.1 seconds left on a 3-pointer from the top of the
key. He then stole the ball at half court with 1.1 left and capped
his fast break with an emphatic dunk but time had already expired,
with Penn victorious 86-55. Click
to watch Jon Tross slam one home.
“THE PAUL ROMANCZUK
SHOW”: Penn 62, La Salle 58 (January 14, 1999)
At Tom Gola Arena, Paul
Romanczuk tallied a season high 24 points on 11-of-13 shooting to
lead the Quakers to victory over the Explorers, 62-58. Romanczuk
exploded early, notching his first basket with a layup just 2:32
into the contest. The second of Romanczuk's 11 field goals came
under two minutes later. Penn point guard Michael Jordan
penetrated the La Salle interior defense and found Romanczuk
cutting to the basket for a two-hand slam that silenced a rowdy La
Salle crowd early. The assist was the first of Jordan's game-high
eight, including four to Romanczuk, who scored eight of the
Quakers' first 10 points. Romanczuk ended the first half with
another layup to push the Quaker lead to 34-29 going into the
locker room. After starting the second half with the Quakers'
first basket, Romanczuk was relatively silent in the latter stages
of the game. However, the senior tri-captain carried the Quakers
through their toughest stretch of the game. When Penn fell behind
for the first time since tip-off eight minutes into the second
half, 46-45, Romanczuk responded with his second dunk of the game
-- also assisted by Jordan -- to put the Quakers back in front.
Just three minutes later, with the Quakers a basket down again,
Romanczuk capped his 24-point night with a game-tying layup,
starting Penn on a 5-0 run that put the Quakers ahead for the
remainder of the game. Click
to watch Paul Romanczuk's two-handed jam.
“SEND IT IN, SULLY!”:
Penn 73, Brown 57; Penn 71, Yale 50 (February 12-13, 1999)
The Quakers' victories
over Brown and Yale, coupled with Princeton's double-overtime loss
to the last-place Elis, somewhat compensated for Black Tuesday's
disappointing 50-49 Princeton victory at the Palestra. And no one
was smiling wider at the Ivy turn of events than Penn's Jed Ryan.
After poor shooting and several costly turnovers landed him on the
bench against the Tigers, the senior forward came back to redeem
himself from the scoreless performance to rack up 14 points
against the Bears and a career-high 23 the next day in New Haven.
Ryan knocked down 4-of-4 second-half treys against Brown, then
drained a career-high seven 3-pointers in the win over the Elis.
Mike Sullivan added the exclamation point, scoring Penn's final
field goal of the weekend on a breakaway, two-handed dunk with one
minute left to play against the Elis. Click
to watch Mike
Sullivan's steal and two-handed jam at Yale or click
to watch Paul Romanczuk's steal and breakaway jam at Brown.
“UGONNA'S ARRIVAL”: Red & Blue Scrimmage
(October 23, 1999)
It's the Red and Blue Scrimmage
and Ugonna Onyekwe opens the scoring with an alley-oop layup from
Michael Jordan and then comes back two plays later to dunk on
Frank Brown's head. Fans have seen him for less than five minutes
-- five minutes of a scrimmage that means almost nothing -- and he
already has them cheering wildly for him. They know that Onyekwe
was rated as one of the top 100 recruits in the nation by several
services, that he is the supposed headliner of what is being
called the best Penn recruiting class in 20 years. Click
to watch Ugonna Onyekwe leave a good first impression.
“KOKO'S TOMAHAWK DUNK”: Penn 71, Army 56
(December 3, 1999)
Penn led for all but 4:08 in
the 71-56 win and never saw its lead shrink to less than 13 in
the second half. The Cadets held close early by making nine of
their first 14 shots. But Army's outside shooting soon went
AWOL. Army shot only 32 percent from the field in the last 28
minutes and the Quakers ended the first half on a 22-3 run.
Integral to Penn's success was the play of its freshmen. Fran
Dunphy used his first-year players liberally. Ugonna Onyekwe and
Koko Archibong started the game, and, at one point in the first
half, a lineup of Michael Jordan and four freshmen outscored the
Cadets 6-3 in the two minutes they were together. Archibong
ignited the crowd. The freshman forward thrilled the Palestra
faithful in the second half with a one-handed tomahawk dunk on a
breakaway. Archibong followed that up a few minutes later with
an emphatic swat of an Army shot that triggered another
deafening ovation. The Quakers dominated the inside, grabbing 15
offensive rebounds and outscoring the undersized Cadets 34-14 in
the paint. Click
to watch Koko Archibong's one-handed tomahawk dunk.
GOLDEN BEAR CLASSIC: Penn 84,
Portland State 74 (December 28, 1999)
Like a prize thoroughbred, the
Penn men's basketball team pulled away in the stretch to beat
Portland State 84-74 in the opener of the Golden Bear Classic. The
Quakers advanced to the tournament's title game against California
due in large part to the stellar play of co-captain Michael
Jordan. The Penn point guard was unbelievable from the field -- he
shot 9-for-10 and was 5-for-6 from three-point range. The Quakers
went into halftime with a four-point lead, and Portland State hung
tough until Penn hit its stride down the stretch. After the
Vikings' Hasan Artharee made a pair of free throws to cut the Penn
lead to four, Ugonna Onyekwe hit a jumper and dunked off a feed
from Jordan during a 9-3 flurry that put Penn up 79-69 with 1:46
remaining. Portland State would get no closer. Click
to watch Ugonna
Onyekwe's slam put the game out of reach with 1:46 left.
“GOLDEN
BEAR CLASSIC CHAMPIONS”: Penn 74, California 71 (December 29,
1999)
In the first-ever meeting
between California and the Quakers, Penn got the best of the
Golden Bears in the championship game of the Golden Bear Classic,
74-71. The Quakers became the first visiting team to win the
tournament since 1995 and the first team to beat Cal at home since
1995-96, breaking a streak of 23 straight wins at the Oakland
Coliseum. The Penn back-court paced the Quakers, as guard Matt
Langel scored 19 points and tournament MVP Michael Jordan had 14.
The Bears did not go down without a fight. Cal's Shantay Legans
missed three shots in the final 35 seconds of the contest,
including a three-point attempt that clanked off the front of the
rim as the buzzer sounded. Click
to watch the exciting finish.
MALIK ALLEN
BUZZER-BEATER: Villanova 67, Penn 65 (January 9, 2000)
Malik Allen's 4-foot baseline
jump shot teetered on the edge of the rim before slipping in with
eight-tenths of a second left and Villanova escaped a furious
rally by Michael Jordan and the Penn Quakers, 67-65, in the first
game of the newly rejuvenated Big 5 to be held at The Palestra.
Allen's almost-buzzer-beater was the first Wildcats basket since
T.J. Caouette hit two free throws to give 'Nova a 65-57 lead with
2:21 left. The Wildcats led 61-51 with 3:55 remaining before
Jordan scored all of the Quakers' points during an 11-4 run that
cut their deficit to 65-62. After Villanova's Brian Lynch, an 80
percent free-throw shooter, missed the front end of a one-and-one
with 27.4 seconds left, Matt Langel swished a 3-pointer from way downtown for Penn to tie the game at 65,
sending the crowd into a frenzy. Wildcats coach Steve Lappas
elected not to take a time-out when Langel sunk the trey with 14
seconds left. That set up Allen's heroics before a sellout crowd of 8,722 at The Palestra. Click
to watch the exciting finish.
MICHAEL JORDAN BUZZER-BEATER:
Penn 80, Lafayette 76 (January 11, 2000)
For the second time in three
days, the game came down to the last possession. With 16 seconds
left, Lafayette had the ball with the scored knotted at 76.
However, Brian Burke was called for traveling and Penn's Michael
Jordan took the inbounds pass, brought it right down to the other
end and calmly sunk a game-winning 17-footer to make the score
78-76 with six tenths of a second remaining. The Leopards called
for a timeout that they didn't have after Jordan's bucket, giving
the Quakers the two technical free throws that brought about the
final 80-76 margin. Jordan was the key for the Quakers down the
stretch, scoring their final six points. He had 19 of his 24
points in the second half on the strength of 6-of-7 shooting. The
showdown between Penn coach Fran Dunphy and Lafayette's Fran
O'Hanlon, who was one of Dunphy's assistants at the Palestra for
six seasons, was a well-played, entertaining one. The Quakers shot
53 percent from the field and 50 percent from behind the arc,
while the Leopards sunk 54 percent of their attempts. Click
to watch the exciting finish.
Penn 61, Yale 36; Penn 83, Brown 48 (February 4-5, 2000)
Penn used a 16-2 first-half run
to pull away from Yale. The prettiest Quaker sequence of the night
came with just under four minutes left in the first half. Point
guard David Klatsky moved the ball down low to fellow freshman
Koko Archibong who spun and saw Geoff Owens lunging into the paint
at the top of the key. Owens took the feed from Archibong and
skied over the crowded paint for a two-handed lay-in to make it
24-9. Penn led by as many as 32 points in the second half. With
13:28 left the next night and visiting Penn beating up on Brown,
52-28, the Brown band decided it had seen enough. Clad in hockey
jerseys, the members of the band filed out of the Pizzitola
Center, leaving a gaping hole in the stands behind the Bears'
basket. Four minutes and an 18-4 Penn run later, the Quakers led
70-32. Fifteen minutes after the Quakers had taken advantage of
the Pizzitola Center Early Bird Special (the game ended before 8
p.m.), not so much as a first-half score had filtered in from the
Yale-Princeton game underway in New Haven. No one could have known
that the Elis would hold off the Tigers for a 44-42 win, leaving
the Quakers in sole possession of first in the Ivy League. Click
to
watch Koko Archibong's feed to Geoff Owens' for a two-handed
lay-in.
“QUAKERS COLLAPSE”: La Salle 61,
Penn 59 (December 7, 2000)
As the Quakers shuffled slowly
off the court, the Explorers celebrated in the middle of The
Palestra. Penn held a 59-51 advantage with just 1:17 left on the
clock, but a series of turnovers and missed free throws left the
door open for La Salle and they took advantage, closing the game
on a 10-0 run and snatching the victory. La Salle opened the game
on a 10-4 run before an electrifying dunk, followed by a trey from
sophomore Koko Archibong ignited the Penn offense and pulled them
within one with just under 12:00 remaining. After a back and forth
battle, a pair of Lamar Plummer three-point buckets gave the
Quakers a five point lead before closing the half with a 23-20
lead. La Salle's Rasual Butler came out on fire in the second
half, knocking in 13 straight points, on a tip-in, three treys and
a jumper to give the Explorers a 33-28 advantage. Penn pulled away
on back-to-back threes from Ugonna Onyekwe and Plummer and went up
54-48 with 4:39 left, but the Quakers made two turnovers and
missed three free throws down the stretch, to leave the door open.
Click
to
watch Koko Archibong's electrifying dunk.
“LAMAR PLUMMER'S BOTCHED
ALLEY-OOP GOES IN”: Maryland 87, Penn 81 (December 9, 2000)
Penn nearly
erased a 22-point halftime deficit, but eventually fell to No. 18
Maryland, 87-81, before a sold-out crowd of 8,722 at the Palestra.
Maryland used a 21-1 run to jump out to a 52-30 halftime lead
behind 19 points from forward Byron Mouton and 7-of-11 shooting
from three-point range. Penn, however, rushed right back into the
game after halftime. The Quakers were just never able to close the
gap entirely Lamar Plummer led the Quakers with 23 points
behind 7-of-11 three-point shooting, including one attempted
alley-oop pass to Koko Archibong that accidentally flew straight
into the basket. Click
to watch Lamar Plummer's botched alley-oop pass
land in the basket.
Seton Hall 80, Penn 78 (December 13, 2000)
Ugonna Onyekwe
scored Penn's first seven points, as the Quakers jumped out to a
14-3 lead over the No. 9 team in the nation. Penn connected on 12
of its first 13 shots and extended its lead to 26-9, before the
Pirates clawed their way back into the contest with a 29-10 run of
their own to take a 41-39 lead with 2:22 left before intermission.
After Seton Hall's first-half comeback, this barn burner saw eight
lead changes, with neither team holding a lead greater than six
points. With 1:04 to
go, Onyekwe made a brilliant move, hitting a layup and drawing a
foul on Seton Hall freshman star Eddie Griffin. Onyekwe's layup
tied the game at 78, and he could have put the Red and Blue in the
lead by converting the three-point play. He didn't and the Quakers
did not score again. They had a chance, inbounding the ball with
21.7 seconds left and the score tied. Charlie Copp drove the lane,
but but was stripped by Pirates guard Ty Shine with just 8.1 ticks
left on the clock. Seton Hall then hurried down the court, where
Shine found Sam Dalembert camped under the basket for an easy
alley-oop tip-in to give the Hall its game-winning basket with 3.9
seconds remaining. Click
to watch Koko
Archibong's baseline drive and dunk give the Quakers an early 9-3
lead.
“KOKO'S
BREAKOUT GAME”: Penn 69, Florida International 59 (January
7, 2001)
After an 0-8 start, the worst
in Penn history, the Quakers finally posted a victory. After
Ugonna Onyekwe went to the bench with two early fouls in the first
half, Koko Archibong stepped his game up and scored seven of the
Quakers' first nine points, and had already collected a
career-high 14 at the half. He finished the game with a
career-high 23 points. Archibong was 7-of-11 from the field and a
perfect 8-for-8 from the line. Carlos Arroyo led the 2-12 Golden
Panthers with 20 points. Click
to listen to highlights of Koko's breakout game.
“STEVE DONAHUE'S
EMOTIONAL HOMECOMING”: Penn 64, Cornell 49 (January 13, 2001)
Emotions were running high
on both benches, as long-time assistant coach Steve Donahue made
his Palestra debut as the head coach of the Big Red. “I knew that
this would be emotional for me tonight,” said Donahue following
the game. “But I didn't realize what I would be most upset about.
The people here are what I miss the most -- being a part of the
family they have created at Penn -- it just doesn't get any better
than that ... My team will continue to get better, and I am glad
that we opened the Ivy season with Penn and Princeton on the road.
This trip lived up to its hype -- the Penn-Princeton swing is a
tough trip to make and hopefully we will learn from our experience
and be prepared for when they come to us later this season.”
Ugonna Onyekwe added to his highlight reel. This time though it
was not he on the scoring end. Onyekwe went over his left shoulder
and dished a backwards pass to the awaiting hands of Dan Solomito
who was cutting in front of the basket for the easy lay-in to give
Penn an insurmountable 51-27 lead. Click
to watch Ugonna
Onyekwe's highlight-reel pass to Dan Solomito.
FRAN DUNPHY'S 200TH WIN: Penn 61, Yale 51
(February 2, 2001)
Penn staved off a challenge
from upstart Yale at the Palestra to give Fran Dunphy his 200th
career win as a head coach, 61-51. Lamar Plummer led all scorers
with 19. Penn's crucial run was sparked by Koko Archibong. At the
start of the second half, the Quakers went on an 11-2 spurt,
powered by five Archibong points and a Ugonna Onyekwe dunk.
Archibong also helped to cap the run, as his steal sparked a fast
break that ended with a Geoff Owens tap-in of a Plummer miss. The
sophomore forward's steal was at the expense of Chris Leanza,
Yale's star sophomore guard. Leanza was the only member of the
Elis in double figures, but failed to make a field goal in the
second half. He was hounded all night by the Penn defense, as well
as by the fans after a pair of second-half airballs. While Penn's
defense was free to shut down Yale's top gun in the backcourt, the
Red and Blue offense put on a sharpshooting display of its own.
The Quakers went 8-for-15 on 3-pointers against the Elis, and
their 53.3 percent clip from downtown was better than their 53.1
percent mark at the foul line. Click
to watch Koko and Ugonna reel off
seven points within a one-minute time span.
“OWENS'
ALLEY-OOP SLAM”: Penn 59, Cornell 57 (February 16, 2001)
Geoff
Owens scored off an alley-oop slam dunk from Dave Klatsky with
three seconds remaining and held off a last-second shot by Cornell
to come away with a 59-57 victory in Ithaca. Down 42-32 with 14:49
remaining in the game, Owens led a scoring brigade with two free
throws, followed by a Klatsky 3-pointer at 13:53, and the Quakers
closed to within five, 42-37. Dan Solomito followed with a jumper
from the free throw line, and then capped off the Quakers run with
a reverse baseline jam to bring Penn within one, 42-41, at 11:59.
After the Big Red went up six, 51-45, at 8:09, a Ugonna Onyekwe
dunk, a Solomito three and a Jeff Schiffner bank-shot put the
Quakers ahead, 52-51, with 5:25 left in the game. Cornell tied the
score a few times in the last five minutes of the game, the final
time at 57 on a layup by Ray Mercedes off an offensive rebound
with 23 seconds left. The Quakers then went down the court and
Owens scored the game-winner with three seconds left on the clock.
Cornell called consecutive timeouts to set up a last-second shot,
but Owens blocked a Greg Barratt three-point attempt as the buzzer
sounded. Click
to watch Geoff Owens' game-winning alley-oop slam dunk.
“OWENS'
PUT-BACK SLAM”: Penn 54, Dartmouth 46 (February 23, 2001)
Senior Lamar Plummer matched
his career-high output of 3-pointers with seven treys en route to
21 points, as Penn defeated Dartmouth at The Palestra, 54-46.
Sophomore Ugonna Onyekwe recorded a double-double with 13
points and 10 rebounds, which also included a 7-for-8 performance
from the free throw line. Despite shooting just 29 percent from
the floor in the first half, the Quakers took an eight-point lead
into halftime, 28-20. The first half was highlighted by senior
captain Geoff Owens' put-back dunk, which broke an 18-18 tie.
After intermission, Dartmouth used a 7-0 run to take a 31-30 lead
at 14:16, but Penn came charging back as Koko Archibong hit a
jumper and Plummer made a three to push the lead back to four,
35-31, at the 11:16 mark. Dartmouth's Charles Harris hit a trey to
cut the lead to one, but it would be the closest Dartmouth would
get for the rest of the game. Click
to watch Geoff Owens' put-back slam dunk.
“OWENS'
PUNCTUATION-MARK DUNK”: Penn 70, Harvard 47 (February 24, 2001)
Senior
captain Geoff Owens capped off his final game in The Palestra with
his fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10
rebounds as the Quakers pummeled Harvard, 70-47. Senior Lamar
Plummer tied his career-high with 23 points in his last game on
The Palestra hardwood, including seven 3-pointers. The Quakers
opened the game with an 11-0 run en route to a 28-16 lead at
intermission. The second half was more of the same, as Penn ran
the score to 43-21 with 12:54 left in the game on a dunk by Owens
off a pass from Adam Chubb. Harvard climbed back into it from the
free throw line, cutting Penn's lead to 53-40 on two Patrick
Harvey free throws with 7:36 remaining. But the Quakers were not
about to be intimated on this night. Penn finished the game
hitting eight-of-12 free throws. Click
to watch Geoff Owens' punctuation-mark dunk.
“U TORCHES TECH FOR 30”: Penn
79, Georgia Tech 74 (November 19, 2001)
The Quakers became just the
sixth team in over 20 years to defeat Georgia Tech at the
Alexander Memorial Coliseum. The biggest story of the night was
Ugonna Onyekwe, who torched Tech for 30 points on 13-of-18
shooting, leading Penn to a 79-74 victory over the Yellow Jackets.
Onyekwe hit all four of his threes, the most important being the
one he drained late in the second half, in the face of Georgia
Tech's Robert Brooks. Penn's lead had shrunk from 11 to four, and
the Alexander Memorial Coliseum's decibel level had gone from
tennis match to rock concert. But Onyekwe changed all that with
his three. Penn trailed at halftime, 41-33, and did not score a
second half field goal until the 16:37 mark when Onyekwe scored,
but from then on it was all Penn. Trailing 60-58 midway through
the second half, the Quakers went on a 13-0 run to take a 71-60
lead. Andy Toole found Onyekwe for a fast break dunk to tie the
game again at 60 and then made a three himself at 8:36, which put
the Quakers up for good. Click
to watch Ugonna Onyekwe's fourth 3-pointer, which
silenced the Tech crowd.
“TOOLE-TIME”: Penn 75, Villanova 74 (OT) (December 5, 2001)
Writer Joe
Rhoads explained it best - “The Palestra is a place with magic in
the air.” The Penn men's basketball team used a little bit of that
magic in its 75-74 overtime victory over Villanova in the Quakers'
first Big 5 win of the season. Down 10 points at the half, guard
Andy Toole - playing with a stress fracture in his right foot -
led the Penn comeback with 21 points in front of a near capacity
Palestra crowd. In overtime, Toole calmly sank two free throws
with 12 seconds left to give Penn a 75-74 lead. After forward
Ugonna Onyekwe deflected Villanova's last desperate attempt to
reclaim the lead, the Quakers had their first Big 5 win since
January 31, 2000, when they defeated St. Joseph's. Click
to watch Ugonna Onyekwe block of
Reggie Bryant's leaner.
“DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN”:
Davidson 75, Penn 71 (OT) (December 22, 2001)
It was
deja-vu. Well, almost. Penn fell to Davidson, 75-71, in overtime
at The Palestra in almost the same fashion as one year prior.
The Quakers jumped all over the Wildcats and held a 12-point
lead at halftime, but Davidson found its legs and pushed up the
court for every one of its 46 second-half points. The Quakers
almost had the game under wraps when junior Koko Archibong hit
one-of-two free throws with three seconds left in regulation to
give Penn a two-point lead, 66-64. But with no time left on the
clock, Ugonna Onyekwe
was whistled for a
foul just beyond the three-point line which sent Davidson's
leading scorer, Emeka Erege, to the charity stripe. Erege nailed
the first two free throws, but missed the third to send the game
into OT. The deja-vu came at almost the same time as the
previous season, but on the other end of the court. Penn was
fighting for its first win of the season, and David Klatsky went
to the line with nine seconds left and made all three free
throws to send the game into OT. In overtime this time, the
Quakers scored first as Klatsky found Onyekwe, who tomahawked a
dunk at 4:19, to give Penn a two-point lead, 68-66.
Unfortunately, that is the best Penn would do in the OT stanza,
as the Red and Blue missed three consecutive three-point
attempts and Davidson scored a field goal and converted a
three-point play to push its lead to five, 73-68, with 49
seconds remaining. Penn got some fire from sophomore Jeff
Schiffner when he hit a trifecta from the left side with 46
ticks left on the clock, but Penn would score no more and
Davidson made two free throws to seal the win, 75-71. Click
to listen to Adam Hertzog's call
of Ugonna Onyekwe's tomahawk dunk.
Penn 62, St. Joseph's 60
(January 26, 2002)
In a second half which
saw four lead changes and four ties, the Quakers' victory was not
secured until Na'im Crenshaw missed the front end of a one-and-one
with two seconds remaining in regulation. Alexandre Sazanov seemed
to tie the game with a tip-in, but a video replay revealed the
basket came after the red light had come on signaling the end of
the contest. The Quakers built their lead to a game-high seven
points, 54-47, with 6:38 left in regulation. The Hawks tied the
game at 56 on a layup by Jameer Nelson. Two foul shots by Andy
Toole and a monstrous dunk by Ugonna Onyekwe made the score 60-56
with 3:54 left in regulation. Koko Archibong's jumper with 2:59
remaining would be the Quakers last points of the game as Penn
extended its lead to 62-56. The Hawks cut the lead to 62-60 with
1:33 left in regulation. St. Joe's had three chances to tie in the
final 1:33, but three strong rebounds by Onyekwe kept the Hawks
off the board. Following a blocking foul on Archibong with two
seconds remaining, Crenshaw went to the line with a chance to tie
the game on a one-and-one. When Crenshaw's first shot rimmed out
and Sazanov's basket proved to come after the buzzer, the Penn
student body rushed the court in joy of the 62-60 win over the
cross-town rival Hawks. Click
to watch Ugonna Onyekwe's monstrous dunk.
“KOKO'S TOMAHAWK DUNK” (Part II): Penn 81, La Salle 76
(OT) (January 29, 2002)
There was no cake. No victory
dance at the end of the game. No fans piling out of their seats
onto the court. Yet, it was one of the most magical moments in
Penn basketball history. The Quakers won the Philadelphia Big 5
title with an 81-76 overtime victory against La Salle. It was the
first time since 1973-74 that the Quakers had won the title
outright and gone 4-0 in the most unique basketball conference in
America - the Big 5. After Penn held a 29-9 advantage with 7:43
left in the first half, no one could have predicted what the rest
of the game would be like. But that's what the Big 5 is all about
- leaving it all out on the floor. The Quakers scored their last
points of regulation with 2:45 on the clock and then watched La
Salle score five points to tie the game at 62 with 30.9 seconds
left. After a Ugonna Onyekwe bucket, Rasheed Quandri nailed a
three to give the Explorers their first lead of the game, 65-64.
Tim Begley stepped up and hit a big three at 3:30 to give Penn a
lead they would never relinquish, 67-65. The Penn lead was four
when Koko Archibong soared into the air with a thunderous,
tomahawk dunk from the left side at 1:40 left in overtime, 71-67.
The Quakers then iced the game by making 10 free throws down the
stretch. Click
to watch Koko Archibong's tomahawk
dunk.
Penn 78, Harvard 51 (February
15, 2002)
The Quakers had redemption on
their minds as Harvard defeated Penn in overtime in the first
meeting of the season in Cambridge. Leading 25-18, the Quakers got
right at it after the break and pushed the lead up 37-25 on a
Ugonna Onyekwe fast break. The Penn bench got a little worried
when Harvard's Patrick Harvey, who scored 15-straight points
against the Red and Blue in Cambridge, buried consecutive
3-pointers with 14:22 left to bring the Crimson within nine, but
it would be for naught. Penn's defense was working overtime and
held Harvard to just one field goal in over eight minutes of play
to take a 29-point lead with 3:40 remaining. Harvey hit a three to
end the drought, but the damage had been done and the Penn
starters went to the bench with two minutes to play. Click
to
watch Ugonna Onyekwe's layup off Andrew Toole's alley-oop pass.
“CHEESESTEAKS” (PART
II): Penn
100, Dartmouth 62 (February 16, 2002)
The Quakers feasted on visiting
Dartmouth at The Palestra, burying the Big Green, 100-62. Penn hit
the 100-point mark in a game for the first time since December 7,
1996, when they defeated Lehigh at The Palestra, 100-58. Andy
Toole led the Red and Blue with a career-high 23 points. Penn
trailed Dartmouth, 11-7, in the early moments of the contest
before mounting its best offensive performance in six years. The
Quakers went on a 43-10 run to close out the first half and
continued to build on its lead in the second period of play.
Needing 10 points entering the final 1:14 of the contest, 100
points was not a certainty for the Quakers. But, Duane King
knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Red and Blue 94
points. On their next trip down the floor, freshman Patrick Lang,
appearing in only his second contest of the season, nailed a three
from the corner to give Penn 97 points, and in the waning seconds
of the contest, Dan Solomito hit a three for the Quakers' 100th
point of the night. Click
to watch Adam
Chubb's three second-half dunks or click
to watch Dan Solomito's three that turned
everyone's ticket stub into a
free cheesesteak from Abner's.
“NICE ONE-HANDED JAM, BEGS!”: Penn 82, Brown 63
(February 22, 2002)
At the Palestra, Tim Begley
supplied one of the more memorable one-handed jams in Quaker
history. With under five minutes remaining and the Quakers
leading, 69-49, Andy Toole missed an 18-foot baseline jumper, but
Tim Begley rose above three Brown players to jam home the rebound.
Wow! A dunk from a pure shooter who
stands six-foot-five on a good day and had rocked the rim only
twice before -- in his life. “I've had many missed dunk
opportunities,” said Begley. “My two-inch vertical finally paid
off.”
Click
to watch Tim Begley's version of “showtime”.
“THE LUCK OF THE
IRISH”: Penn 72, Yale 63 (February 23, 2002)
When the
basketball rolled off the fingertips of Ugonna Onyekwe and bounced
precariously in front of the Penn bench with the shot clock
winding down and the game clock ticking under a minute, Jeff
Schiffner was there. He was just there -- in the perfect spot at
the perfect time. He gobbled up the loose ball, set his feet and
buried his first 3-pointer of the game, singlehandedly sticking a
dagger in Yale's collective heart. “It wasn't their offense, it
wasn't a set play,” a testy James Jones said in the post-game
press conference. “But the luck of the Irish, the ghosts of Penn's
past -- and that guy knocked down the shot.” Penn trailed Yale the entire game,
and found itself behind by six points, 57-51, with 6:21 remaining
in the contest. A Koko Archibong 3-pointer drew the Quakers within
three with 6:06 on the clock. Andrew Toole then tied the contest
for the first time since the four minute mark of the opening half
when he connected on a jump shot and subsequent free throw. When
Archibong drained a pair of foul shots, Penn took its first lead
of the game, 59-58, with 3:09 to go. One minute and nine seconds
later the crowd nearly blew the roof off the 75-year old Palestra
when Tim Begley knocked down a three to give the Red and Blue a
four-point lead at 62-58. Yale's Ime Archibong converted two foul
shots with 1:27 to go, setting the stage for Schiffner's shot. The race for the Ivy League title
was officially back on.
Click
to watch the improbable sequence leading up to Jeff (I don't even think he's Irish) Schiffner's 3-pointer.
“IVY PLAYOFF” (Part IV): Penn 77,
Yale 62 (March 9, 2002)
The Red and Blue
were NCAA Tournament bound after dismantling Yale, 77-58, at
Lafayette. The Quakers, who tied Yale and Princeton for the Ivy
League banner four days earlier, earned the Ancient Eight's
automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, their third trip in fours
years. The Quakers opened the game on an 8-0 run as Yale missed
its first four shot attempts and were scoreless until Alex Gamboa
hit a three at 16:31. Yale's Matt Minoff hit another three at
14:38, but the Bulldogs were held scoreless again until 8:13, as
Penn went on a 10-0 run and took a 21-6 lead. Penn went into the
locker room with a 37-25 lead. The Bulldogs tried to make a run to
open the second stanza as Paul Vitelli hit a three to cut the
Quakers lead to nine just 40 seconds into the half, but a 5-0 run
by junior Ugonna Onyekwe and a Jeff Schiffner 3-pointer at 15:25
pretty much sealed the deal on Yale's NCAA chances. Penn went up
50-32 at 13:42 on an Onyekwe dunk. The Quakers found themselves
sitting on a 23-point lead with 5:28 remaining in the game and never looked back. Click
to watch.
“JAN JAMS”: Penn 62, Penn State 37 (November 23, 2002)
Ugonna Onyekwe had 15 points as
Penn survived some sloppy play in its season opener with a 62-37
victory over Penn State. The Quakers turned the ball over 15 times
and made just 20-of-54 from the field, but got its first win over
the Nittany Lions since 1992, snapping a four-game losing streak
against the intrastate rival. Penn went on an 8-0 run early in the
second half and a running jumper by Andrew Toole made it 38-25
with 14:33 left. Penn State followed with an 8-3 run of its own,
but the Quakers scored 11 of the next 13 to pull away. Koko
Archibong, who finished with 13 points, had seven points in that
spurt. Andrew Toole scored 14 and Jeff Schiffner had 12 for the
Quakers. Penn's defense forced 17 turnovers by the Nittany Lions
and held them to 16-of-54 (30 percent) shooting from the field.
The first half was sloppy, with the teams combining for 21
turnovers and just 15-of-52 shooting from the field. A Jan Fikiel
dunk, off a great feed from Toole, pushed Penn's lead to 24-19
with 1:32 to go before intermission. The Quakers led 25-19 at the
half. Click
to watch Jan Fikiel's jam.
Penn 72, Villanova 58 (December 11, 2002)
The city rivalry was fittingly played out in front of a crowd
of 12,052 at the First Union Center, where the Quakers came away
with a convincing 72-58 win over Villanova. The early
establishment of the inside game by the Red and Blue's key big men
-- Ugonna Onyekwe and Koko Archibong -- prefaced the success of
the outside game. The pair of senior forwards scored Penn's first
16 points, forcing the Wildcats to choose between guarding the
low-post and the perimeter. Onyekwe led all scorers with 22 points
and also pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. His exclamation
point dunk midway through the first half tied the game up, and he
put the Quakers ahead for good on the next possession with his
second 3-pointer of the game, pushing the score to 16-15. Onyekwe
primed the pump with his two early threes, but Penn guard Jeff
Schiffner took over from there. The junior was deadly accurate
from downtown, sinking five-of-seven three-point attempts on his
way to 19 points. Ball movement was a key for the Quakers as they
alternated between the low-post, long jumpers, and drives to the
basket. While the Quakers offense was firing on all cylinders,
Villanova had a difficult time establishing a consistent attack
after the opening stages of the game.
Click
to watch Ugonna Onyekwe's exclamation point
dunk and 3-pointer, sandwiched around Jason Fraser's monstrous
dunk.
“SHOWTIME”: Penn 99, USC 61
(January 11, 2003)
Penn performed its own version of “Showtime” in the same arena
that Magic Johnson's Los Angeles Lakers called home. The Quakers
set a school record by shooting 72-percent (36-of-50) from the
field on their way to a 99-61 rout of USC at the Great Western
Forum. The crowd of 3,856 witnessed a three-point exhibition as
the Red and Blue connected on 15-of-20 from behind the arc. Penn
shot 88 percent (21-for-24) in the first half and scored on 11
straight offensive series. Perhaps even more amazingly, of Penn's
21 first-half field goals, 19 came off assists. The Quakers ended
the half with a 28-5 run which included a baseline 3-pointer by
David Klatsky “off glass”. Senior forward Koko Archibong paced all
scorers with 21 points and also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
Junior guard Jeff Schiffner nailed all four of his three-point
attempts for 12 points and added six assists. Ugonna Onyekwe
netted 19 points in 21 minutes, including three dunks. Click
to watch David Klatsky's “skeener”.
“EBEDE'S EXCLAMATION-POINT JAM”: Penn 98, Monmouth 54 (January
18, 2003)
One game after dominating USC
in a 99-61 shellacking, the Quakers returned to the court and
continued their dominance in a 98-54 demolition of Monmouth in
Asbury Park, NJ. The Quakers burst out of the gates to a 9-2 lead,
extending it to 43-23 with 3:09 remaining in the first half.
Freshman Friedrich Ebede's dunk with 26 seconds left put finishing
touches on the Penn triumph and left the Quakers only two points
shy of breaking the century mark. Click
to watch Friedrich
Ebede's dunk.
“SEND IT IN, KOKO!”: Penn 76,
Lafayette 66 (January 21, 2003)
Led by Ugonna Onyekwe's 23
points and 10 rebounds, the Quakers held on after the
Leopards threatened often in the second half, but could not pull
closer than nine, 72-63, with 1:03 left. The Quakers were never
threatened in the first half as they gunned their way to a 30-18
lead with five minutes left. Onyekwe scored the last Quakers'
bucket of the opening session on a tip-in with 29 seconds left to
push the lead to 46-25, but the half didn't end there as
Lafayette's Rob Dill grabbed an offensive board and put the ball
through the hoop with no time left on the clock to leave the
score, 46-27, at halftime. Penn came out of the break on a
mission, scoring on its first two plays of the second half as
senior Koko Archibong grabbed a steal and drove the length of the
court for the dunk to push the Quakers' lead to a game-high 23
points. But that would be the end of the showboating. Lafayette
increased it's intensity for the remainder of the contest, and
outscored the Quakers, 39-30, in the second half. Penn shot just
42 percent in the second half, as they did not hit a field goal in
the final 2:15, but hung on for the 10-point win on the road.
Click
to watch Koko Archibong's slam.
“KOKO'S WINDMILL DUNK”: Penn 79, La Salle 66 (January
28, 2003)
Baskets were scarce on both
sides on the way to a 27-21 halftime score in favor of Penn. The
performance after halftime made the Quakers look like a different
-- and much more dominant -- offensive team. Penn showed a marked
improvement in its execution, highlighted by only two second-half
turnovers. The Quakers' usual three-point shooting touch also
returned, as they buried six threes and nearly doubled their first
half point production with 52. Penn forward Ugonna Onyekwe was the
backbone of the offensive blitz, and the recovery of Penn's
three-point accuracy killed La Salle's early second-half surge.
Penn guards Tim Begley and Jeff Schiffner buried threes on
consecutive possessions to erase the Explorers' only two leads of
the second half. Consecutive Schiffner threes ran the Red and Blue
lead out to fourteen with 9:39 left, giving the Quakers all the
breathing space they would need. Penn also took advantage of
frequent trips to the free-throw line, with 29-for-35 shooting
from the stripe. Koko Archibong, in particular, showed his veteran
presence with a three, a windmill dunk and a blocked shot down the
stretch for the Quakers. Click
to
watch Koko Archibong add the exclamation point with his windmill
dunk.
“DAVID KLATSKY'S HUGE 3-POINTER”: Penn 73,
Brown 66 (February 15, 2003)
Ugonna Onyekwe
scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half, and David Klatsky
hit a crucial three-point shot with 40 seconds left in the game,
as Penn beat Brown 73-66 to earn first place in the Ivy League.
Koko Archibong added 18 points for Penn, which won its eighth in a
row. Alai Nuualiitia had 16 points, Earl Hunt 14 and Jason Forte a
career-high 13 assists for Brown, which had its nine-game winning
streak snapped. Brown led 66-61 with 4:56 remaining, but
3-pointers by Klatsky and Jeff Schiffner, plus a Schiffner free
throw, gave the Quakers a 68-66 edge at the 1:33 mark. After
regaining possession, Klatsky connected from 22 feet for the
clinching basket as the shot clock wound down. Penn led 40-34 at
halftime, but Brown rallied and moved ahead 53-51 on a three-point
shot by Hunt with 9:34 to play. The teams then battled evenly
until a Forte free throw gave the Bruins a 66-61 lead. Brown coach
Glen Miller was a little upset after the game. Miller thought that
the difference between Penn and his team was not either team's
level of talent but the men in stripes. “We got jammed up our
asses by three officials,” Miller said after the game. His press
conference after the loss was one of the most impressive in recent
Ivy League history. “It's a matter of playing five against eight
the whole freakin' game,” Miller said, insinuating that the
officials were on Penn's side. Miller continued his rant,
questioning Penn and Princeton's dominance in the Ivy League
during recent years. “That's why there's such an inbalance in this
Goddamn league, because you can't go to Penn and Princeton and get
a fair shake,” he said. “Our guys outplayed them the whole
freakin' game.” Click
to
watch David Klatsky's huge 3-pointer.
“KLATSKY-TO-U ALLEY-OOP”:
Penn 67, Dartmouth 52 (February 22, 2003)
Penn started out with a bang,
going up 9-0 to start the game, which included two trifectas by
Tim Begley. Dartmouth came right back with an 8-0 run of its own
and tied the game at 12, with 14:38 to go, before Ugonna Onyekwe
scored on consecutive buckets for the Quakers. Dartmouth took
its first lead of the game at 9:25 in the first half, 17-16, and
went up by five, 30-25, before Onyekwe slammed one home and
Andrew Toole drove the lane with 50 seconds left to tie the game
at 30 when he converted a free throw. A David Klatsky alley-oop
pass to Onyekwe for another dunk with 30 ticks left gave Penn a
32-30 lead, but Dartmouth's Charles Harris tied the game at 32
with two free throws as the teams went into halftime. Dartmouth
took the lead at 40-38 with 15:50 remaining before Begley nailed
a three to give the Red and Blue a lead they would not
relinquish. Penn buckled down defensively and held Dartmouth
scoreless for almost seven minutes in the second half and went
up, 54-41, on a David Klatsky 3-pointer with 7:32 left, and the
rest was history. Click
to watch David Klatsky's alley-oop pass to Ugonna
Onyekwe.
“ADAM CHUBB'S THUNDEROUS
FOLLOW DUNK”: Penn 80, Yale 75 (March 1, 2003)
Penn led,
40-35, before Yale scored the last five points of the first half
-- including an Alex Gamboa driving layup as time expired -- and
the first six of the second to take a 46-40 lead. With Koko
Archibong in foul trouble, Adam Chubb came off the bench to score
14 points and grab nine rebounds in just 14 minutes of playing
time. Similarly, Yale's Justin Simon scored 18 points in 15
minutes off the bench for the Elis. Penn pulled ahead for good on
a thunderous Chubb follow dunk with just over five minutes left in
the game. With Penn up three with just over two minutes to play,
Ugonna Onyekwe faked inside and kicked it out to an open
Archibong, who nailed a three to put Penn up by six. The Elis
stayed close, but six straight Schiffner free throws iced the
80-75 win. Schiffner had a career-high 25 points to lead all
scorers. Click
to watch Adam Chubb's thunderous
follow dunk.
“NICE REVERSE, U!”:
Penn 69, Cornell 52 (March 8, 2003)
It was an exclamation point for one of the all-time greats to ever
grace the Palestra floor, and it ended any doubt that once again
the Penn men's basketball team is going dancing. With one minute,
35 seconds remaining against Cornell, Ugonna Onyekwe -- one of six
seniors to be honored in the last home game of their Penn careers
-- threw down a reverse dunk that gave the Quakers a 65-49 lead
and ended a tense few minutes in which a Cornell comeback seemed
feasible. The Quakers won, 69-52, and thereby clinched their
second straight Ivy League title and a trip to the NCAA
Tournament. Second-place Brown finished 12-2 in conference play.
Little-used seniors Andrew Coates and Duane King received the
start in the spirit of senior night and scored the final points of
the game, to the delight of the Palestra faithful.
“NICE REVERSE, U!” (Part II):
Oklahoma State 77, Penn 63 (March 21, 2003)
True, Penn did
not fit into Cinderella's slipper in the 2003 NCAA Tournament.
But, for 37 minutes, it appeared that they might. Down 67-63 with
under three minutes remaining, Penn fans that made the road trip
up to the Fleet Center in Boston were quietly mulling about a
second round matchup with Syracuse. Ugonna Onyekwe scored a
phenomenal 30 points in his final game for the Red and Blue --
including a ridiculous up-and-under reverse layup that sent the
Penn friendly crowd into orbit.
“TIM BEGLEY'S
HAIL-MARY BUZZER-BEATER”: Wisconsin 64, Penn 53 (November 21,
2003)
A
rocking Palestra helped the Quakers get on top early as they
jumped out to a seven point lead with almost four minutes gone,
9-2. Penn held onto the lead for much of the first half, before
Devin Harris hit a three at the 8:25 mark to give Wisconsin a lead
they would not relinquish. The Quakers were down 11, 33-22, with
four seconds left in the half before Charlie Copp found Tim Begley
for a hail-mary three pointer that swished through the net as the
buzzer sounded, sending Penn into halftime down eight, 33-25. The
Quakers put together an offensive drive in the second stanza,
eventually knotting the game at 40. The Badgers lead hung around
the two-point mark for several minutes before Freddie Owens scored
on two-consecutive possessions to give Wisconsin a nine-point lead
that they never gave up. Click
to watch Tim Begley's hail-mary.
“THE CHARLIE COPP SHOW”:
Penn 86, Indiana State 48 (November 30, 2003)
Led by senior Charlie Copp's
career-high 18 points, which he scored all in the first half, the
Quakers upended Indiana State, 86-48, in the consolation game of
the Coca-Cola Classic. The Quakers got on the scoreboard first
with a Copp trifecta at 18:02 and he followed with another at
17:05 to give Penn a quick 6-0 lead. The Quakers held the
Sycamores scoreless until the 16:22 mark of the first half, but
Copp was not about to relent. The senior guard was on a mission,
burying six of seven 3-pointers in the first half to give Penn a
43-20 lead at the half. In fact, Copp's six three-balls all came
in the first 8:15 of the game. Penn held Indiana State scoreless
for several minutes at a time in the first half while building an
insurmountable lead. Penn went ahead 16 points, 20-4, at the 11:50
mark when Copp ended his scoring barrage. After the Sycamores
brought the lead back down to 12 (32-20), the Quakers scored
11-straight points to finish out a solid half. Click
to watch
Charlie Copp nail a couple of treys to give Penn an early 20-4
lead.
JEFF SCHIFFNER'S
BUZZER-BEATER IN DOUBLE OVERTIME: Penn 63, St. John's 61 (2 OT)
(December 28, 2003)
If there was a way, the Quakers
worked to find it. That was essentially the story of the game that
was played at Madison Square Garden when Penn took on St. John's
in the first round of the Dreyfus Holiday Festival. Despite poor
shooting on all fronts, the Quakers outlived the Red Storm, 63-61,
in double overtime on a Jeff Schiffner 12-foot jumper in the lane
with just one second left on the clock. St. John's took a quick
three-point lead in the second overtime on a trifecta by Elijah
Ingram. Penn never quit and forced three St. John's turnovers in
the second overtime, including one which tied the game at 61 on a
Schiffner three from Tim Begley at 3:08. Several missed shots and
timeouts later, Schiffner let loose on what looked like a floater
in the lane for Penn's game-winning points with 0.8 ticks left in
the contest. Schiffner led all scorers with 17 points. Click
to
watch Jeff Schiffner's almost-buzzer-beater..
“HOLIDAY FESTIVAL
CHAMPIONS” (PART II): Penn 49, Manhattan 47 (December 29,
2003)
A little deja
vu never hurt anyone. Exactly one day after Jeff Schiffner's
jump shot with one second left in double overtime went through
the net to give the Quakers a first round win, Tim Begley did
the same exact thing. Begley's jumper with the shot clock
winding down (42.7 seconds left on the game clock) and Luis
Flores in his face hit its target to give Penn an emotional
49-47 victory over two-time defending champion-Manhattan in the
Dreyfus Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. Manhattan
burst out to a 13-3 lead, before the Quakers got into a rhythm
that the Jaspers could not contend with. Penn held Manhattan
without a point for 7:40 of the first half and headed into the
locker room on a 25-2 run for a 28-15 halftime lead. The Quakers
extended their lead to 38-21, before Manhattan stepped up the
pace and climbed back in, eventually tying the game at 47 with
1:19 to play, setting the stage for Begley's heroics. There were
still two possessions left in the game following the Begley
jumper and after the Jaspers missed a shot and Penn looked to go
quick on a breakaway, Flores came from behind and stole the ball
to force the game back to the other end of the court. Another
Manhattan shot went up and missed and an ensuing jump ball gave
the Jaspers one last chance. Three more attempts would not fall
and Mark Zoller grabbed the final rebound of the game. Click
to watch the exciting finish.
“IT AIN'T OVER TILL IT'S
OVER”: Brown 92, Penn 88 (OT) (January 31, 2004)
Brown needed
a miracle shot. Down four points with 9.4 seconds left in
regulation, Brown's Jaime Kilburn grabbed an offensive rebound
and dropped in a two-point bucket, bringing the Bears within two
with just three seconds remaining. What's more, he drew a foul
from freshman Mark Zoller. Kilburn purposely missed the free
throw, the Bears got the rebound and Mike Martin floated a wild
prayer into the basket to tie the game at 75 at the buzzer to
force overtime. The Bears' momentum continued into the extra
stanza as Brown shot 72 percent from the field and hit all five
of their free throws. Down seven with 4:10 remaining in
regulation, Zoller hit two free throws to cut into Brown's lead
before junior Tim Begley took over. Begley hit a baseline jumper
at the two-minute mark, helped force Jason Forte into a bad
three-point attempt and came down to hit a three of his own and
a free throw to give the Quakers a three-point lead, 72-69, with
1:23 remaining. Brown's Patrick Powers missed a three with
senior Jeff Schiffner in his face and Zoller grabbed a big
rebound with one minute to go. The Quakers went up four with
33.2 seconds left when Charlie Copp hit one of two free throws.
Kilburn hit a jumper to pull Brown within two, 73-71, with 15.8
to go and the ensuing play saw Schiffner bury two free throws to
give the Quakers a 75-71 lead with 15 seconds left, setting the
stage for Brown's miracle shot. Click
to watch the dramatic final 9.4
seconds of regulation.
“CHEESESTEAKS” (PART III):
Penn 104, Harvard 69 (February 6, 2004)
The Quakers
wasted no time in taking care of business in the Palestra,
defeating Harvard, 104-69. The Quakers went over the 100-point
plateau for the second time in three seasons when guard Patrick
Lang hit a three with 1:12 left in the game. By the time the
starters were hauled off the floor, Penn was up 45 points, 83-48,
with a little over 10 minutes to play. Each player who stepped on
the court scored at least two points, but the buckets were
definitely not as easy to come by. Penn was held without a field
goal for 3:30 before Ibby Jaaber grabbed a steal and drove to the
basket to give Penn a 96-57 lead. Jaaber again hit the bottom of
the net for the Quakers, this time from behind the arc, to give
Penn 99 points with just over two minutes to go. Lang, who entered
the game a perfect 2-for-2 from behind the three-point line for
his career, drained one at the 1:12 mark to make the stands shake.
Ryan Pettinella put the icing on the cake with a field goal with
36 seconds left to give Penn the 35-point victory. Click
to
watch Patrick Lang's picture-perfect 3-pointer that put the
Quakers over the century mark.
“IBBY'S BREAKOUT WEEKEND”: Penn
91, Columbia 76; Penn 79, Cornell 52 (February 13-14, 2004)
Ibrahim
Jaaber came off the bench to spark a first-half run that helped
Penn defeat Columbia, 91-76, on Friday night. With Penn trailing
26-22 with 7:49 left in the half, Jaaber converted a steal into
a layup to start a 14-4 run that gave the Quakers a 36-30 lead.
Penn expanded its lead to 45-36 at halftime with Jaaber scoring
eight of his career-best 16 points. Columbia made a brief run
early in the second half, cutting the edge to 49-44, but Tim
Begley hit a three-point shot to trigger an 8-2 run that gave
the Quakers an insurmountable lead. The next night, Penn got 17
points each from Begley and Jaaber in a 79-52 victory over
Cornell in Ithaca. Penn opened that game on a 7-2 run and never
looked back as both Begley and Jaaber had 11 points in the
opening stanza. The Quakers took a 44-20 lead into halftime. The
Red and Blue kept at it in the second half, scoring
seven-straight points before the Big Red got on the board. Click
to watch Adam Chubb's dunk off Ibby
Jaaber's alley-oop pass.
“THE TIM BEGLEY SHOW”: Penn 78, La
Salle 67 (December 4, 2004)
Tim Begley scored a career-high
29 points to lead Penn past La Salle, 78-67, in the Big 5
Classic at The Palestra. Begley also had a new career best nine
field-goals made as well as a new career mark from behind the
three-point arc, where he made eight. In addition, the senior
tied a career high with 17 field-goal attempts. The Quakers got off to a sluggish start, not
scoring a field goal until four minutes into the game on a
layup by Jan Fikiel. From that point, Penn put together a lead
over the Explorers that stood at 39-32 at halftime. After
the half, La Salle battled back behind Steven Smith, who finished the game with 24
points, to draw within one at the 11:59 mark. A trey from Ibrahim Jaaber put
the Quakers up four before Sherman Diaz did the same for La
Salle, pulling the game to within one at the 10:30 mark. Penn,
bolstered by Begley's 11 second-half points, extended its lead
to as much as 16 and cruised to an 11-point victory. Click
to watch highlights of “The Tim
Begley Show”.
“THE
OZ SHOW”: Temple 52, Penn 51 (December 8, 2004)
Eric Osmundson scored a
career-high 20 points, but it wasn't enough as Penn fell to
Temple, 52-51, at the Liacouras Center. In a game that saw 14 lead changes
and 11 ties, Marty Collins nailed two free throws with four
seconds left to give the Owls a one-point victory. With 3:00 left in the game, Osmundson laid in a
basket to give Penn a 51-46 lead. Temple took advantage of several missed
opportunities by Penn and capitalized on two free-throw
attempts. Collins sunk two shots from the charity stripe with
1:52 remaining to pull within one of the Quakers, 51-50. After a steal by each
team and turnovers on both ends, the Owls ended up with the ball
with 10 seconds remaining on the clock. Steve Danley was called
for a foul with four seconds remaining, giving Collins his two
attempts. Early on in the game, Osmundson
nailed the second of three trifectas in the first half to give
the Red and Blue an 11-8 advantage. Friedrich Ebede checked into
the game and sank a three from the corner to give the Red and
Blue their largest lead of the half, 14-8, just 45 seconds
later. Temple went on a 4-0 run before a dunk by Ebede and
another trey from Osmundson tied the game, 24-24, heading into
the locker room. Osmundson went 6-for-8 from beyond the arc, and
was the only Quaker in double figures. Click
to watch Friedrich Ebede's dunk or click
to watch highlights of “The Oz Show”.
STEVE DANLEY'S BASELINE JAM: Penn 67, St. Joseph's 59 (January
25, 2005)
After grabbing the opening
tip, Mark Zoller scored the first basket of the game to give
Penn a 2-0 lead. St. Joseph's Chet Stachitas sank a three to
give the Hawks a 3-2 lead, but it was the last lead they would
see in the game as the Quaker defense held the Hawks scoreless
for four minutes and 26 seconds and rolled to a 16-3 lead on a
14-0 run. Penn went on another run, holding the Hawks without a
field goal from the 10:42 mark to 5:40 remaining in the first stanza. St. Joe's sank
seven free throws to cut the lead to nine at 35-26 heading into
the locker room. The
Hawks scored on their first two possessions to open the second
stanza, pulling to within six just 56 seconds into the second
half, but two Tim Begley trifectas, three free throws by Steve
Danley and a bucket by Zoller put the Red and Blue back on top
by 14. The Hawks continued to fight back, pulling to within
three points with 4:40 on the clock, but a slam dunk by
Danley with 41 seconds remaining sealed the Penn victory. Click
to watch Steve Danley's baseline
jam off an inbounds pass and fake handoff.
“JAN JAMS”
(Part II): Penn 70, Harvard 57 (February 4, 2005)
After a slow start by both
schools, Penn turned a 4-2 deficit at the 16:57 mark into an 18-7 lead with 12:49
remaining. The Crimson
closed the first 20 minutes on a 9-2 run, and headed into the
locker room down six, 35-29. Three quick baskets by Harvard to start the
second stanza evened the score at 35-35, but Penn rattled off 11
straight points over the next three and half minutes to take a
46-35 lead. At the 7:40 mark, Begley nailed two foul shots to
extend the Quakers lead to 57-46. Ibby Jaaber picked off
the ball on the ensuing trip down the court and passed off to
Jan Fikiel who added two points with a two-handed slam. Tim
Begley scored the next eight points for the Quakers as Penn
extended its lead to 65-49 with 5:51 left in the game. Click
to watch Jan Fikiel's two-handed
jam.
TIM BEGLEY SCORES HIS
1,000TH POINT: Penn 68, Dartmouth 44 (February 5, 2005)
Senior Tim Begley reached a
career-milestone by scoring his 1,000th-career point, as the
Quakers rolled to a 68-44 win over Dartmouth at the Edward Leede
Arena. Begley led all scorers with 14
points. With a 34-16 lead, Penn opened the second stanza on an
11-0 run to take a 47-16 lead and never looked back. The Quakers
led by as many as 34 in the game, but a late 12-4 run by the Big
Green pulled Dartmouth to within 24 points. Begley opened the second
stanza with a jumper from just inside the three-point line to
score his 998th and 999th career points. At the 16:26 mark, Begley nailed a shot from
beyond the arc to become the 32nd player in program history to
reach the 1,000-point mark. An early 13-0 run by the Quakers, capped off
with a Begley trey, put the Red and Blue on top 16-3. Begley
added three more points before the end of the half to need only
a trifecta to join the exclusive 1,000-point club. The Big Green
pulled to within nine at 18-9, but that was the closest
they would get.
Click
to watch Tim Begley reach the
1,000-point plateau.
“IBBY'S PUT-BACK
JAM”: Penn 79, Brown 62 (February 18, 2005)
Four Quakers
scored in double figures, including a double-double by Mark
Zoller (14 points and 12 boards), to lead the Penn to a 79-62
victory. Tim Begley and Ibby Jaaber each scored a game-high 22
points, while Ryan Pettinella chipped in with 10 points. Penn
went on a 25-4 run in the second half to take a 31 point lead
with 4:21 remaining in the game. During that stretch, Zoller
scored eight of his 14 points and Jaaber finished off a broken
Steve Danley layup with an emphatic one-handed jam. The Quaker
defense kept the Bears scoreless from the field for 11 minutes
and held the Ivy League leading scorer, Jason Forte, to just
eight points – his second lowest offensive output of the season.
Forte nailed his only
field goal of the game to open the first half and give the home
team a 3-0 lead. Ruscoe hit a jumper to put Brown ahead, 5-2,
but after Jaaber connected on a three-point play, the Quakers
took control and ran out to a 23-13 lead with eight minutes left
in the first half. The Bears stayed within striking distance and
pulled to within five before heading into the locker room. Luke Ruscoe opened the second
stanza with a jumper for Brown to pull within 31-28, but
turnovers and solid shooting from the Red and Blue allowed Penn
to pull ahead. Click
to watch Ibby Jaaber's one-handed put-back jam.
“IBBY'S PUT-BACK JAM” (PART
II): Yale 78, Penn 60 (February 19, 2005)
Mark Zoller scored a season-high
22 points, but it wasn't enough for the Quakers who fell to
Yale, 78-60. Zoller, Ibby Jaaber and Steve Danley scored the
first 20 points for Penn, who led 14-9 when Tim Begley rebounded
a missed jumper by Edwin Draughan and fed it to Jaaber who
dropped in a one handed dunk to give Penn a 16-9 lead. Four
points from Eric Flato pulled the Bulldogs to within one at
16-15 and with 7:07 remaining, Alex Gamboa tied the game at 21
with a three. Yale outscored the Quakers down the stretch to
take a 35-30 lead into the locker room. Yale scored two-straight
baskets to open the second half and extend its lead to 39-30.
Zoller hit Penn's first basket of the half, a three, and added a
jumper after picking up two steals to cut the lead to six. Eric
Osmundson hit two of three foul shots to pull within, 41-37 but
the Bulldogs went on a 21-7 run to pull ahead by 16 with 4:02
remaining. Jaaber followed an Osmundson miss with a put-back
jam, but several missed shots by the Quakers and made shots on
the other end allowed the Bulldogs to maintain a double-digit
lead and pull out the upset. Click
to watch Ibby Jaaber's put-back
jam.
“IBBY'S PUT-BACK JAM” (PART III): Penn 80,
Columbia 72 (February 26, 2005)
After Penn captured the Ivy
League title and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with an
80-72 victory over the Lions in Levien Gym, Columbia's athletic
department ensured that the big victory, instead of featuring the
wild exuberance typical of most Tournament-bound teams, would be
anticlimactic. There was no rushing the court -- the Columbia
public address announcer said with five minutes remaining that all
access to the court after the game was prohibited. There was no
cutting down the nets -- Columbia officials actually raised the
baskets, which were suspended from the ceiling, out of reach
immediately after the game. There was no trophy presentation or
team picture. But the anticlimactic conclusion to the Ivy League
title race exemplified the way the Quakers handled their Ivy
opponents all season long. Penn jumped out to a 55-37 lead 10
minutes into the second stanza on the strength of an 18-4 run.
During that stretch, Tim Begley broke the all-time 3-pointer
record with his 245th career triple. The Lions climbed out of
the hole pulling to within eight, 80-72, with just
under a minute to go, but could not put any added pressure on the
Red and Blue. Click
to watch Ibby Jaaber's one-handed
put-back jam or click
to watch highlights and the post-game celebration.
“GRANDIERI'S ARRIVAL”: Penn 68, Drexel 60 (November 26,
2005)
Eric Osmundson had 15 points
and Ibrahim Jaaber added 14 as Penn, which never trailed in the
game, held off Drexel, 68-60. The game was a breakout performance
for Brian Grandieri, who had 12 points and 15 rebounds in the
second game of his career with the Quakers. Frank Elegar had 17
points and 10 rebounds for the Dragons. The Quakers led by as many
as 17 points in the first half, and by 60-47 with 5:21 left in the
game. Drexel then went on a 10-1 run and closed to within 61-57 on
a jump shot by Dominic Mejia with 1:32 remaining. However, free
throws by Jaaber and Grandieri, plus two foul shots by Osmundson
with 31 seconds to go, secured the victory. Penn used a 12-2 spurt
to take their biggest lead in the game, 38-21, with 3:15 left in
the first half and held a 40-24 advantage at halftime. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
IBBY JAABER SCORES
31: Penn 86, Navy 73 (December 2, 2005)
Ibrahim Jaaber scored a career-high 31 points, to
go along with three assists and four steals, while the Quakers
went to the foul line a staggering 55 times and drained 39 of
them, as Penn defeated Navy, 86-73, at The Palestra. Jaaber alone
seemed to keep Penn in the game in the first half. At the break,
he had 23 of Penn's 37 points thanks to 7-of-8 shooting from the
field (2-of-3 from three-point land) and 7-of-9 shooting from the
foul line. The Quakers trailed by two at the break, 39-37, and
fell behind by as much as six early in the second half before
righting the ship against the Midshipmen. A 5-0 run quickly cut
Navy's lead to 43-42. Trailing 58-56 with 13:36 to play, Penn went
on a 15-2 run -- including 11 free throws -- to lead 71-60. A
three-point play by Colbert cut the lead to 72-67 at the 6:03
mark, but Brian Grandieri scored four straight points to seal the
victory. Jaaber's
31-point game was the first 30-point effort by a Quaker since
Ugonna Onyekwe dropped 30 on Oklahoma State in the first round of
the 2003 NCAA Tournament, and the most points scored by a Penn
player since Garett Kreitz had 33 against Brown on February 14,
1998. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
QUAKERS HANG WITH #1 DUKE: Duke
72, Penn 59 (December 7, 2005)
Facing one of the
most hostile environments in the country – Cameron Indoor Stadium
and its “Cameron Crazies” – Penn was able to hang with the
top-ranked Blue Devils, who threatened to pull away numerous times
but could never shake the pesky Quakers. In the end, the result
was a 72-59 Duke win. Penn
trailed by as much as 13 in the first half before going into the
break down, 34-24. In the second stanza, Duke built its lead as
high as 19 on a few occasions, but the Quakers drew back within 10
and answered the Blue Devils' runs with their own streaks the rest
of the way. Penn was
undone by 26 turnovers, though, and shot just 39 percent from the
field – much of that a result of Duke's tenacious half-court
defense. The Blue Devils had problems of their own offensively,
however, committing 17 turnovers. Interestingly, the Quakers
outrebounded the nation's No. 1 team, 34-27, grabbing 14 offensive
boards to Duke's six. Click
to watch the Quakers
take an early 6-3 lead after Ibrahim Jaaber scored on a tip-in and
Mark Zoller followed with a layup.
Penn
58, Hawai'i 55 (December 29, 2005)
Ibrahim Jaaber
scored 24 points to lead Penn to a 58-55 victory over Hawai'i in
the first-ever meeting between the two teams. Down 57-55 with 13
seconds to play, Hawaii's Matt Lojeski stole the ball on the Penn
inbound play, but his pass went through the hands of Ahmet Gueye
and to Quaker Steve Danley. Hawai'i would get one more chance
after Danley made one of two free throws, but Julian Sensley's
three-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the rim. After
Hawai'i scored the first two points of the game, Penn took a 3-2
lead at the 18:25 mark in the first half and would lead by as much
as nine in the game. Hawai'i pulled to within one point five times
in the game, but the Quakers would not relinquish the lead. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
“PENN WINS BY
30 POINTS TWICE”: Penn 84, Cornell 44; Penn 87, Columbia 55 (January
13-14, 2006)
Ibrahim Jaaber had 20 points,
eight assists and seven steals to lead Penn to an 84-44 victory
over Cornell on Friday night. Jason Hartford had 10 points for the
Big Red, who committed 25 turnovers in the game. The Quakers went
on a 19-0 run at the start of the second half while holding
Cornell scoreless for 5:55. The Big Red's Adam Gore finally scored
a 3-pointer, but Penn then went on a 21-5 run to build a 74-33
lead with 7:21 left to play. Penn never trailed and jumped out to
a 27-13 lead with 5:20 left in the first half, holding a 34-25
advantage at the break. Mark Zoller scored 21 points and Jaaber
added 18 as Penn used two huge scoring bursts to rout Columbia
87-55 Saturday night. With the score tied 16-16 with 11:07 left in
the first half, Jaaber and Zoller each hit 3-pointers to ignite a
21-6 run, and the Quakers led 37-22 at the break. Penn started the
second half with a 16-0 spurt, including two three-point shots by
Eric Osmundson, to build a 53-22 lead. Columbia never got closer
than 27 points the rest of the way. Click
to watch Tommy McMahon throw one
down against Cornell.
“CHEESESTEAKS” (PART
IV): Penn 105, Lafayette 73 (January 16, 2006)
The Quakers put
together an offensive performance not seen against a Division I
opponent in nearly 28 years with an emphatic romp of the Leopards
at The Palestra. Brian Grandieri had just three points, but hit
the big one -- No. 100 -- with 1:54 remaining that gave all 3,065
in attendance free cheesesteaks from Abner's. Junior guard Ibrahim Jaaber
finished with 21 points to lead five Quakers in double figures.
Penn trailed 8-2 early but then ran off 15 straight points and
built a 53-34 advantage at halftime, connecting on 22-of-34 shots
and forcing 15 Lafayette turnovers. The lead ballooned to 89-52 on
a jumper by Jaaber with 8:52 remaining in the game. Click
to watch highlights, including
Brian Grandieri's shot at cheesesteak immortality.
FRAN DUNPHY'S 300TH WIN: Penn 73, La Salle 65 (January 25, 2006)
Mark Zoller
scored a career-high 25 points and Eric Osmundson added 17 as Penn
defeated Big 5 rival La Salle, 73-65, and gave coach Fran Dunphy
his 300th win. Dunphy, Penn's all-time winningest coach, gained
the milestone victory against his alma mater. Zoller, a 6-foot-7
forward, made 10-of-17 shots, including 4-of-6 from three-point
range. Steven Smith, who fouled out with just over a minute to go,
had 23 points and Darnell Harris 14 for La Salle. The teams
battled evenly throughout the second half until the Quakers took a
59-53 lead on a 3-pointer by Zoller with 6:43 remaining. The
Explorers closed to within 66-62 on a three-point play by Mike St.
John with 2:50 left in the game. After a layup by Zoller, Harris
made a three-point shot, cutting the Penn lead to 68-65 with 36
seconds to go, but Steve Danley made one free-throw and Ibby
Jaaber two more with 26 seconds left to seal the victory. Click
to watch highlights of Fran
Dunphy's 300th win or click
to watch Sherman Diaz's
electrifying dunk.
“THE BIG 5 TURNS THE BIG
5-0”: St. Joseph's 47, Penn 44 (January 28, 2006)
Rob Ferguson scored 18 points
and Abdulai Jalloh hit his only basket of the game with 25 seconds
remaining to lift St. Joseph's to a 47-44 win over Penn at The
Palestra. Jalloh's basket came after Ferguson tied the game 44-44
with a 3-pointer with 1:31 left. Steve Danley had a chance to tie
the game with 8.2 seconds left but missed the first of two free
throw attempts. He intentionally missed the second shot but Penn
was unable to secure the rebound. St. Joseph's went more than 13
minutes without a field goal after a 3-pointer by Chet Stachitas
with 15:41 left gave the Hawks a 30-25 lead. The Quakers responded
with a 9-0 run to take a 34-30 lead with 10:34 to go. Penn led
19-17 at halftime as both teams combined to shoot 14-of-47 from
the field, 3-of-20 from three-point range. As a tribute to the
50th anniversary of the Big 5, both schools agreed to allow their
fans to throw streamers on the court after their first field goal,
a practice banned by the NCAA following the 1987-88 season. Click
to watch the shower of streamers.
“SEND IT IN, OZ!”: Penn 74, Yale 52 (February 4, 2006)
Eric Osmundson
scored 17 points and Brian Grandieri added 12 as Penn used a 35-8
run to overcome a sluggish start and beat Yale 74-52. Ibrahim
Jaaber and Friedrich Bede each added 11 points for the Quakers.
Dominick Martin had 18 points for the Bulldogs. Yale outscored the
Quakers 16-1 at the start, a run that included two 3-pointers by
Eric Flato. Yale led 31-19 with 5:27 left in the first half.
Grandieri and Bede then sparked an 11-2 run that cut the Quakers'
deficit to 33-30 at halftime. Jaaber scored 11 points in a 24-6
run at the start of the second half as Penn built a 54-39 lead
with 9:20 remaining. The Quakers, who shot 17-for-30 in the second
half, took their biggest lead at 70-44, with four minutes left,
when Oz threw one down. Click
to watch highlights or click
to watch Oz's exclamation-point jam.
“IBBY REJECTS DeVON MOSLEY”: Penn 70, Dartmouth 51
(February 10, 2006)
Ibrahim Jaaber
made nine of 11 field goal attempts and scored a game-high 21
points to lead the Penn to a 70-51 victory over Dartmouth. Jaaber
added five steals and five rebounds. With Penn leading 11-8,
Jaaber stripped DeVon Mosley and proceeded to dunk over him. About
40 seconds later, Jaaber blocked a Mosley fast-break layup attempt
from behind. Another Jaaber steal and dunk pushed the Penn lead to
15-8. Leading by 11
points midway through the second half, Penn used a 12-4 run to
build a 63-44 lead, its biggest to that point. After Dartmouth
trimmed the lead to 65-49 with 1:54 to go, Jaaber faked Mosley off
his feet with a cross-over dribble and drove to the basket for a
layup. On the ensuing inbound pass, Jaaber stripped Mosley,
converted the layup and drew the foul, subsequently completing the
three-point play for a 70-49 Penn lead. Click
to watch Ibrahim Jaaber abuse
DeVon Mosley.
“FREEWAY'S EXCLAMATION-POINT JAM”: Penn 81, Harvard 68
(February 11, 2006)
Mark Zoller
scored 26 points, including five 3-pointers, and grabbed nine
rebounds to lead Penn to an 81-68 win over Harvard.
Penn never trailed, scoring the game's first 11 points as
Harvard went scoreless for the opening 6:32. The Crimson had
a hard time handling the Quakers' defense, especially in the first
half. Penn's defense was keyed by Ibrahim Jaaber, who had six
steals to go along with 23 points. Penn forced 11 turnovers and
held Harvard to 21 percent shooting in the first half, taking a
35-18 halftime lead. The Quakers, in contrast, only had five
turnovers and shot 50 percent in the opening half. Harvard went on
a 10-0 run late in the second half to pull within 11, but got no
closer. Trailing 69-58, Harvard's Drew Housman turned the ball
over, leading to Jaaber's three-point play to help put the game
away with 2:16 remaining. Penn took its largest lead of the game
at 65-41 on Friedrich Ebede's basket with 7:48 left. Matt Stehle
led Harvard with 28 points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Click
to watch Friedrich Ebede's dunk off a great
pass from Ibrahim Jaaber.
IBBY
JAABER SCORES 31 (Part II): Penn 74, Harvard 71 (OT) (February
24, 2006)
Ibrahim Jaaber
matched his career high with 31 points and Mark Zoller added 13
points and a career-best 18 rebounds to lead Penn to a 74-71
overtime victory over Harvard. Brian Grandieri added a career-high
17 points for Penn. Harvard's Brian Cusworth had 22 points and a
career-best 16 rebounds before fouling out with one minute
remaining in overtime. Jaaber scored 18 first-half points to help
lead the Quakers to a 35-27 lead at the break and a 54-45
advantage with 9:38 to play in regulation. Harvard then went on an
11-1 run and took a 56-55 lead on a layup by Stehle at the 4:27
mark. Jaaber completed a three-point play to help Penn to a 62-59
advantage, but Cusworth, a 7-foot center, hit his third 3-pointer
of the game to tie the score at 62 with 41 seconds left in
regulation, sending the game into overtime. Two free throws by
Zoller gave the Quakers a 69-66 lead before Cusworth made a layup
that pulled Harvard within a point at 1:34 of overtime. Two free
throws by Grandieri and three more by Jaaber helped the Quakers to
a 74-68 lead with six seconds left. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
“IBBY REJECTS DeVON MOSLEY” (Part II): Penn 68,
Dartmouth 52 (February 25, 2006)
Penn jumped out to a 19-5 lead and held a 30-23 advantage
at halftime. Dartmouth closed to within 32-29 on a four-point play
by Mike Lang with 17:25 remaining, but Penn went on a 13-4 run to
open a 45-33 lead and was never threatened again, winning 68-52 at
The Palestra. Mark
Zoller scored 17 points and added 11 rebounds, while Ibrahim
Jaaber supplied a highlight-reel rejection. When Dartmouth's DeVon Mosley drove in for a
would-be open layup, Jaaber came from the other side to block the
shot emphatically. Click
to watch Ibrahim Jaaber's
incredible block.
IVY CHAMPS: Penn 57, Yale 55 (March 3, 2006)
Eric Osmundson
scored 15 points and Mark Zoller added 14 as the Penn held off a
late rally and beat Yale, 57-55, to clinch the Ivy League title
and become the first team to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
The Quakers clinched the
league title with the victory and Princeton's loss to Brown. Yale had a chance to tie the
game at the buzzer, but Eric Flato's desperation 18-footer fell
short. Penn built what seemed like a commanding 41-25 lead
with 15:55 to play, but Yale's Dominick Martin (18 points) led a
rally that cut the margin to four with 3:10 remaining. Nick Holmes
hit two free throws to pull the Bulldogs to within 55-53 with 1:16
to go.
“IBBY'S PUNCTUATION-MARK ALLEY-OOP
SLAM”: Penn 97, Florida Gulf Coast 74 (November 18, 2006)
Mark Zoller
scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half, and Brian Grandieri
added 19 points and nine assists to lead Penn to a 97-74 victory
over Florida Gulf Coast. Freshman Darren Smith added 17 points for
the Quakers, who led 39-35 at the break. Zoller scored 10 points
and Grandieri added nine to help the Quakers extend their lead to
19 points, 70-51, with 10:11 remaining. The Eagles closed to
within nine at 80-71, but Penn closed out the game on a 17-3 run.
The Quakers' late run was emphatically punctuated by Ibrahim
Jaaber, who turned in an efficient, 15-point and eight-assist
effort. On a fast break with under a minute to go, Zoller made a
sudden, one-handed pass to the streaking Jaaber. The senior
co-captain elevated until his hand was several inches above the
rim and then slammed down an alley-oop as the Palestra crowd
roared its approval. That was closer to what the Quakers and their
fans had in mind. Click
to watch Ibby
Jaaber's unbelievable alley-oop slam.
“IBBY JAABER'S PUT-BACK JAM”
(PART IV): Fordham 77, Penn 60
(December 9, 2006)
Bryant Dunston
scored 21 points and Marcus Stout added 17 as Fordham broke open
a close game midway through the second half and defeated Penn,
77-60. Sebastian Greene had 14 points and Brenton Butler 13 for
the Rams, who shot 12-for-21 from three-point range. Ibrahim
Jaaber had 18 points, and Mark Zoller 14 for Penn. The teams
were tied at 44-all when Dunston started a 23-5 run with a
three-point play and ended it with a slam dunk, giving the Rams
a 67-49 lead with 5:22 left. Penn then scored five straight
points, but a 3-pointer by Stout pushed the lead to 70-54 with
3:32 to go. Fordham trailed with 7:51 left in the first half
before hitting five straight 3-pointers and moving out to a
39-30 advantage. Jaaber then scored twice, on a steal and a
layup, to bring the Quakers to within 39-34 at the break. Click
to watch Ibby Jaaber's one-handed
put-back jam.
“BRIAN GRANDIERI'S HALF-COURT
BUZZER-BEATER”: Penn 69, Columbia 43 (January 13, 2007)
Ibrahim Jaaber
scored 17 points, Brian Grandieri added 14 and Penn rolled to a
69-43 victory over Columbia. Jaaber had 11 points in the first
half, including six in an 11-4 run that put Penn in front 32-21
with 2:31 left before the half. Jaaber hit a three-point shot
and later converted a three-point play off a layup during the
run. The punctuation came at the end of the half when Grandieri
lofted a 40-footer at the buzzer that swished through the
basket, giving the Quakers a 37-23 halftime lead and
touching off a wild celebration on the Penn bench. The lead may
have been 11 already, but the halfcourt shot was a great moment
for Grandieri, and his celebrating teammates. “I don't know what
I was thinking. We thought we just won the NCAA Tournament, with
those antics. I've never even hit a halfcourt shot in my life.”
While Penn could have gotten complacent after that play, the
shot from deep proved a motivator for the team. “It gave us a
lot of emotion going into the second half,” the junior added.
“In hindsight it was maybe a good thing for the team, because we
reacted well.” The Quakers then scored the first six points
after intermission and Columbia got no closer than 16 in the
second half, scoring only one field goal in the game's final 10
minutes. Click
to watch Brian Grandieri's first-half
buzzer-beater from just across half court.
Penn 93, La Salle 92 (January 18, 2007)
Mark Zoller
scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Ibrahim Jaaber had
27 points and nine assists as Penn defeated Big 5 rival La
Salle, 93-92. Brian Grandieri added 18 points for Penn, which
defeated the Explorers for the sixth straight time and the 14th
in their last 16 meetings. Darnell Harris had a career-high 32
points, including eight three-point shots, for La Salle, while
Rodney Green had 22 and Paul Johnson 17. La Salle led 58-47 with
16:14 left to play before Grandieri started a 16-5 run with a
3-pointer and capped it with a layup to tie the score, 63-63,
with 11:26 remaining. For the next 10:03, neither team had more
than a two-point lead until Zoller's two foul shots with 1:03 to
go gave the Quakers a 90-87 advantage. A jumper by Jaaber with
15 seconds left made it 92-87, and after a Green layup and a
free throw by Grandieri, Johnson's 3-pointer with one second
left accounted for the final score. Both teams shot well during
the game, which saw numerous fast breaks. The Quakers made 37 of
64 shots (58 percent) while La Salle was 34-for-64 (53 percent).
Click
to watch. highlights of this Big 5
classic.
“FRAN DUNPHY'S EMOTIONAL RETURN”:
Penn 76, Temple 74 (January 24,
2007)
Mark Zoller
sank three free throws with 1.4 seconds left after being fouled
on a three-point attempt, and Penn rallied from a 19-point
deficit to stun Temple, 76-74, spoiling Owls coach Fran Dunphy's
return to the Palestra. Ibrahim Jaaber led Penn with 21 points
and was absolutely amazing. Once Jaaber got going, so did the
Quakers, and they sent Dunphy home a loser in his emotional
first game against his former team. Zoller scored nine of Penn's
final 12 points and finished with 19. Dionte Christmas scored a
career-high 34 points for the Owls. Jaaber and Zoller rallied
the Quakers to one of the more fantastic wins at the Palestra,
the fabled home of the Big 5. Trailing 38-19, the Quakers went
on a 27-8 run that spanned the first and second halves to tie
the score at 46. From there, the game was tighter than the fans
packed in the bleacher seats. After Christmas sank five
3-pointers in the first half, he made two free throws with 34.8
seconds left that gave Temple a 72-71 lead. Jaaber had a
baseline layup blocked out of bounds, and his inbounds pass to
Zoller was converted into a driving layup down the lane that
made it 73-72 with 22 seconds to go. Christmas hit a jumper from
the right wing and Temple went ahead 74-73, seemingly clinching
the win for Dunphy and the Owls. But Zoller was fouled by Dion
Dacons on a heaved three with 1.4 seconds left, sending one
half of the crowd into a frenzy and quieting the other side.
After Zoller converted all three free throws, Dustin Salisbery's
desperation shot was no good, and the Penn student section
mobbed the court celebrating the win. Click
to watch highlights.
“GLEN MILLER'S RETURN TO BROWN”:
Penn 77, Brown 61 (February 2,
2007)
Mark Zoller
scored 18 points and Brian Grandieri added 17 leading Penn to a
77-61 win over Brown. Mark McAndrew paced Brown with 15
points and five rebounds. Zoller had 16 points in the first half
on 6-of-9 from the floor, and made all three of his three-point
attempts. The Quakers scored on 7-of-10 three-point attempts in
the first half, and 12-of-20 in the game while Brown struggled,
making 1-of-11 three-pointers in the first half. Penn led by as
much as 18 in the first half, and held a 41-26 advantage at
intermission. The contest marked the return of former Brown head
coach Glen Miller, who coached the Bears from 1999-2006 before
taking the position with the Quakers. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
“BRENNAN'S BREAKOUT GAME”: Penn
67, Harvard 53 (February 10,
2007)
On a night
when its long-distance aim was off, Penn got a big boost from an
unexpected source against Harvard. Brennan Votel, a 6-foot-7
sophomore who entered the game averaging 1.8 points, provided
energy off the bench for the Quakers in their 67-53 win in front
of 6,127 at The Palestra. Votel scored a career-high 11 points,
including nine by halftime. In the first half, Votel made all
four of his shots from the field, including a 3-pointer - only
his third of the season and the only trey in 10 attempts for the
Quakers all night. For the game, Votel hit 5-of-7 shots and had
four rebounds in 16 effective minutes. Mark Zoller scored 17
points, while Brian Grandieri and Steve Danley each had 10
points for Penn. Ibrahim Jaaber, the Ivy League's career steals
leader, raised his career total to 279 with six steals. Jim
Goffredo had 14 points and a career-high seven steals for the
Crimson, who lost their 10th straight game to the Quakers. Penn
led 32-26 at the half, and 48-37 after a three-point play by
Zoller with 8:58 left in the game. Harvard then closed within
50-44 on two free throws by Goffredo, but the Quakers ran off 10
straight points, six by Kevin Egee, to help seal the win. Penn
scored 13 straight points early in the first half to take a 15-7
lead, but Harvard answered with a 14-4 spurt to move out to a
21-19 lead. Penn came right back with a 13-2 run to take a 32-23
lead and never trailed again. Click
to watch some of the highlights.
“THE PLAY”: Penn 83, Cornell 71
(February 17, 2007)
Ibrahim Jaaber
scored 25 points and Mark Zoller had 24 points, six assists and
six steals, leading Penn to an 83-71 victory over Cornell at The
Palestra. Brian Grandieri added 10 points for Penn, which
defeated Cornell for the 18th straight time and extended its
home winning streak against Ivy League opponents to 19 games.
Andrew Naeve tied his career high with 20 points and grabbed 10
rebounds, and Ryan Wittman had 15 points for the Big Red, who
committed 20 turnovers. Trailing 42-31 early in the second half,
Wittman sparked a 16-4 run that gave Cornell a 47-46 lead. The
Big Red held a 53-50 lead with 12:32 left before the Quakers ran
off 10 straight points for a 60-53 advantage, capped off by “The
Play” -- an Ibby Jaaber inbounds pass that he threw off the back
of Cornell's Andrew Naeve to himself for a lay-in. Cornell closed within 64-61 on a
layup by Wittman at the 6:23 mark, but Penn's Michael Kach then
hit a 3-pointer that started an 8-3 run and the Big Red never
got closer than five points the rest of the way. Click
to watch “The Play” or click
to watch.highlights.
“CAM'S PUT-BACK JAM!”: Penn 86,
Yale 58 (March 2, 2007)
Mark Zoller
had 22 points, 17 rebounds and six assists, and Penn beat Yale,
86-58, to claim its third straight Ivy League championship and
become the first team to secure a berth in the NCAA tournament.
Ibrahim Jaaber had 13 points and seven assists, and Steve Danley
11 points for the Quakers, who won their eighth straight game
and claimed the Ivy title for the fourth time in five years.
Eric Flato and Ross Morin each had 11 points for Yale, which
dealt Penn its only Ivy League loss, 77-68, earlier in the
season. The Quakers hit seven of their first eight shots and
opened the game with a 24-2 run. Zoller hit a 3-pointer to give
Penn a 31-9 lead midway through the first half. The Bulldogs
closed to 40-27, but Penn countered with a 9-2 run and held a
49-29 halftime lead. Yale never got closer than 15 points in the
second half. Penn took its biggest lead at 77-46 with 6:56 left.
As the Quakers'
thrashing of Yale neared its end, Cam Lewis soared high and
rattled the rim with a one-handed put-back jam. Click
to watch Cam Lewis' put-back jam or
click
to watch ESPN Sports
Center's highlights.
“SEND IT IN, JOE GILL!”: Loyola
(Maryland) 89, Penn 68 (November 11, 2007)
Gerald Brown
scored 27 points, made a career-high six steals and Michael Tuck
added 18 points to lead Loyola to an 89-68 win over Penn in the
preliminary round of the Philly Hoop Group Classic. Loyola raced
out to a 43-26 halftime lead by forcing 14 first-half Penn
turnovers. But the Quakers battled back to start the second half,
scoring six of the first eight points to cut the lead to just 13,
at 45-32, with 18:17 remaining. Loyola, however, would answer with
a 14-7 run of their own over the next 5:07 to extend the lead to
59-39 with 13:10 left. The Greyhounds put the game out of reach
with 10:40 remaining when the lead ballooned to 30 (73-43) after
Brown came away with a steal and took the ball the other way for a
layup. It stayed that way pretty much the rest of the way, except
for the final few minutes when Penn scored the game's last 10
points -- highlighted by senior Joe Gill scoring his first
collegiate field goal on a dunk, getting fouled on the play, and
sinking the free throw. Click
to watch Joe Gill
throw one down, sandwiched between two Andreas Schreiber dunks.
“HARRISON'S ARRIVAL”: Penn 93, The
Citadel 77 (November 20, 2007)
Brian Grandieri
scored 20 points and Michael Kach added a career-high 19 in
leading Penn to its first win of the season, 93-77 over The
Citadel. Freshmen Tyler Bernardini had 18 points and Jack
Eggleston 13 for Penn, which shot 33-for-57. Austin Dahn had 18
points and Cameron Wells 17 for the Bulldogs, who had 14 freshmen
on the team, including four in the starting lineup. Perhaps most impressively, the
Quakers had 30 assists on their 33 baskets. Leading the way was
freshman point guard Harrison Gaines with 12 assists, just one shy
of the school record, against just two turnovers. He also scored
nine points. Penn led
45-35 at the half and 51-41 with 17:17 remaining. The Quakers then
went on a 15-2 run to take their biggest lead, 66-43, with 13:54
to go. The Citadel went on a 14-2 run and closed within 68-57 on a
three-point play by Demetrius Nelson with nine minutes left.
However, Kach hit a 3-pointer and Eggleston a layup, pushing the
lead to 73-57. The Bulldogs never got closer than 14 points the
rest of the way. Click
to watch highlights of Harrison Gaines' 12-assist
performance.
“REMY'S ARRIVAL”: Virginia 100, Penn
85 (November 23, 2007)
Adrian Joseph had 23 points and
11 rebounds, Sean Singletary scored 16 points and No. 23
Virginia was unstoppable early on its way to a 100-85 victory
over Penn in the Philly Hoop Group Classic. The Cavaliers
never let thoughts of upset hatch inside the heads of the
Quakers. Fans were still looking for a spot on the bleacher
seats when Joseph hit a pair of 3-pointers on an opening 12-2
run. Jamil Tucker and Calvin Baker each hit threes early that
put them up 20-7 and it was time for Virginia's seldom-used
benchwarmers to start thinking about garbage time minutes.
Virginia was so dominant -- 7-for-13 from three-point range in
the first half -- that it didn't even miss Singletary's typical
big game. Another statistical oddity was Penn freshman reserve
Remy Cofield's 20 points. Not bad for a freshman who was
scoreless for the season on only three shots coming into the
game. Click
to watch Remy Cofield's acrobatic layup.
“ARON COHEN'S HUGE 3-POINTER”:
Penn 69, Monmouth 61 (December 8, 2007)
With just
under four minutes remaining, and Penn clinging to a 52-51 lead
over Monmouth, junior Aron Cohen received a pass and had an open
look from just beyond the arc in front of the Quaker bench. He
passed it up. A few seconds later, the ball swung back to him,
in essentially the same spot. This time, he was ready and let
fly. Swish. The bucket -- which came with 3:21 left on the clock
-- served as the start to what ended up as a 10-0 run, and the
result was a 69-61 Penn win at the Hawks' Boylan Gym. The Quakers then sealed the win
by going 10-for-10 from the free throw line in the final minutes. Brian Grandieri scored 21 points to lead Penn,
who overcame a sloppy first half in which they committed 11
turnovers. Monmouth, which made 56 percent of it shots in the
first half, led 34-30 at the break. Click
to watch Aron Cohen's huge
3-pointer.
“SEND IT IN, DANNY!”: Miami 88,
Penn 62 (January 2, 2008)
The Hurricanes
wore down the Quakers with an 11-0 run to start the second half,
as Miami defeated
Penn, 88-62. Dwayne
Collins, who finished with 18 points, scored the first seven of
the spurt. Brian Asbury, whose steal and layup with 18:29
remaining capped the run and increased Miami's lead to 49-28,
led the Hurricanes with 22 points. Jack McClinton's 3-pointer
with 7:30 left capped an 8-0 spurt and increased the Hurricanes'
advantage 72-42. The highlight for the Quakers was an alley-oop
from Kevin Egee to freshman Danny Monckton, on Penn's last
possession, which closed out the scoring in the game. Cameron Lewis scored a
career-high 13 points to lead Penn. The Quakers stayed within
striking distance during the first 20 minutes. Jimmy Graham's
slam dunk with 11:29 left in the first half gave the Hurricanes
an 18-9 lead. But Lewis scored three consecutive field goals in
a 1:31 span as Penn reduced Miami's lead 18-15. The Hurricanes
responded with a 7-0 run and built their first double-digit lead
of the half. Click
to watch Danny Monckton's alley-oop slam.
“SEND IT IN, JACK!”: Penn 79, NJIT
68 (January 5, 2008)
Brian
Grandieri had 22 points and Cameron Lewis had 15 and nine
rebounds, both career highs, as Penn struggled to a 79-68
victory over winless N. J. Tech. Tyler Bernardini also had 15
points for the Quakers, who committed 16 turnovers and missed 17
of 40 free throws in the game. Jheryl Wilson and Kraig Peters
each had 12 points for the Highlanders, playing in only their
second Division I season. N.J. Tech led 34-33 two minutes into
the second half and trailed only 50-47 after a layup by Brendon
Lyn with 12:30 left in the game. The Quakers then scored 11
straight points, six of them by Lewis, and the Highlanders never
got closer than eight points after that. The highlight of the evening was Jack
Eggleston'e alley-oop slam in the final seconds. Click
to watch Jack Eggleston's punctuation-mark alley-oop slam.
“THE GHOSTS OF THE PALESTRA”: Penn
68, Dartmouth 66 (February 2, 2008)
Jack Eggleston
scored a career-high 16 points and Penn held off a spirited
Dartmouth rally to defeat Big Green, 68-66. Penn led 60-48 with 9:54 left to play
before Michael Giovacchini sparked a 16-3 run to give the Big
Green a 64-63 lead. Penn moved ahead 67-64 before two free
throws by DeVon Mosley cut the lead to 67-66. Kevin Egee then
converted one of two free throws for the Quakers with 12.5
seconds left. Down, 68-66, and with just a few seconds left on
the clock, the ball went into the hands of the Big Green's Elgin
Fitzgerald. He put up a shot from right under the hoop that
rolled slowly around the rim, then hung on the rim...and
hung...and hung...before, somehow, falling out at the buzzer.
Perhaps the Ghosts of The Palestra had something to do with
that. Click
to watch the final seconds.
“THE SWALLOWED WHISTLE”: Cornell
94, Penn 92 (March 7, 2008)
The Quakers gave Ivy champion
Cornell all it could handle, before succumbing to the Big Red,
94-92, in front of a crowd of 4,865 at The Palestra. The first
half ended tied at 44-44, and the game was still tied at 58-58
until Penn took off on an 9-0 run, which was capped off when Cam
Lewis faked a handoff to a teammate, blew by a Cornell defender
and emphatically slammed home two points over another helpless
Big Red player The Palestra was in full frenzy. Cornell kept its
composure, though, and after trading baskets with the Quakers
held Penn scoreless for eight minutes. During that stretch, the
Big Red scored 15 unanswered points and gained all the momentum.
It was not until Brian Grandieri hit a jumper with 4:03
remaining that Penn finally stopped the skid and made the score
75-71, Cornell. It looked like Cornell was going to keep Penn at
bay, but funny things happened in the final minute that made you
think another Palestra miracle might be in store. Down 91-81,
with just 30 seconds to play, Harrison Gaines knocked down a
trey. Penn then forced Cornell's Louis Dale into a turnover
which Tyler Bernardini quickly turned into three points. The
Quakers then fouled Dale on the inbounds, and the national
leader in free-throw percentage missed his first before making
his second. That made the score 92-87 with 18 seconds to go.
Gaines drove the length of the floor and knocked home a quick
two, and then Penn fouled Dale again on the inbounds. The
sophomore guard missed again, but then made the second, and the
score was 93-89. Penn rushed the ball down the floor and got
Bernardini open, and he hit another trey from way up top with
3.3 seconds left on the clock to make the score 93-92. Cornell
immediately inbounded the ball to Ryan Wittman, the Ivy League's
third-leading scorer and an 88-percent foul shooter, and Penn
put him on the line with 2.7 ticks to go. Wittman missed the
first before making the second. That gave Penn one last gasp.
Justin Reilly inbounded, throwing an overhand pass that
Bernardini caught about 45 feet out, in front of the Quaker
bench. He took a dribble to the middle of the floor and appeared
to be going up for a potential game-winning 3-pointer when
Cornell's Adam Gore interfered, got him on the arm and the
ball bounced away. To the dismay and ire of Penn's fans, no call
was made, and instead the horn blew to end the game. It was an
unfortunate end to an incredible performance.
“TYLER BERNARDINI'S
BUZZER-BEATER”: Penn 69, Columbia 67 (March 8, 2008)
Penn and Columbia were tied,
67-67, with mere seconds on the clock. Tyler Bernardini got
the ball near the top of the key, drove to the left corner,
and put up a shot that never had a prayer of going
in. Brian Grandieri muscled his way under the hoop, and in
the ensuing scrum he somehow managed to punch the ball back out
toward Bernardini. The freshman, without
hesitation, again let fly, this time from about 10 feet out
along the left baseline. This time, with 0.6 seconds left, it
settled into the basket for two points. Penn 69, Columbia 67.
The contest featured 10 ties (four in the second half) and 13
lead changes (five in the final 2:09), and the largest lead
anyone held at any time was seven points, when Columbia grabbed
a 56-49 advantage with just under nine minutes remaining on Mack
Montgomery's layup. Penn hung around, though, and finally tied
the game at 62-62 with 2:44 to play, when Andreas Schreiber hit
four foul shots over consecutive possessions. After a Montgomery
turnover, Schreiber shook free on the block for a layup, and
with 2:09 left Penn had its first lead in 17 minutes. The Lions
patiently worked the clock, and John Baumann took advantage of a
Justin Reilly foul to hit two free throws and tie the game with
1:37 left. Bernardini then was hit as he shot a 3-pointer, but
could only convert one of the three foul shots to make the score
65-64. At the other end, as the clock went to its final minute,
Niko Scott drove for a layup and Columbia was up 66-65.
Grandieri put Penn back on top, 67-66, when he rebounded a
Bernardini miss and put it in with 30 seconds left. That left
Columbia with the opportunity to play for a winning shot, but
after a timeout the Lions quickly got the ball to Scott for a
drive. This time he was fouled as he went up, and with 16
seconds left he missed the first but made the second to tie the
game at 67-67. That set the stage for Penn's final points.
“JACK EGGLESTON'S FIRST-HALF
BUZZER-BEATER”: Penn 84, Lafayette 70 (January 6, 2009)
Trailing
21-19, Penn got treys from Tyler Bernardini and Zack Rosen
which started a 12-point run and gave the Red and Blue a 31-21
advantage. The run continued after an Andrew Brown three, as
Bernardini hit a pair of free throws and then Jack Eggleston
went on a personal five-point streak that ended with a trey at
the halftime buzzer, putting Penn up 38-24. The second half was
more of the same, as Penn countered a Lafayette deuce with four
3-pointers, building up a 50-26 lead before the half was three
minutes old. Nine minutes later, the Quakers' lead was still
66-44 when Lafayette went on a 17-4 run, closing the gap to
70-61. However, Eggleston hit a big-three pointer as the shot
clock wound down, and the Leopards were unable to get closer
than 11 after that, as the Quakers made good on their foul shots
down the stretch, earning an 84-70 victory. Click
to watch Jack Eggleston's
first-half buzzer-beater.
“CAM'S PUT-BACK JAM”: Penn 59, NJIT 40 (January 17, 2009)
Brennan Votel
and Harrison Gaines each scored 15 points to lead Penn to a
59-40 win over NJIT, sending the Highlanders to their 51st
consecutive loss, since it defeated Longwood on Feb. 19, 2007.
Tyler Bernardini added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the
Quakers, who won for the third time in their last four games.
Isaiah Wilkerson finished with 15 points and five rebounds for
NJIT (0-18), while Gary Garris had 11 points. The teams traded
the lead early on, but Penn closed with a 9-4 run to take a
25-18 lead at the break. The Quakers then took command early on
in the second half, using a 17-4 run to pull away from the
Highlanders. Penn also won the battle of the boards,
outrebounding NJIT 38-29. Cameron Lewis provided the offensive highlight with an
emphatic offensive rebound slam dunk, midway through the second
half. Click
to watch Cam Lewis' put-back jam.
“KEVIN EGEE'S MIRACLE
BUZZER-BEATER”: Penn 51,
Columbia 50 (March 7, 2009)
Kevin Egee sank a 35-footer
at the buzzer to give Penn a 51-50 victory against Columbia.
Egee's shot capped a second half that had eight ties and seven
lead changes. Penn pulled to within 49-48 on Zack Rosen's
two free throws with 41 seconds to go. Noruwa Agho made a free
throw put Columbia ahead 50-48 with 3.2 seconds left, setting up
Egee's long-distance winner. Egee finished with 15 points for
Penn and Jack Eggleston scored 12. Rosen had 10 points. Kevin
Bulger led the Lions with 10 points. Columbia went up 45-37
-- the biggest lead of the game -- on Bulger's layup with 6:13
to play. Penn closed out the game with a 14-5 run.
THE FRIENDLY POST-GAME HANDSHAKE:
Navy 73, Penn 67 (December 4, 2009)
Penn kept coming back and coming back during the second half,
but never got over the hump and lost a 73-67 decision at
Navy. The Quakers trailed by eight with 3:28 remaining before a
late rally. Penn was down just 63-60 with less than three
minutes left when Zack Rosen knocked down a 3-pointer, his
fourth of the half and fifth of the game, however, the Quakers
would get no closer. There was a heated exchange, in the closing
seconds, between Navy head coach Billy Lange and Penn assistant
Jerome Allen, regarding a foul call on Navy's Chris Harris.
Fingers were pointed and curse words were yelled, and the heated
exchange even carried over into the post-game handshake line.
Click
to watch the heated exchange between Navy's
Billy Lange and the Penn coaching staff during the post-game
handshake.
“DAN
MONCKTON'S JORDAN-ESQUE SLAM”:
Albany 78, Penn 60 (December 8, 2009)
Penn got some spectacular baskets -- of particular note, how
about Dan Monckton's Jordan-esque slam on the break? -- but the
Quakers had all sorts of problems at the other end and Albany kept Penn winless
with a 78-60 victory at The Palestra. Albany did not seem to have much trouble
scoring, shooting 54.1 percent from the field (33 of 61) and
nailing six of its 13 three-point attempts. Leading 39-36 with
18:49 left, the Great Danes used a 20-7 run to pull away. Albany
shot 57.1 percent (16-for-28) from the field in the second half
while the Quakers were 34.8 percent (8-for-23). Click
to watch Dan Monckton's
Jordan-esque slam.
JEROME ALLEN'S FIRST WIN AS HEAD COACH: Penn
82, UMBC 71 (January 6, 2010)
Penn put together a complete offensive effort at UMBC, and
the result was an 82-71 win over the Retrievers that got the
Quakers off the schneid and put them in the win column for the
first time all season. It was also the first collegiate win for
Penn's interim head coach, Jerome
Allen. Zack Rosen had another monster game, scoring 28 points
including what ended up being eight free throws in the final
minute. The performance was welcomed by a partisan Penn crowd
that made the trip south of Baltimore to witness Coach Allen's first victory.
Click
to watch Darren Smith's 3-pointer to end the first half
and give Penn a 35-33 halftime lead.
“DAN
MONCKTON'S PUTBACK BUZZER-BEATER”:
Penn 55, Brown 54 (January 30, 2010)
Dan Monckton's
putback at the buzzer lifted Penn to a dramatic 55-54 win over
Brown, at the Pizzitola Center. Monckton finished the game with
11 points and five rebounds for Penn. Zack Rosen headed the
charge with 19 points, while Jack Eggleston added 18 points and
nine rebounds. Tucker Halpern came off the bench to lead Brown
with 14 points. Penn shot only 32.1 percent from the floor in
the first half, allowing Brown to grab a 26-22 halftime
advantage. The Quakers trailed 54-53 with five seconds left, but
were able to grab the rebound after Halpern missed the front end
of a one-and-one. Penn then moved down court and Zack Gordon
took a 3-point shot, which came up short, but Monckton grabbed
the board and laid it in as time expired. Referee Kevin Quirk
took a moment to consider what he had just seen, then lowered
his arm and put forth two fingers to signal that the basket
counted. Brown coach Jesse Agel angrily confronted Quirk after
the final buzzer. To many, the shot was released after the
backboard light went on, but with no TV replay monitor
available, the call stood and the Quakers ran off the floor
celebrating. The irony is that the first half ended in almost
exactly the same fashion, except in Brown's favor. On that play, an Andrew McCarthy trey
attempt was snared by Matt Mullery who then put it in at the
buzzer on a bucket that was also ruled good. Apparently, what
goes around comes around. Click
to watch Matt Mullery's first-half buzzer-beater or click
to watch Dan Monckton's
game-winning putback buzzer-beater.
“PENN STUNS #22 CORNELL”: Penn 79, Cornell 64 (February
12, 2010)
In a dramatic
and unexpected turn of events, Penn stunned No. 22 Cornell —
heavily favored to win the game and the Ivy League — 79-64, at The
Palestra.
Cornell was expected to roll through the Quakers, but it
was clear from the get-go that Penn would hang with the Big Red
on this night. The first half was closely contested and Penn
went into the break with a 32-31 lead behind a 5-of-13 showing
from long distance. In the second half, the Quakers shot a
scorching 65.2 percent from the floor, including 6-of-8 from
long range, as they pulled away for the 15-point victory. Penn came out of the locker room
on fire, ripping off 15 straight points to take a 47-31 lead.
The intensity rose dramatically moments later when a tussle
broke out after Cornell center Jeff Foote got tied up with
Penn's Mike Howlett. Howlett was called for an intentional foul,
and the game picked up after a short break. Unfortunately for
the Quakers, the near-fight appeared to light a fire under the
previously listless Big Red, as they scored the next six points,
cutting into Penn's lead. But Penn would not be denied a
monumental upset, as it continued to sink jumpers from deep. The
Red and Blue finished 11-for-21 from beyond the arc, sparked by
Jack Eggleston, who hit four of his five 3-point attempts and
led the Quakers with a career-high 24 points. Zack Rosen added
22, while Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman paced the Big Red with 16
points apiece. Click
to watch highlights of Penn's
15-0 run to open the second half.
“MILES'
ARRIVAL”: Penn 69, Davidson 64 (November
13, 2010)
Freshman Miles
Cartwright scored all 18 of his points in the first half and
Jack Eggleston had a double-double to lead Penn to a 69-64 win
over Davidson in the season opener for both teams. The Quakers
won their opening game for the first time since 2005. Eggleston
finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, plus four blocks.
Cartwright, who also had three steals, came in for Zack Rosen,
who had foul trouble in the first half, but still finished with
15 points. Cartwright missed much of the second half with a
cramp. Tyler Bernardini hit 1 of 2 foul shots to give Penn a
65-60 lead with 24 seconds left. Davidson scored twice more, but
after each bucket, Eggleston hit a pair of free throws. The
Wildcats had four players in double-figures, led by Clint Mann
and Brendan McKillop with 12 points each. De'Mon Brooks had 11
and Jake Cohen added 10. Click
to watch Miles Cartwright give
Penn a nine-point, first-half lead.
Kentucky 86, Penn 62 (January
3, 2011)
For 17
minutes, Penn did exactly what it wanted to do against No.
10 Kentucky. The Quakers got open shots and they hit them.
Defensively, Penn fought hard and made Kentucky work for
everything. As a result, the Red and Blue found themselves up on
the Wildcats, 32-21, and the Rupp Arena faithful were doing
everything they could to exhort their team to get started.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened. Kentucky scored
the last 12 points of the opening half, taking a 33-32 lead into
the break, and the tone was set for the second half. When the
game was over, Kentucky had hit 22 of its final 28 field
goals -- including a staggering 18 of 22 in the second half --
and rolled to an 86-62 victory. Brandon Knight scored 22 points
and Doron Lamb added 16 off the bench for Kentucky.
Penn got 22 points from Tyler Bernardini and 16 from Miles
Cartwright. Click
to watch first-half highlights
as Penn opens up a 29-17 lead.
La Salle 89, Penn 83 (OT) (January
12, 2011)
Ruben
Guillandeaux scored 24 points to lead La Salle to an 89-83
overtime victory over Penn, at Tom Gola Arena. Penn mounted a
furious comeback, using a 17-4 run down the stretch to turn a
72-59 deficit into a 76-76 game at the end of regulation. The
Penn comeback began when Tyler Bernardini (17
points) converted a pair of free throws to make the score
72-61. La Salle's Cole Stefan missed a three-pointer, and at the
other end Jack Eggleston (16 points, 12 rebounds) knocked down a
trey to make the score 72-64. Nearly a full minute went by
before Zack Rosen (19 points) hit one of two foul shots with
1:59 left in regulation. Guillandeaux then missed a layup before
turning the ball over, and Rosen juked a pair of defenders to
shake free for an easy layup. Suddenly, the score was 72-67.
After Tyreek Duren (15 points) knocked down a pair of foul shots
to make the score 74-67, Rosen answered with a trey, making the
score 74-70. Guillandeaux upped the lead to six with two free
throws, but Rosen drained another trey and then after
Guillandeaux missed a jumper at the other end, Eggleston was
fouled as he went up for the tying three-pointer. The senior
forward calmly knocked down all three shots, and the game was
tied with 24 seconds left. The Explorers scored 10 of the first
12 points in overtime, starting with a Guillandeaux three-point
play. His two free throws extended the lead to 86-78 with 47
seconds left. La Salle's Aaric Murray added 19 points, eight
rebounds and five assists. Click
to watch some of the highlights
of Penn's furious
comeback.
“I BELIEVE THAT WE
JUST WON”: Penn 55, Harvard
54 (February 25, 2012)
The amazing senior season for
Penn's Zack Rosen continued as he sank two free throws with 23.2
seconds remaining to give Penn a 55-54 upset victory over Harvard
before a sellout crowd of 2,195 at Lavietes Pavilion, ending the
Crimson's 28-game home winning streak. Harvard had a chance to
clinch at least a share of the Ivy title with a victory. Instead,
the Quakers (17-11, 9-2 Ivy) moved to within a half-game of the
Crimson (24-4, 10-2) in the league standings. Trailing Harvard by
11 in the second half, Penn was searching for an offensive spark
and got it from Rosen. The point guard scored 14 of his game-high
20 points in the game's final 12:46. The Quakers hit on just 8 of
19 from the field in the first half and trailed 30-24 at
intermission. Harvard upped its lead to 35-24 early in the second
half, but the Quakers cut it to one point, 37-36, with a 12-2 run.
Rosen capped the spree with a long three-pointer. The Quakers
stayed within arm's reach through most of the second half,
although they still trailed by eight, 49-41, with 5:58 to play.
The Quakers edged closer until they drew to within one point,
54-53, when Rosen whirled and dropped in a 10-footer with 1:24 to
go. Moments later, with the ball back in his hands, Rosen drew the
foul that put him on the line for the decisive free throws. Kyle
Casey (team-high 12 points) appeared to put the Crimson back in
front with 3.5 seconds remaining when he tossed in a layup.
However, he plowed into Penn guard Tyler Bernardini in the process
and was charged with an offensive foul that wiped out the basket,
much to the chagrin of the animated Harvard fans who only moments
earlier declared, in their favorite chant, “I believe that we will
win”. After the game, as the Penn players emerged from the
visitors locker room with their hands lifted in the air, the Penn
Band started chanting, “I believe that we just won”.