Penn blows game down the stretch

Up by eight with one minute, 17 seconds remaining last night, the Penn men's basketball team seemed destined to win its first game of the season. But the way the Quakers have played down the stretch this season, none of the 5,110 fans in the Palestra should have taken a Penn victory for granted. After forward Ugonna Onyekwe sank 1-of-2 free throws to put Penn ahead of La Salle, 59-51, the Explorers took advantage of sloppy Quakers ball-handling and easy looks at the basket to score 10 unanswered and pry a gut-wrenching 61-59 victory from the jaws of defeat. La Salle senior forward Victor Thomas had seven points during this pivotal stretch, including the go-ahead basket with just 24 seconds remaining. "We just made some big plays on the defensive end and pulled it out," said Thomas, who led all scorers with 27 points. "It feels good to finally win a game like this." The comeback began with 1:06 remaining when Penn forward Koko Archibong commited his fifth foul on a Thomas layup, giving the Explorer's forward a three-point play as well as sending Archibong to an early shower. The Explorers pressed on the ensuing inbounds play, and the ball deflected out of bounds off Quakers guard Lamar Plummer's face. After La Salle forward Rasual Butler's uncontested layup brought the game within three, Plummer was stripped by Explorers guard Rasheed Quadri. Thomas took it straight to the hole for a powerful two-handed dunk, making the score 59-58. "We turned it over needlessly a couple times," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We got to be a little stronger with the basketball there. We knew the pressure was coming and didn't handle that as good as we need to." With their lead down to one, the Quakers floundered on offense and were not able to extend their tenous advantage. Freshman guard Charlie Copp, facing undoubtedly the most pressure of his young career, missed two free throws. On the night, Penn missed 12-of-21 attempts from the charity stripe. Later, with about 24 seconds to go, Thomas put the Explorers ahead for good. Starting from the three-point line, he drove toward a mismatched Plummer and sank a running one-hander from inside the paint. "I saw Plummer and my eyes lit up," said Thomas, who stands six inches taller than Penn's senior shooting guard. "I took the high-percentage shot at the right time of the game." Following a several-minute delay to fix the game clock, Copp was called for traveling on a drive into a crowded pack of La Salle defenders. On the ensuing possession, Plummer fouled guard Julian Blanks on the inbounds, who hit the first of two free throws to give La Salle a 61-59 lead before missing the second. Onyekwe pulled down the rebound and then sent the ball up the floor to a streaking Copp, whose 25-footer at the buzzer bounced harmlessly off the rim. "I'm putting a young guy like Charlie Copp in there, and that might not have been fair to him," Dunphy said. "He'll be a good player here, and he'll learn greatly from that." While the loss may have resurrected painful memories of the Quakers' 50-49 collapse to Princeton 22 months ago, close losses have been the bane of Penn's current 0-5 season. Penn lost by three points to Fordham on November 18, and then fell by the same margin in overtime at Davidson 10 days later. Having lost what was a near-certain victory, the winless Quakers seemed pained by their last-minute collapse. "We'll battle back and learn from adversity," Dunphy said.

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