After spending six seasons as a Penn assistant under Fran Dunphy, Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon has a deep respect for the Penn basketball program. He was attempting to guide his squad to a victory over the Quakers for only the second time during his tenure at Lafayette and the first time at the Palestra. However, O'Hanlon found himself on the short end of an 88-68 decision that was keyed by a well-balanced attack by the Red and Blue. Nine Quakers notched at least 10 minutes and all scored more than five points on the night as Penn cruised to their 35th win in 38 games with the Leopards. "I'm such a fan of Dunph and such a fan of their program," O'Hanlon said. "But when you get in the game, though, you're just trying to have your team play well. I'm not thinking about Dunph at all, I'm just thinking about my team and can we play well."
Lafayette (9-4) scored the first five points of the game, but the Quakers (6-4) rebounded to gain control of the first half behind the inside play of their frontcourt. Senior Adam Chubb and freshmen Mark Zoller and Ryan Pettinella combined for 24 points and 13 rebounds in the first half. Senior guard Jeff Schiffner and junior guard Tim Begley contributed mostly on the perimeter with 15 points in the first 20 minutes as the Quakers tallied 50 points for the half -- one more point than they scored in their 49-48 victory over Manhattan in the championship game of the Dreyfus Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. "It's nice that our interior guys got some opportunities to score tonight," Dunphy said. "But we have to be a real balanced team in order to be a successful team, so we're very happy with this victory. I think that's a well-coached, a good basketball team, and we have to be balanced in order to beat them." At the start of the second half, Lafayette went on a 9-2 run, powered by six points from sophomore guard Pat Betley, to narrow the lead to five points less than two minutes into the period. However, the Quakers responded with their own 14-4 run that pushed the lead to 15 points with 12:40 to play in the game. The Leopards would get no closer than that 15-point deficit for the remainder of the game. After his eighth victory in nine years over his former assistant, Dunphy expressed that he does not particularly like coaching against O'Hanlon. "I think so much of him as a person," he said. "I don't particularly like it. I'm glad that the two institutions play, but when it's over I'm very grateful so now I can go back to rooting like crazy that they win the rest of their games." NOTES: Chubb was tied for the game-high with Lafayette senior guard Winston Davis with 17 points and the senior captain was also perfect on seven attempts from the free-throw line. Lafayette has three wins over Ivy League squads this season -- an 87-79 win over Cornell, a 47-44 win over Princeton and an 82-73 win over Columbia.
