AT COURTSIDE: Pierce passes his crucial tests

Classes were cancelled last Friday, but Penn senior forward Barry Pierce took two of the most important tests of his life. Pierce experienced heart palpitations after taking an elbow to the chest during the first half of the Quakers win over Lafayette nine days ago. However, he was examined during halftime and finished that contest. Last year when the Quakers traveled to New Mexico, Pierce had a similar problem. But he was never examined. This time Pierce and the Quaker coaching staff wanted to make sure the problem was not serious before he practiced or played again. "With the present climate of health problems with the heart, our people were very cautious about letting him play again without being thoroughly checked out," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. So Friday, doctors performed an electrocardiogram (EKG) and a cardiac ultrasound, or echocardiogram. He ran on a treadmill as part of a stress test Monday. These tests determine the cause of the rapid heartbeat. When all the test results were finally in yesterday, doctors cleared him to play against La Salle. They believe Pierce will have no further complications from the injury. He played 25 minutes and said he had no reservations about going full speed. "I figure if you are going to drop, you might as well go full steam into it," Pierce said. "There wasn't any problem. I think everything we were doing was precautionary." Because Penn junior guard Scott Kegler practiced with the first team while Pierce missed time, Dunphy gave Kegler the starting assignment. Kegler responded by playing his version of the playground game "Around the World." On Penn's first trip down the court, he buried a trey from the right corner. Next time down he sank a three from near the top of the key. Minutes later he hit from the right corner. Timeout La Salle. Penn led 14-2, and Kegler had doubled his season average in just over four minutes. But Kegler, like a locker room shower, did not stay hot for long. He hit just one more shot the rest of the game. Pierce, on the other hand, started off slow and saved his heroics for the end. The Quakers were in danger of letting this one slip away. When Eric Moore missed a pair of free throws with 11.4 seconds to go, the Explorers had one final chance to send the game to overtime. As Explorer point guard Paul Burke dribbled to halfcourt, though, he decided to pass the ball to his left. Pierce jumped in the air and stole the ill-advised pass with eight ticks left, and the Quakers grabbed a share of the City Series Championship. "I thought he was calling timeout," Pierce said. "I was just trying to hustle back." La Salle coach Speedy Morris also thought Burke might call a timeout. "Why he threw that pass, I have no idea," Morris said. "He played his heart out. He doesn't make good decisions all the time. He is human." Pierce too looked very mortal most of the night. He only notched eight points and three rebounds. "I haven't been able to practice all week," Pierce said. "It is frustrating because I wasn't in the flow of practice, and I really wasn't that much in the flow of the game." Yet, when the Quakers needed him, Pierce stepped up. When a 16-2 La Salle run cut the Penn lead from 22 to just eight, Pierce stopped it with a three-point shot. Then when La Salle closed the gap to 57-55, Pierce bulled his way into the lane, drew a foul and hit both free throws. "If anybody can take off a week and then respond pretty well, I think it is Barry," Dunphy said. For any test Pierce has control over, he is likely to pass. Fortunately, he also passed those important tests that he could not control.