AT COURTSIDE: Trice sets tone at Palestra

He set the tone for the weekend during the first possession Friday against Yale. The Quakers worked in their offense, and senior captain Barry Pierce missed a bank -- he came down with the offensive board. Penn had another opportunity. Junior center Eric Moore put up a shot and missed, but there he was again with the offensive boards. Although the Quakers did not score on that first possession, the tone for the weekend was already etched in stone. After the Elis took an early 2-0 lead, the Quakers pushed the ball up the court. Moore let a shot fly from behind the three-point arc and missed. This time, Shawn Trice grabbed the offensive board and put it back himself. "He's been rebounding the ball very well," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I'm very happy for him. He's been playing very well. He's stepping up and showing what kind of player he can be." Trice may not be as heralded as the three prime-time perimeter Quakers, Pierce and junior guards Matt Maloney and Jerome Allen, but he is quickly gaining fame. Against Dartmouth last weekend, he ripped down a team season-high 17 rebounds. And this weekend, he grabbed 20 boards while also pouring in 27 points, both team highs. Although he may not have received public acclaim for his efforts in the past, Trice may finally be gaining similar fame to these other Quakers, for he became the first Penn player to gain a nickname on ESPN Friday night as Shawn "Not once, not twice, but" Trice. But regardless of any accruing popularity, the junior forward still credits the more famous Quakers for his success. "Jerome, Matt and Barry -- [the defenses] are picking up on them," he said. "That's giving me a lot of room to work and an opportunity to score." But this is not the whole story. Trice created his own scoring opportunities time and time again by crashing the offensive boards. In fact, Trice scored 13 points on putbacks when his fellow Quakers missed shots. And most of the other baskets came when Trice muscled in a basket or nailed jumpers over the outstretched arms of his defenders. The Elis stayed close in the beginning of the contest, but then Trice singlehandedly extended the Penn lead from eight to 13 in less than a minute. Trice drew a foul on Bernie Colson and made both free throws. Trice muscled a shot in the paint. Then Trice was fouled on a fastbreak. "After last week [when we beat Harvard by only one point], we came back and practiced really hard," he said. "We're not going to have any more let downs for the rest of our games." And Trice made sure there would not be any letdowns. Even during the streaks when the Quakers were shooting poorly this weekend, he was there. Against the Bears, he amassed more offensive rebounds then the other 14 Quakers did combined. "If the guys don't get a body on me, I think I can get to the boards," Trice said following the Yale game Friday night. "They didn't put a body on me, so it opened up the middle and I crashed the boards." And Trice gave the Quakers another scoring opportunity.