M. Hoops rolls in Buffalo massacre

Quakers rout Bulls at Alumni Arena BUFFALO, N.Y. -- At the end of an up-and-down first half, the Penn men's basketball team led the Buffalo Bulls 35-27 last Monday night at Alumni Arena. Then a heat wave struck frigid upstate New York in the form of a Quaker burst to open the second stanza. Penn scored the first 21 points of the half and rolled the rest of the way to a 77-52 blowout. Penn (15-2) was led by a somewhat unusual cast of scoring leaders, paced by junior forward Shawn Trice's 14 points. Junior forward Eric Moore chipped in 13 points on the strength of 5-of-6 shooting, while junior guard Scott Kegler added 12, hitting on 4 of 5 three-pointers. Senior forward Barry Pierce also notched double digits with 10 points. To go along with Trice's team-leading scoring effort, he also tied a career-high with 12 rebounds, including five on the offensive end. But the story of the game was not to be found in simple statistics. Instead, it was one of the best halves of basketball the Quakers have played this season. Had everything gone as the first several minutes of the game suggested, that half might have been the first. After six minutes and 35 seconds, the score stood at 12-0 in favor of Penn. For the rest of the first period though, the Bulls (5-16) outscored Penn by a 27-23 count, led by ultra-quick 5-11 point guard Modie Cox. Turning virtually every Quaker miscue into a fast-break opportunity, Cox repeatedly sliced through the Penn defense for easy baskets. He scored 13 points before intermission, including nine of Buffalo's 11 over one four-minute stretch. Cox finished the game with 19 points, as well as nine rebounds and four assists. "The first half was tough," Pierce said. "We didn't get back on defense well enough. I think we played into their hands by playing man-to-man because their little guard could play make, control the tempo and dish off." A switch to zone defense to open the second half was just what the doctor ordered. After shooting well in the first half, Buffalo made just 8 of 39 shots in the second. "Our zone defense really bothered them," Pierce said. "They weren't getting shots they wanted and they couldn't run it down our throats like they did in the first half." At the same time, Penn's offense was also shifting to a higher gear. The Quakers began to execute smoothly and their shots began to fall. Before long, Penn was the proud owner of a 32-point lead. "Our defense is pretty solid every game," Moore said. "When we run our offense well, everything takes care of itself." With the game bordering on a rout, Quaker substitutes began pouring into the lineup. Even without the first-stringers, Penn was able to increase its lead. The widest margin of the game came at 75-38 after a Bill Guthrie layup with 4:11 remaining, and the Penn bench played the rest of the way. "The second half was the best we played all weekend," Trice said. "We talked about getting the other guys in because they hadn't played all weekend. Our bodies are tired after all the games, so it was good to get a big lead." Even more of a story than the backups is star junior guard Jerome Allen's playing time, which has been decidedly less of late. Suffering from a strained right shoulder, Allen saw limited action in Saturday's game against Cornell. Last night, Allen watched Scott Kegler take his starting role for the second straight game. Allen played 23 minutes to Kegler's 20, but did not appear to be at his best, finishing with just three points. "I'm just happy to play at all," Allen said. "I'm not too sure about how much coach [Fran] Dunphy's going to use me?.I came out in the first half trying to show that I can play even with my shoulder, instead of just coming out and doing the things I can do." Even without the services of a completely healthy Allen, the Quakers were nearly unstoppable in the second half. Indeed, after an Ivy weekend that was surprisingly difficult, it appeared that the Quakers took out their frustrations on the hapless Bulls, although Pierce disagrees. "When teams come into the Palestra they're going to come after us hard," Pierce said. "You're not really going to see a 20- to 30-point blowout by us in the Ivy League this year." Fortunately for the Quakers, they are more than happy to get that blowout on the road -- in this case, Buffalo.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.