Maloney's threes slay Princeton

Long after Barry Pierce paraded around wearing the clipped down net for a necklace, Matt Maloney was still fielding questions. "Do you remember that play in the second half when?" he was asked yet again. Maloney hesitated, trying to recall the play. This time, however, the question was not from a reporter. It was from his father. Jim Maloney works as an assistant basketball coach for Temple, but he couldn't pass up an opportunity to teach his son a nuance of the game. "I always give him advice," the proud father said. "He is in a maturing stage. Fran Dunphy and his staff do a great job with him. My advice is little things. His father is a coach. If your father was a doctor or a lawyer, he would certainly give you advice." Last night Maloney took care of those little things. He also did some big things. With the score tied at 39, he drove past Princeton freshman guard Sydney Johnson for a layup. Then he penetrated into the lane and drew the defense, only to kick it back out to Eric Moore for a wide open three. "When you get in the lane, you have to be under control," the elder Maloney said. "You just can't get in there and throw it up and say, 'Find the basket.' Princeton is hard to get in there against, but he got in there because he was under control." Penn led 44-40. Chris Mooney's three-pointer cut it to 44-43. From that point on, Maloney was the only player to score. After missing a pair of three-point shots that would have signaled the death knell for Princeton, Maloney tried again. The shot hit net. The crowd went berserk. Maloney had seen the Palestra crowd in a frenzy before. As a kid, he went to games at the Palestra when it was packed in the corners. This atmosphere was part of the reason he picked Penn when he left Vanderbilt. This season, however, the cheering has sometimes turned to jeering for Maloney. Against Temple, his poor shot selection was a major factor in Penn's loss. Ditto for the Ohio State game. Was Maloney capable of stepping up in the big game? "I told him you have to measure your own success," Jim Maloney said. "You can't let other people measure you." Maloney felt he played well in those two games, but the shots just didn't fall. Last night they did. And with Pierce and Jerome Allen struggling, Maloney could have been tempted to force shots. He didn't. He also turned the ball over just once. This game came down to a half-court struggle, and only Maloney consistently created offense, scoring 24 points and dishing out four assists. He scored nine of the Quakers' first 16 points, and his three-point shots forced the Tigers to play him tighter. He closed the game by burying four free throws. Maloney is a perfect 29 for 29 from the charity stripe this year in an Ivy League game. His defense also frustrated the Tigers as Johnson was unable to get the ball from the point to the wings without Maloney contesting the passes. One pass he took three-quarters of the court and spun past Chris Mooney for a layup. It was the only fast-break basket for the Quakers all night. "I was reading that pass from the point to the wing all night," Maloney said. Maloney planned to celebrate the win by reading his Spanish book the rest of the night to prepare for today's midterm. First, however, he would get a few lessons from his dad about basketball.