Quakers lose to Florida

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- True, Florida was the Penn men's basketball team's opponent in Saturday's second-round game in the NCAA Tournament. But when all was said and done, and the Quakers came out on the short end of a 70-58 result in front of a sellout crowd of 16,204 fans at Nassau Coliseum, Penn could not admit the Gators won the game. Because the Quakers beat themselves. Penn (25-3), which two nights earlier had played its best all-around game of the season in whipping Nebraska, was a victim of poor shot selection and an ice-cold shooting night from junior guard Matt Maloney as the Quakers' phenomenal 1993-94 season came to an end against third-seeded Florida (27-7). While the season was one for the record books, Penn will leave it with a bad taste in its mouth, for Saturday's game was one the Quakers could have -- and many say should have -- won and earned a trip to Miami for a Sweet 16-matchup against Connecticut. "I give them some of the credit, but I think that a lot of [the blame] lies on ourselves," said junior guard Jerome Allen (23 points, five assists, three assists, four turnovers). "We didn't do too good of a job executing our cuts and other things." The Quakers were disappointed after the game because they felt they should have won. And they very well may have if they had shot higher than 30.8 percent from the field. But Penn was still within striking distance as the game wound down. Down 58-54 with two minutes to go, senior Barry Pierce, playing in his last collegiate game, stole an errant Gator pass. The Quakers had a chance to get closer. The Penn faithful roared as their team came up the court. Maloney (10 points, 4 for 21, 2 of 16 three-pointers) was open for a trey on the left corner. As his shot went up, the overwhelmingly pro-Penn crowd was praying for one, just one, of Maloney's threes to go in. Clang. But Penn still had another chance, as a held ball gave the Quakers possession again, still down four. Allen then pulled up 30-plus feet away and launched a prayer. In and out. "You take bad shots," Allen said. "I'll admit I didn't realize I was that far out. But if you remember the shot, it almost went in, so do you think you'd be calling it a bad shot if it went in the basket? I don't think so." But Penn was still alive, as a Dametri Hill free throw lifted the Gators to a 59-54 lead with 1:32 left. There was still plenty of time, the Quakers did not need to force anything. But Maloney did, missing another long bomb. Allen got the rebound and launched another three. Clang. Those four misses in one minute's time sealed Penn's fate. Its season was over. "We knew we had our work cut out for us because at this level, and at this time of the season, a team isn't going to make a mistake and give you the game," Pierce said. "We took more shots in the second half but we still weren't getting it done." It was hard to believe the Penn team that showed up for Florida was the same group that dismantled Nebraska just two nights earlier. The Quakers were able to handily defeat the Cornhuskers because they shot the ball incredibly and handled the ball impeccably. But against Florida, the Quakers could neither hit the basket nor hit each other in the passing lanes, as they turned the ball over 15 times, most of which came due to miscommunication between players on cuts to the basket. For the game, Penn shot an unimpressive 30.8 percent from the field -- the Quakers' worst showing of the season by far. One reason for that was Penn's shooting from outside the three-point arc. Penn only connected on 8 of 37 shots from long distance, good for 21.6 percent effectiveness (the second-worst showing of the season). And while the poor shooting is something the Quakers could have improved upon, give the Florida defense some credit. Not only did the Gators constantly switch and mix up their defenses, limiting Pierce to 10 points (zero in the first half), they also did a commendable job of taking away the Quakers' inside game. On the evening, the Florida frontcourt limited the Quaker big men (juniors Shawn Trice and Eric Moore, senior Andy Baratta and sophomore Tim Krug) to only 15 points on only 14 shots. Moore himself equalled that point total against Nebraska. But the key difference between games was Florida had big men, while Nebraska did not. And "big" is an understatement when it comes to Gator center Dametri Hill. The 6-foot-7, 290-pound Hill, who makes Roseanne Barr look as skinny as Elle MacPherson, used his girth to deny the Quakers entry into the paint. Hill and Florida center Andrew DeClercq made sure no Penn player had an easy bucket inside. "I think DeClercq is one of those underrated players," Dunphy said. "He just does so many things. He influenced a lot of shots defensively, I just think that he is a fine basketball player. Hill is just a tough son-of-a-gun to defend in there. He's a wide body, it's difficult for our guys to get around there." The contribution from the Florida frontcourt was not limited to the defensive end. Hill used his round and wide body to establish inside position all night. And once Hill got the ball in the lane, he could not be stopped. He poured in 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting (6 for 9 from the foul line), all of which came from within four feet of the basket. For Gator coach Lon Kruger, this was an added bonus for his team. So while Florida was effective inside the paint, Penn was forced to rely on the outside shot, as 37 of its 65 total shots were behind the three-point line. And when the majority of your shots come from a place where you're only shooting 21.6 percent, it doesn't take a genius to figure out you'll lose. "We played, I thought, fairly well," Dunphy said. "We just didn't shoot the ball. We had a number of good looks, but the ball just didn't go in the hoop. The shots that fell on Thursday just didn't fall tonight.?We're not a great interior scoring team, so we're not going to go away from things that we do best." The three-point shot is a powerful weapon. But as it's often said, "If you live by the three, you die by the three." And while the Quakers died a slow death Saturday, Florida used the trey for a key run in the second half to put some distance between itself and Penn. With the Gators holding a tenuous 44-43 lead with nine minutes to go, Gator guard Dan Cross (22 points, 10 for 10 free throws) sunk two shots from the charity stripe. Penn missed a shot. Florida guard Craig Brown then calmly drilled a three from the right corner. The Quakers missed again. Brown, who had scored only three points in the game's first 31 minutes, was now open in the left corner for another three-pointer. Swish. Florida 52, Penn 43. Dunphy was forced to call timeout, and the Quakers never got closer than three points the rest of the way. "[The run] could have gone either way," Kruger said. "[Penn] just as easily could have gone on a run and then we would have been playing from behind." But the fact was the Quakers were the ones trying to come from behind Saturday. And when you make only 30 percent of your shots, and your ace long-range shooter is firing blanks, it's quite hard to shave points off an opponent's lead. When you have a night like Penn did Saturday, beating the team lining up against you takes a back seat to battling yourself. And as the most successful Penn season in 15 years ended Saturday night, the Quakers lost on both counts.

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