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Win 2nd straight title In the end, Barry Pierce said it best without saying anything at all. Climbing the ladder near the Quaker basket, the Penn senior captain cut down the remnants of the net, draped it over his neck and extended two fingers to the crowd. It was Pierce's last home game in a Penn uniform and it proved to be a fitting way to go out. The No. 25 Quakers beat Princeton at the Palestra last night, 53-43, clinching their second straight Ivy title and NCAA tournament berth. But it wasn't easy. Penn (22-2, 12-0 Ivy League) clung to a two-point lead at the half, and with the rejuvenated touch of junior guard Matt Maloney, protected a slim margin for all but 36 seconds the rest of the way. While Maloney, who finished with 24 points, was hot, his Quaker teammates had trouble finding the basket. Penn shot just 20 for 61 in the game. But as much as they were struggling offensively, they turned in one of their finest defensive efforts of the season. Princeton (16-8, 9-3) only managed to get off 35 shots in the game, in large part due to the 21 Tiger turnovers forced by the Quakers. "We turned up the defense," Quaker assistant coach Fran O'Hanlon said. "We usually play them very well defensively and I thought we did a great job tonight. "In the second half, especially with about 10 minutes to go, I thought we turned it up just even another notch?.They were kind of hesitant on the perimeter as far as throwing passes because we were getting either a hand on it or stealing it." As good as the Quakers were defensively, they still only led by one point with seven minutes left. Junior center Eric Moore took it outside, nailing a three to put Penn up 44-40. But Princeton senior captain Chris Mooney answered with a three of his own, again bringing the Tigers within one. Then Maloney took over. With less than four minutes left, he patiently dribbled around the arc looking for a seam. Finding one as he neared the left baseline, he drove past Princeton point guard Mike Brennan and hit an improbable leaner in a crowd. "Matt hit a three-pointer and Matt hit a little driving shot on the left baseline that really had no chance to go in, and it went in," junior guard Scott Kegler said. "Once he hit those two, I knew we'd win it." The sellout crowd, which had been waiting all season for a game like this, erupted. After Maloney's drive, it didn't seem possible for the Palestra to get any louder. But when junior forward Shawn Trice blocked Chris Mooney's shot on the ensuing Tiger possession, it did. "When [the crowd] really got into it, I think that lifted us," O'Hanlon said. "Toward the end of the game, defensively we're playing very hard, but we need a little boost. Your energy is down and I think the crowd just came into it and picked us up. You could see the whole team pick up a little bit." With 1:41 left and Penn leading 46-43, Maloney again found himself with the ball in his hands. When he was unable to get the ball inside to Pierce in the post, the junior guard drilled another three-pointer, putting the game out of Princeton's reach. For their part, the Tigers were most ungracious guests. At first they showed up late, and for a while it looked like they might never leave. Princeton arrived at the Palestra just an hour before the scheduled tipoff and for the games first few minutes, the question was still, "Where are the Tigers?" Penn, thanks mostly to Maloney's three-point bombs, opened up an 8-2 lead faster than Princeton coach Pete Carril could say, "Yoda." Maloney led the Quakers with nine first-half points -- all from three-point land. The Quaker lead didn't last very long, though. Princeton junior center Rick Hielscher, who was held scoreless in the team's first meeting this season, was having none of that last night. The lanky pivot man twisted and spun his way to nine points in the first half as Princeton erased the deficit and opened up a lead of its own. Hielscher carried the Tigers on his back offensively, scoring 21 of Princeton's 43 points. "The effort was there," sophomore forward Tim Krug said. "I give Rick Hielscher a lot of credit. He's had some tough games against us in the past and he just played really well. I tried to get position on him. They were setting good baseline screens to get him open and then he was just able to shoot over me, and there was nothing I could do." When Sydney Johnson hit Princeton's second straight three-pointer at the 8:44 mark, the Tigers held a 19-16 advantage that they kept for most of the half. The Quakers are not used to playing from behind this season, and they showed some signs of nerves in the first half. During one stretch, the Quakers turned the ball over on three straight possessions. "I think we were in a hurry to win the game," Kegler said. "We just wanted to win so badly, and in the first look at the basket we were putting shots up a little too quickly, and that's why a lot of them didn't fall." But it was senior night at the Palestra, and the two Quaker elder statesmen, Pierce and forward Andy Baratta, did what seniors do -- set an example. They established Penn's intensity in the game's first few seconds. Baratta fought off a Princeton defender to control the opening tip and found Pierce, who hit a jumper in the lane to give Penn the first lead of the game. Then, at the end of the second half, when the Quakers had a chance to take the lead for the first time in nine minutes, it was Pierce again, battling for the offensive rebound and laying it in, giving the Quakers their 25-23 halftime lead. When the game was over, Baratta talked about his final game in the historic Palestra. "It's like a storybook ending," he said. "It's like Magic hitting a three in the all-star game. You can't write it any better than that. I don't think in anyone's wildest dreams they could ever come up with a better ending to a home career than that." The stoic Pierce, however, was already looking ahead. "It was good. We won and we played hard," he said. "But we still have a lot left to do, so I think this is going to be a starting point. "I think this year we want to go and do something a little bit more than just win this title. We want to go out and prove to ourselves that we can play with the best competition in the country." And as the first team in the nation to clinch a NCAA Tournament bid, the Quakers will soon have their chance.

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