Quakers keep focus on FDU

Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tom Green knew Marquette thrived on the three-point shot. He knew it long before his Knights traveled to Marquette for Tuesday night's game against the Warriors. Green tried to prepare his players for the outside threat, but FDU still let the Warriors hit a school-record 15 treys in a 96-74 loss. Fairleigh Dickinson is now back to the drawing board. The Knights visit the Palestra tomorrow at 2 p.m. to take on a Penn team that features the three-point shooting of senior guards Matt Maloney, Jerome Allen and Scott Kegler. "Matt and Jerome are just a great one-two combination," Green said. "I'm just not sure who's the 'one' and who's the 'two.' We didn't defend the three very well against Marquette, and I'm sure when Matt and Jerome see that, their eyes will light up." If the Knights (2-2) do not improve their defense against the three-pointer, Penn (2-1) may find it relatively easy to light up the scoreboard. Last Saturday against Ohio State, the Quaker guards combined to hit nine buckets from international waters in a 91-71 victory. "I thought our offense has been flowing well all year," said Maloney who is two points shy of 1,000 for his career. "We were getting good shots, but they weren't falling. Against Ohio State, the shots just started going down." FDU is well aware of Penn's success in the backcourt, and the Knights will try to make things as difficult as possible for the Quaker guards. FDU has its own backcourt firepower in the person of senior guard Antwan Dasher. Dasher led the Knights in scoring and assists last season en route to Northeast Conference first-team honors. This year he is averaging 14.5 points, 3.5 assists and 1.9 steals over four games. The versatility of his game has helped his transition from the point position to shooting guard this season. "We're expecting that by January he'll play shooting guard all the time," Green said. "We're doing it to take advantage of what Antwan can do best, and that's score." If Dasher can neutralize the Penn backcourt, the Quakers will need production from their frontcourt. In its first three games, Penn has seen senior center Eric Moore carry most of the weight. Moore has averaged 14.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game while forwards Shawn Trice and Tim Krug have been inconsistent. If there is a game for Trice and Krug to improve their output, tomorrow's contest is it. The Knights lost all three of last season's frontcourt starters to graduation and were plagued by a lack of post play in losses to Florida International and Marquette. "We're hoping in general that our frontcourt will start playing well," Penn assistant coach Gil Jackson said. "Against good teams, if we want to play well, our frontcourt has to contribute." If the Quakers are to play well tomorrow, they cannot afford to take FDU too lightly. With Michigan on deck, the FDU game falls between two contests against Big Ten opponents -- but Penn insists focusing will not be a problem. "We went to FDU last year and they played us tough," Moore said. "Everyone here is talking about Michigan, but we're still talking about FDU. We've got to get a win we can take to Michigan."

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