Allen leads Penn to ECAC triumph

NEW YORK -- Call them an "Ivy League" squad if you wish, but the Pennsylvania Quakers are quickly getting national respect as a team unbecoming of its league's negative basketball reputation. As the New York media gushed about Penn's unselfish passing and un-Princeton-like up-tempo offense, the Quakers captured the title of the ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden with a 79-73 win over St. John's Dec. 29. Matt Maloney was on fire, scoring 21 of his team-high 24 points in the first half. After missing his first shot, Maloney hit his next eight. Jerome Allen, Maloney's ballyhooed backcourt mate, took over after intermission to finish with 23 points as the Quakers won their second game against a 25th-ranked opponent -- the first a Dec. 13 win at Michigan. Allen was named tournament most valuable player, joining the likes of Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell and Lew Alcindor. "I don't even deserve to be in the category with those guys," Allen said. Maloney joined Allen on the all-tournament team. The Quakers advanced to the championship game with a 93-58 blowout of Colgate. Former Southern California coach George Raveling called it an "Ivy League education" after his Trojans fell to the Quakers last season. Red Storm coach Brian Mahoney just called it a good learning experience for his young squad against a top-25 caliber opponent. "We still have some work to do," Mahoney said, "but this Pennsylvania team, you can see why last year they gave Florida a heck of a game. They can play in anybody's league." Penn (6-1), which starts five seniors and brings a pair of juniors off the bench, taught the young Red Storm lessons in passing, zone defense and shooting. The Quakers relied on their experience at both ends of the floor to withstand St. John's (7-1), which was in its final tuneup for the Big East season. The Red Storm played three freshmen on the floor at times against the senior-laden Quakers. Felipe Lopez, the highly regarded Red Storm freshman, lived up to his billing, scoring a game-high 26 points while being guarded by Allen, who prides himself on his defense. Against the Wolverines in Ann Arbor, Penn jumped out to a 21-point first-half lead and then held on when Allen hit a shot with 4.4 seconds left. Against the Red Storm, Penn continually took the play to St. John's. As a result of Maloney's hot shooting, Penn raced out to a 12-point lead. But the Red Storm closed to 38-36 thanks to a rare display of zone defense and a 10-0 run shortly before intermission. St. John's cut Penn's halftime lead to one point with a Lopez layup at the buzzer and the two teams returned after halftime to trade the lead back and forth. After the break, Allen took over for Maloney as Penn's star to finish with 23 points. Shawn Trice had a big second half as well, scoring eight of his 10 points, as the Penn guards found him down low. Scott Kegler hit three of four three-pointers, including a huge one from the left corner that staked the Quakers to a 72-64 lead. St. John's called timeout with 3 minutes, 49 seconds left. The Quakers had successfully weathered the Red Storm's charge. Maloney's only three of the second half extended the Quakers' lead to nine, and Mahoney saw the hope of a win slip away. "In terms of that, we weren't poised," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said, "but in terms of handling the ball, not turning it over, making good decisions, I'm spoiled. Because they've been playing the game for a long period of time they know exactly what's expected of them, and I would have been very surprised had they not remained poised at that moment." · FESTIVAL NOTES -- St. John's lost in the finals for the third consecutive year. Kentucky won in 1992 and Georgia Tech last season.?It was the second largest turnout since the event moved to a two-day format in 1977.?Manhattan defeated Colgate in the consolation game, 54-51.?The Quakers are the seventh different winner in the last seven years.