Quakers sweep Yale and Brown, extend Ivy lead

On a typical blustery February weekend in New England, the rest of the Ivy League saw the same mundane result to which it has become way too accustomed. This time it was Yale and Brown who fell victim to Penn, which saw its unprecedented league winning streak grow to 34 games. To successfully become only the eighth team in college basketball history to reach 1,400 all-time wins, the Quakers needed to knock off their two closest Ivy competitors on each one's home court. Friday, it was Ira Bowman's coming out party that enabled Penn (13-3, 5-0 Ivy League) to finally pull away from a stubborn Elis squad and escape New Haven with a 66-55 victory. The next evening, it was Matt Maloney who picked up the slack and poured in a Pizzitola Center record 36 points to lead the Quakers past a skilled Brown team, 95-83. "There's no question we're pleased with how this weekend went," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Both Yale and Brown were 3-1 going in, so if we slipped a little bit either night it would almost mean that we'd be tied with either one of the two of them. It was a big weekend for us." A young Yale squad gave the Quakers all they could handle early on Friday night. With some sloppy play on offense and the slow pace of play the Elis inflicted on the game, Penn headed into the locker room with just a 30-25 advantage. Even more surprising for the Quakers, their outstanding backcourt trio of Jerome Allen, Matt Maloney and Scott Kegler was held in check. Kegler nailed the threesome's first field goal with only 2 minutes, 22 seconds left in the opening stanza. With the backcourt struggling to find open shots, the frontcourt increased its share of the responsibility. Eric Moore, Shawn Trice, Tim Krug and Bowman chipped in with two field goals apiece to enable Penn to stay ahead. "For once, in the last three years this may be the first time we outmatched our opponents inside size-wise," Penn forward Tim Krug said. "We had an edge there and tried to take advantage of that." Despite the strong play in the blocks, Yale (7-9, 3-3) was not about to simply give in to the powerful Quakers. On the strength of a Gabe Hunterton three-pointer from the top of the key, the Elis jumped in front of Penn and took a 36-35 lead with 15 minutes left in the contest. Yale was never able to extend that advantage beyond a single point, however. The chief reason was the play of Bowman. With the outcome of the game still in doubt, the junior stepped up his play in all areas. With the score knotted at 38, Bowman weaved into the paint and buried a foul-line jumper. Minutes later he backed up a couple of feet to nail a three from the top of the key that opened up Penn's lead to five. The Quakers never looked back from there. "Ira's a talented player, there's no question about that," Dunphy said. "He took over in that one second half stretch, which was pretty impressive. In our situation, someone is going to have to pick it up every night. Tonight it was Ira's turn." Bowman's entire game was also spectacular. After that deadly three, he fired a beautiful pass to Krug who finished it off with a dunk. Then Ira was rewarded for his own hard work. After stripping the ball from a Yale guard and deflecting it to Allen, Allen gave it back to Bowman who threw the ball -- and the hopes of the Elis -- down at the other end of the court. "I pride myself on being a complete player," Bowman said. "My goal is to play in the flow of the game. It's not like I go out and try to score 20 points and grab 10 rebounds. I just try to take what they give me." The whole Penn team applied this philosophy the following night in icy Providence. Whereas Yale played a slow-down defensive game, Brown (9-9, 4-2) tried to run the ball up and down the court. The only problem with that strategy for the Bears was that never found a way to stop the Quakers. Brown ran enough to tally 83 points, but never led nor seriously threatened in the game. "The way Brown plays, it's more of an open game," Dunphy said. "They want to try to score with us, so obviously your offense can have a little more freedom. But it's up to us to score." This time it was Maloney and Moore who provided the punch for the Penn attack. Maloney, en route to a 36-point effort (one short of his career high of 37 against American), wasted no time heating up the frozen city of Providence. By the time the first half came to a close, with Penn holding a 43-33 lead, the streaky guard had connected on 6 of 9 attempts, including two from beyond the stripe. Meanwhile, joining Maloney as a threat from downtown, center Eric Moore also connected on a pair of threes on his way to a 13-point half and a 23-point night. "I always look for the three-point shot," Moore said. "It's important for me to be successful from there and establish the inside and outside games. I know I can shoot the three. Tonight, I got some good looks." While Moore was solid, the evening clearly belonged to Maloney. Bouncing back form a sub-par effort against Yale, the senior guard was simply in a zone against the Bears. The greatest effort of all came on a driving move toward the hoop where Maloney was clobbered by Brown's Joel Koplik. After being fouled, Maloney threw the ball up over his head high off the glass and straight into the hoop. It was a sight to be seen. "I wanted the ball every time up the floor," Maloney said.