Great Games in Penn History: Dec. 2, 1985

After the Penn men's basketball team's 63-54 victory over Southern California last night at the Palestra, Quakers head coach Tom Schneider was understandably quite happy. His team had just beaten the defending Pac-10 champion Trojans with a flurry of last-minute, momentum-shifting, game-winning heroics. Timely free-throw shooting, sharp defense and smart bench play spearheaded the Quakers' attack as Penn rallied from an eight-point deficit midway through the second half to its second victory of the new season. But there was more than on-court elements sparking the Quakers (2-0) in their come-from-behind charge to victory. Sometimes it takes a little behind-the-scenes inspiration. Schneider gave the Quakers all they could handle in a halftime locker room tirade. "I was not real happy at halftime," Schneider said. "We let down defensively and on the boards the last couple of minutes in the first half." "At halftime, Coach had some choice words for the team," sophomore forward Phil Pitts (11 points) said. "He basically said, 'No one is going to give us anything easy. Let's not give them anything easy, either.' " In what would be a fiery first half of play, the Quakers got off to a snail's-pace start and quickly fell behind, 10-2, after the game's first five minutes. Penn speedily rebounded, however, shutting down the USC offense in another five-minute stretch, and bounced back to capture its first -- and only -- lead of the half, at 14-12. But the Trojans were hardly ready to call the battle quits. While combining for 21 of USC's 29 first-half points, forwards Derrick Dowell and Tom Lewis led the charge back, hitting the boards and the basket with a flurry of outside jumpers and inside layups. Penn lost its lead, and it lost its positioning beneath the basket. By the end of the half, the Quakers had dug themselves a five-point hole, at 29-24. Schneider prepared to dig them out of it. "Coach was basically upset at the defense -- we weren't doing the job on the 2-3 zone," freshman forward Jon Stovall explained. "[USC] was getting two or three shots on us. They hit on lob plays behind the zone -- that hurt us a little bit. We weren't doing a good job with our weak-side rebounding. [Schnieder] was upset with the way the game was going." "It was a lack of concentration," Pitts added. "They were getting a lot of second shots. Overall, we needed to do a better job boxing out." Whatever the problem, Penn was still searching for an effective solution when it found itself on the short end of a 42-34 margin halfway through the second stanza. At this point, Schneider felt his team needed another dose of inspiration. He called timeout. Whatever transpired over at the bench in those few moments left Penn in the proper frame of mind. With fresh determination, the Quakers returned to a fail-safe plan of action -- each player doing what he can do best. Which translated on the floor as Chris Elzey arching 18-foot jumpers from the left side of the key; Bruce Lefkowitz battling for inside baskets and taking fouls; and the entire Quakers contingent crashing the boards and scurrying for loose balls on the Palestra floor. The combination was timely, necessary and deadly. Down by 46-40 with 5:23 remaining in the game, Penn mounted the game-winning rally. Lefkowitz reached for a rebound off of a Lewis jumper and was subsequently fouled over the back by Dowell. At the other end of the court, Lefkowitz sank both free throws. On the ensuing inbounds play, the Quakers pressured USC with a trapping defense. Trojans freshman guard Greg Kimble, a graduate of Dobbins Tech in Philadelphia, surrendered the ball to Stovall, who alertly passed to Pitts under the Penn basket. Pitts wheeled under the net, around the sideline and gently lofted the ball up away from Dowell. Fouled in the act, Pitts turned the three-point play and the USC lead was cut to one, 46-45. "We were coming off the press," Stovall explained, "and I just saw the ball, saw the steal. Phil was cutting to the basket. After the shot and free throw we were down by one. It was a turning point." "I just laid the ball up," Pitts said. "I let it off the glass softly. Coach is always hollering at me for dunking the ball. I just put it on the backboard and it paid off -- I got three." With a chance to pad its slim advantage on the next possession, USC again coughed up the ball to Stovall and company. With a loose ball on the floor, Stovall and Elzey fought off their Trojans counterparts until Stovall could whisk away the ball into the hands of an unguarded Lefkowitz. "We were all down on the floor," Stovall said. "I saw the ball and everyone rushed for it. I thought it was going to be tied up -- I just kept pulling. And then I saw Bruce standing there with his hands open." "That was a big play," Lefkowitz said, "but Stovall is going to be a big-play player for Penn. The box score doesn't show the kind of things Jon did, the kind of things this team is capable of doing." The Trojans found out exactly what Penn capable of doing. With the ball secure in Lefkowitz' hands, the Quakers took advantage of another timely timeout. After the courtside huddle, Penn moved the ball once again to Elzey, who once again sank a 17-foot jumper from the left side of the key. The basket gave the Quakers a lead that they would never again relinquish. While Penn forged ahead, the defense would hold the Trojans off the scoreboard for two-and-a-half minutes. Falling completely apart in the last five minutes of the game, USC would score only six points. For Penn, on the other hand, everything came together, especially at the foul line. Twelve of the Quakers' last 16 points were earned at the charity stripe. But no matter where they came from, they were hard-fought and well-earned. "This is good -- this is one of the reasons I believe Penn has one of the premier basketball programs in the country," Stovall said of the victory. "We're not really an Ivy League team. We can play ball with any team in the country. We go out there to play. In the second half, we wanted to win more than they did. It didn't seem like they made the effort to get ahead." It was a far cry from the Quakers' last skirmish with the Trojans. "We got thrashed," recalled Elzey, who led the Quakers with 20 points and eight rebounds. "We played SMU and got beat by 30 points. Then we lost to USC by about 20 [82-62]. They kept calling us 'Ivy League so-and-sos.' " "The games were similar," Lefkowitz said. "That game we came out on the short end. They were a better club then -- they have more talent now -- but they played harder two years ago. When we went out there we had three freshmen [Elzey, Lefkowitz and Abe Okorodudu] playing. This time, with the game on the line, we go to juniors. That's the difference. "We deserve a lot of credit for this victory. We played harder, we did the things we had to to win in the end. That's representative of a mature team -- that's what we are now." "It's a sweet victory," Schneider said, understandably happy.