Cherry bombs

After opening the year on JV, Garett Kreitz is a starter Penn guard Garett Kreitz has a simple recipe for three-point shooting. "Keep it on your fingertips and pick cherries," he says with a smile. This advice was given to him by Princeton alumnus James Brangan, one of Kreitz's earliest basketball coaches and a two-time all-Ivy selection in the late 1950s. It just took a year and four games into his college career for the 6-foot-1 sophomore to put it into practice. Kreitz, who started the year on the junior varsity squad, leapfrogged into the varsity starting lineup when then-starting guard Jamie Lyren broke his foot against Penn State on Dec. 9. He has made the most of his opportunity, averaging 12.4 points per game as a starter and leading the Quakers with a 43.2 percent success rate from behind the arc. Kreitz will get the chance to display his skills in prime time when the Quakers take on Big 5 rival St. Joseph's tonight at 7 p.m. at the CoreStates Spectrum. "It took us four games and an injury to realize Garett could step in and do a good job," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "He just needed the chance and the opportunity and now, with somebody else's misfortune, it became Garett's opportunity." Kreitz spent most of his freshman year warming the bench behind Penn's famed backcourt duo of Jerome Allen and Matt Maloney. However, he learned from his elders. In limited action, Kreitz shot 11-for-16 from the floor, including three treys against Cornell. But at the start of this season, the economics major had taken a step backwards. After spraining both of his ankles at the end of the summer, Kreitz came into practice unprepared and out of shape. He was demoted to the junior varsity squad. "I wasn't totally prepared for the season when it began," Kreitz admitted. "I did a little work down with the JV and got everything back, and now here I am." Kreitz has been involved in sports ever since he could walk. He takes after his father, Donald, who was a three-sport athlete in college. They younger Kreitz was quarterback of his high school football team, "getting beat up all the time," and played baseball until his junior year. Basketball, however, was always his first love. Kreitz chose to attend Penn because of the combination of NCAA Division I athletics and Ivy League academics. However, until watching the Quakers defeat Nebraska in the 1994 NCAA Tournament, he had never even considered the school. "That was my first experience with Penn," Kreitz said. "They played hard defense, and their offense was open to players' own styles." Long-range bombs have not always been Kreitz's specialty. In fact, at Cresskill (N.J.) High School, he spent more time under the basket than behind the arc. But at Penn, Kreitz has benefitted for players like Ira Bowman, Donald Moxley and Lyren, who can drive the lane, then dish the ball outside, complementing Kreitz's catch-and-shoot style perfectly. The Quakers will need his defense as much as his long-range touch when they square off against St. Joe's tonight. Though the Hawks lost all-time leading scorer Bernard Blunt and three-time Atlantic-10 rebounding champ Carlin Warley to graduation, they still boast a senior backcourt-frontcourt combination of guard Mark Bass and forward Reggie Townsend that will be difficult for the Quakers to counter. The duo combines to lead St. Joe's in almost every offensive category. "They have a lot of weapons," Dunphy said. "We're not going to just focus in on one player." Penn plans to stick to its man-to-man style, but has been practicing several different zone defenses. However, Dunphy is unsure about the ability of the Quakers to match up with the Hawks. "I don't think we're going to be able to shut down a player like Reggie Townsend, but we've got to limit him and limit how Mark Bass can hurt us," Dunphy said. "You have to hope nobody goes crazy against you." Penn has already faced players on their way to career nights and suffered for it. Against Penn State, it was Pete Lisicky, who sank 9-of-10 three-pointers. Troy Matthews of Southern Methodist had a similar performance. The results -- two blowout losses for the Quakers. The team is determined to keep that from happening again. "I've been seeing a lot of heart and dedication," Bowman said. "There's a lot of learning going on, and I think that's important. Everybody wants to contribute in their own way." Lyren will have his broken foot X-rayed again on Jan. 18 and is expected to return in early February. Kreitz intends to make the most out of his opportunity. While he acknowledges the fact that Lyren will probably return to the starting lineup, Kreitz does not want to return to the background again. "Before, I was just trying to prepare the starters for their upcoming opponents by taking on their roles in practice," Kreitz said. "Now I have to step up and accept the challenge that the players behind me are posing. They're trying to get me prepared." And all that preparation has paid off. Kreitz has been making three-pointers look as easy as cherry pie.