Penn spoils O'Hanlon's return visit

Quakers never trailed Lafayette in blowout Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon received a rude homecoming at the Palestra yesterday, as the Leopards fell to Penn, 74-57, in a game that was over shortly after it began. O'Hanlon -- a Penn assistant coach for six years under Fran Dunphy before he was made Lafayette head coach this past season -- has had a trying season in his head coaching debut, with his team dropping 13 of its first 15 games. And the season became even more frustrating last night when his Leopards (2-14), playing every bit like its record would indicate, were blown out early by the Quakers. "It's just a matter of time before his team is going to win a lot of games," Dunphy said about his former assistant and long-time friend. "I think he's one of the finer coaches I've been around. It's never easy in this situation to play against someone this close. You try to block it out." Initiating the rout was Penn forward Tim Krug who scored the first six points of the game. But what solidified the blow out for the Quakers (5-6) was the continued strong play of Quakers guard Donald Moxley, whose double-double -- 19 points and 10 rebounds -- was more than the Leopards could handle. The Leopards never held the lead at any time, and were down 41-18 at halftime. Dunphy admitted he knew most of Lafayette's offensive sets because they were the same sets that Penn uses, but denied that the information led to the Quakers' first-half defensive prowess. Instead, Penn's head coach credited the team defense of his Quakers. "Fran [O'Hanlon] installed most of the stuff we ran when he was here for that six years," Dunphy said. "We were very familiar with it. There was only a few things that we changed for the games in our sets. So he knew most of the stuff we would run as well. We did a pretty good job in team defense in the first, but I don't think that was a result of knowing what they would run." Most impressive for the Quakers' defense was limiting Lafayette star Craig Kowadla (17.5 points per game) to five first-half shots. Penn guard Ira Bowman, freshman Garett Kreitz and Moxley, were largely responsible for corraling Kowadla. Bowman also ignited the offense a number of times with seven steals. For the game, Penn scored 33 points off Lafayette turnovers, while the Leopards only earned nine points in that category. "I think our defense was very good in the beginning of the game," Dunphy said. "We took some chances that were calculated, and we came up with some steals, and we got some easy baskets off them. I thought that's how we scored most of our points." The most controversial play of the game came off one of Lafayette's 22 turnovers. Bowman -- after stealing the ball from Lafayette -- was going up for a slam dunk when he was knocked to the ground by Leopard forward L.J. Bennett. The referees, to the delight of the fans, called an intentional foul on Bennett. Bowman, though, did not make much of the play after the game. "It's something that looked a whole lot worse than it actually was," the Penn star said. "You do not want to give up an easy bucket. I don't think there was any intention of fouling me hard. He just went after the ball the best that he could." With Penn opening a big lead -- it reached 32 points at one time -- the Quakers were able to trickle in the subs. Freshman forwards Paul Romanczuk and Jed Ryan each enjoyed 17 minutes of playing time. Romanczuk played well, scoring 10 points in his short stint. However, Ryan struggled, misfiring on all four shots he attempted. "I think [the freshmen] are coming along," Dunphy said. "There are still some mistakes being made, but we're going to have to live with them because they are going to be the future of our program." · Dunphy also admitted last night that injured Penn guard Jamie Lyren might be lost for the season. "It looks like he might have to go with surgery," Dunphy said. "The decision will be made in a couple of days. Of course if that happens, he would be gone for the rest of the year."

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