Quakers no match for rested Hawks

Penn fades in second half after hanging close For those fans just catching their first glimpse of the 1996 Quakers against St. Joseph's at the Spectrum last night, it must have been quite a shock. Vigor Kapetanovic was not on the bench, but his younger brother was. (Vigor left the team for academic reasons. His brother is visiting Penn on a recruiting trip.) And Garett Kreitz was the team's leading scorer at the half with more points (8) than Ira Bowman and Tim Krug combined (7). But after halftime, Penn resumed its old ways. The Quakers must have left their diverse offense -- with Kreitz, Donald Moxley and Frankie Brown pouring in 22 points from the guard spots -- in the locker room, because after the intermission, the entire offensive burden was shifted back to Bowman, who scored 17 second-half points. St. Joe's spent the early part of the game building a comfortable lead, which peaked at 13 points nine minutes into the contest. But a timely time-out taken by Penn coach Fran Dunphy gave the Quakers time to settle down. Fifteen seconds after the players stepped back on the hardwood, Kreitz drained a three-pointer. As the Hawks took the ball upcourt, Bowman stripped the ball loose and tossed it the length of the court to Brown who stuffed it home. After two free throws by St. Joe's forward Reggie Townsend, Moxley and Kreitz hit back-to-back treys, cutting the Hawks lead to just four. As the last few seconds of the first half ticked away, St. Joe's guard Rashid Bey spun, twisted and sidestepped his way through the lane and hit a 9-foot running jumper to give the Hawks a 40-34 halftime lead. St. Joe's took control of the game midway through the second half. Any hopes of a Penn comeback were dashed with 1:52 left when Bass, the Hawk's leading scorer with 19 points, nailed a long three from deep in the right corner giving St. Joe's a 82-66 lead. "We're up [13 points]? I couldn't believe that shot!" Hawks coach Phil Martelli said. "It went in. I'm supposed to clap. But I'll be damned, that was a crazy shot." With Bass, Bey and Myers busy bombing away, the Quakers gunners tried to stick with them. But Penn did not come close to matching St. Joe's 8-for-16 performance behind the arc. The Quakers connected on nine three-pointers, but it took them 30 shots. "Obviously, we didn't shoot the ball well from the three-point line," Dunphy said. "That's too many threes we got up there? Thirty's way too many to be taking." Bowman finished with a game-high 20 points, but shot only 6-for-18 from the field and a dismal 1-for-6 from long range. Bowman is not a true point guard, but was forced to play the position with Jamie Lyren sitting out with a broken foot. Asked to score, distribute the ball, run the offense and play defense, Bowman was simply asked to do too much. "We've got a guy playing point guard who I think is one hell of a human being and who works his buns off to get to be a better player," Dunphy said. "He's a little out of position. But I'll take him any day of the week in any position I can get him." The day of the week belonged to St. Joe's. It has been a long time in coming for the Hawks, who last week nearly upset No. 1 Massachusetts, before falling in overtime, and who had a game against No. 18 Arizona cancelled Saturday when the Wildcats refused to travel into Philly in the wake of the snowstorm. "We were upset and we knew we had to take it out on someone," Bass said. "So we just came out tonight and tried to take it out on Penn."