Penn runs past Lehigh

Bowman ignites Quakers fast break in scoring bonanza In what is becoming a regular occurrence, the Penn men's basketball team exhibited a terrifically-balanced offense in its victory yesterday over Lehigh. Six Quakers reached double figures in scoring, combining for 85 points in the 90-73 defeat of the Mountain Hawks. "I think we did some good things, and I'm pleased with that," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "But we've obviously got to tighten some things up." One Quaker whose performance did not require any improvements was Ira Bowman. The senior swingman led Penn with a stat line for the history books: 19 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and -- perhaps most impressive -- 0 turnovers. The 11 assists were a career-high for the senior and just two short of the Penn single-game record, set by Dave Wohl against Brown in 1970. Eight of Bowman's assists came in the first half, when Penn (10-6) sprinted out to a 13-point lead. The Quakers repeatedly ran on Lehigh (3-17), pushing the ball quickly up court and getting numerous easy points. Many of them came on highlight film-type plays, with Bowman wreaking havoc on defense and inspiring awe on offense. "He's quick," Hawks coach Dave Duke said of Bowman. "He can play the point. He can do a lot of things. He creates shots for the other guys." With the game tied at eight, Quakers forward Paul Romanczuk spun and scored on a short shot in the lane. Seconds later, a Bowman steal resulted in a layup for Romanczuk, who wound up with a solid 15 points and eight rebounds. Minutes later, Penn center Tim Krug grabbed a rebound and found Bowman open downcourt for an easy dunk. On the Quakers next fast break, Bowman made a theatrical no-look pass to Romanczuk, who converted another layup that gave Penn a 16-10 lead and brought the 1,825 Quakers fans on hand to their feet. "Penn did a real nice job," Duke said. "We didn't react. Getting back on defense was something we talked about." A similar sequence rocked Lehigh later in the half, after Hawks guards Rashawne Glenn and Brett Eppeheimer hit baskets to cut the Quakers lead from 11 to seven points. After a Lehigh miss, Bowman pushed the ball upcourt. He looked to his right, faked and made a sensational pass ahead to Moxley for an easy two. "The unselfishness of this team is that when you get an opportunity to help one of your teammates out, you do so," Bowman said. "I take a lot of pride and am really appreciative of their effort to get out and try to reward them, especially if they're running the floor." In fact, the only disappointing -- and embarrassing -- aspect of Bowman's play in the first half came with fewer than three minutes left, when, after another steal, he blew a wide open dunk. He made up for it on a fast break seconds later when he hit Krug, who made a tough layup in traffic that put the Quakers up, 47-34. Dunphy sat Bowman on the bench for the rest of the half. And when Lehigh guard Sean Tuohey hit a buzzer-beating three-quarter court bomb, the Hawks trailed by only 10 points, despite all of Penn's open-court blitzes. Lehigh center Kirk Hodgson had 11 tough interior points for the Hawks, and the guard trio of Glenn, Eppenheimer and Tuohey combined for 23 more. "Stopping their penetration was a very key part of what we were trying to do defensively," Dunphy said. "And we did not do a good job of that. "That's a veteran team that we played tonight. Hodgson did a good job in the first half making shots and scoring points, as did Glenn, so we've got to pay attention." But any chance of a Lehigh comeback evaporated at the beginning of the second half, which featured more offensive fireworks from the Quakers. The ten-point lead quickly ballooned into an 18-point gap within in the period's first five minutes. The formula was similar to the one used by the Quakers in the first half -- steals and layups from Bowman, blocked shots from Krug, a three-pointer from Garett Kreitz and more layups for Moxley and Romanczuk. But the surprise of the second half, and indeed the whole game, was the career performance off the bench from Penn senior forward Cedric Laster, who was a source of great delight for the Penn fans in attendance. Laster, who had contributed seven points in the first half, moved from the inside to the outside and swished all three of his three-point attempts in the second half, erasing any doubts of the outcome. "The more chances I get to be on the court and just relax and get used to playing, I definitely start to get more comfortable with my role on the team," Laster said. "There's not a whole lot of pressure. It's just trying to relax and play good basketball." Besides being career-highs, Laster's numbers -- 16 points and five rebounds -- gave the Quakers an additional threat for which Lehigh had not accounted. "They have been pretty much balanced," Duke said. "We didn't expect Laster to have a good game." Duke was apparently so ill-prepared for Laster that he never learned how to pronounce the senior's name. Throughout the post-game press conference he referred to Laster as "Lassiter." But as long as the Quakers can get six players in double figures and walk away with victory after victory, they probably don't care how badly the opposition botches their names.