Play it again, Fran

A Penn win tonight over PrincetonA Penn win tonight over Princetonwould give the Quakers a share of A Penn win tonight over Princetonwould give the Quakers a share of the Ivy League title and force aA Penn win tonight over Princetonwould give the Quakers a share of the Ivy League title and force aone-game playoff for the NCAA bid The entire season comes down to two teams meeting in one game. The pressure and hype is immense, and the game is expected to be nothing less than an all-out war. But that's the way it should be. The Penn men's basketball team (16-9, 11-2 Ivy League) will take on Princeton (20-5, 12-1) tonight at 9 p.m. at the Palestra with a task that sounds simple. Win the game, become Ivy League co-champions, and force a one-game playoff with the Tigers Saturday at Lehigh's Stabler Arena for the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Lose the game, and that's all she wrote. The Tigers would go to the tournament for the first time in four seasons. The Quakers got their assignment Saturday night. Penn was hoping for some help from the opposition last weekend. The Quakers admitted to watching the scoreboard following their victory over Cornell Saturday. Columbia took Princeton to the wire, before falling by only two points. And the Quakers knew they would have to defeat the Tigers two more times to get to the Big Dance. "We put it aside as a team, not to hope for any miracles," Penn forward Cedric Laster said. "We just assumed it was going to come down to us and them and prepared for that." The Quakers have had only two days to prepare for this monumental contest. However, Penn has been working towards tonight's game all season. "This game has been in the back of our minds, like a goal we needed to get to," Laster said. "We've definitely got to come out attacking. We can't afford any kind of loss of focus or intensity, especially against Princeton." The Tigers have the best scoring defense in the country, allowing their opponents only 51 points per game. The Quakers compared the tight defense they will face tonight to the tough matchup zone played by Temple. Against the Owls, Penn faltered on the offensive end, making only 22.8 percent of its shots from the field. The Quakers know they will have to be more accurate tonight. "Their athletes are not as tall, as fast or as long as a Temple athlete would be," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "The Princeton defender is probably three, four inches smaller and wouldn't get there as quickly. We hope our chances are a little bit better. We just have to make shots. If we execute and get ourselves in good position to get shots, hopefully we'll knock them down." This will probably be a low-scoring affair, thanks to Princeton's notorious slow-it-down half-court offense. Compared to Penn, who saw three players -- seniors Ira Bowman, Tim Krug and Donald Moxley -- in the top 10 in Ivy League scoring, the Tigers are not an offensive threat. The Tigers are led by center Steve Goodrich, who scores 11.1 points per game, and guard Brian Earl, a freshman who has surged recently, adding 10.3 ppg. However, this may not be a game based solely on Penn's offense against Princeton's defense. Though Princeton may have the overall edge on the defensive end, the Quakers have moved ahead of the Tigers on field-goal defense, stopping almost 60 percent of their opponents' opportunities. "We can defend as well as anybody we play against, and our defense is what springboards our offense," Laster said. "Whoever gets the hot hand will have a good chance at pulling it out." Both teams will be coming into this game with renewed intensity as a result of the traditional rivalry between the two schools. Penn has beaten Princeton seven straight times. No current Tigers player has ever beaten the Quakers. In addition, despite all the success Princeton coach Pete Carril has had in his 30-year career, Penn remains the only Ivy team against which the veteran coach does not possess a winning record. "It's a special rivalry and one we're really looking forward to," Dunphy said. "If we weren't in contention or we had it clinched like we had the last couple of years, it doesn't take on the same significance, yet it's still Princeton. These kids will rise to the occasion." This is the first time these two teams have met in the final game with the Ivy title on the line. "We can't give them anything easy," Laster said. "We have to come out and get it rolling right away, not be stagnant at all. We've got to take it like it's the last game we're ever going to play." If Penn loses tonight, it will be the last game of the season for the team. Regardless of the result, Moxley, Laster, Krug and Bowman will be playing the final game of their Penn careers at the Palestra tonight. "I want to get to winning first and think about this being my last home game later," Laster said. "We want the league championship. We want to go to the tournament. We've got to win here to get there."

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