AT COURTSIDE: Despite freshmen hype, veterans were the heroes

While most of the attention was on Jordan, Langel and Owens, returning starters Lyren, Kreitz and Romanczuk stole the show. It is fair to say that since the first pre-season game two weeks ago versus the Converse All-Stars, Penn's highly-touted freshman class of Michael Jordan, Matt Langel and Geoff Owens has been receiving all the hype. But last night, in the Quakers' 80-74 victory over Towson State, it was Penn's veterans that stepped up for them in crunch time. After the Tigers had whittled Penn's 21-point halftime lead down to three, the Quakers' experienced leaders took over the game. In the final four minutes, all the scoring came from senior captain Jamie Lyren and returning starters Paul Romanczuk and Garett Kreitz, whose two foul shots with 30 seconds left sealed the game for Penn. Posting 24 points in 35 minutes, Kreitz was en fuego all night from behind the three-point line. He drained six-of-10 attempts, including a big trey with a little over five minutes to play to put Penn up by nine. "Tonight was just one of those nights where I was feeling it," Kreitz said. "I mean I was just in a groove and every shot seemed to be going down." Lyren returned for his first official game after breaking his left foot four games into last season to score five points and lead the Quakers with eight assists. The point guard from Wadsworth, Ohio, had the big task of covering the Tigers' go-to man, Ralph Biggs. Lyren felt the key to stopping the 6-foot-6 forward (15 points, four off his average) was to apply constant pressure when Biggs didn't have the ball. "When I guarded him, I just tried to deny him the ball and make it hard for him whenever he was calling for it," Lyren said. "He is an athletic guy, so he is going to get his offensive boards, and I tried to concentrate and keep him off the offensive glass." The other Quaker making an auspicious return last night was Romanczuk, who came off the bench to score eight of his 10 points in the second half. Only playing 15 minutes, the Penn forward, who has been layed up the past five weeks resting his left wrist after surgery, made some dazzling moves around the hoop, helping the Quakers maintain their lead as Towson State fought back. Midway through the second half, the sophomore forward from West Chester, Pa., replaced Jed Ryan. Over the next six minutes, Romanczuk scored seven straight points for the Quakers. Twice he was able to beat the Tigers defenders off the dribble to score reverse lay-ups. While Romanczuk's offense had the crowd dancing in the aisles, it was a heads-up defensive play at the end of the game that impressed Penn coach Fran Dunphy. "I thought Paul picking up the charge was a big play for us in the final minutes," Dunphy said. It was that call that had Towson State coach Terry Truax irate on the sidelines. "We had a mysterious charge called that cost us in the final minutes," Truax said. "I mean that was the only charge called all game, but the Penn player made a good play? I guess." While Romanczuk stood his ground on defense, Dunphy commented that he had hoped to rest Romanczuk a little more in the second half, but could not afford to lose his on court leadership. "He played the bulk of the second half, and I didn't want to play him all that many minutes," Dunphy said. "But he is a veteran player, and he knows what he is doing out there." Certainly, the gutsy defense of Jordan, who lead the team in rebounds (4) and steals (3), had Dunphy singing his praise. But when it came down the stretch, the coach was pleased that his seasoned players raised their game to another level. "Kreitz, Lyren and Romanczuk have all been around a bit longer," Dunphy said. "They should be a little more confident than the other guys are at that particular time. I thought we got some real good efforts from all of those guys and that is what we expect of them."