Penn holds off Tigers in '96 opener

Guard Garett Kreitz's 17 first-half points led the Quakers to a 21-point halftime lead over Towson State. Last night, the Penn men's basketball team restored a glimmer of hope in the eyes of the Palestra faithful that the Quakers will return to the NCAA tournament this March, defeating a more experienced Towson State squad, 80-72. Penn freshman guard Matt Langel brought the crowd to its feet as he swished his first shot from downtown to put the Quakers on the scoreboard. After Towson State center Ryan Lexer answered by converting a layup on the other end, a George Mboya jumper put the Quakers ahead once again by a 5-4 count. From that point on, Penn never again trailed. The Quakers built a 21-point first-half lead with impeccable shooting from beyond the arc by junior long-range bomber Garett Kreitz along with solid team defense. Half of the Quakers' 30 first-half shots came from beyond the arc, and a respectable seven found their way to the bottom of the net. "If Garett Kreitz is making [five] threes in the first half, I hope he can get that many off," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "That's what we do best. I'm not very creative, so I go with what we do best." But the Tigers fought their way back in the second half behind forward Derick Newton's strong shooting, timely offensive rebounds from 6-foot-6 forward Ralph Briggs and a little bit of their own three-point medicine. Towson State senior Florian Schneider's third score from downtown in the second half cut the Quakers' lead to a mere eight points with eight minutes remaining. And six minutes later, Newton cut the Quakers' lead to just three points, 73-70, after bucketing both ends of a one-and-one. The Tigers made a final effort to catch Penn by sending several Quakers to the foul line. And it took clutch foul shooting in the final two minutes of play by Kreitz, guard Michael Jordan and forward Paul Romanczuk to seal the victory. "I think our team defense wasn't as hard in the second half," Penn guard Jamie Lyren said. "We are going to have to put together two halves of defense to be successful." Although Penn's defense in the second half was not up to par, Quakers fans still appeared pleased by their team's effort in the season opener, especially by the play of the three-guard set. With three guards on the court, the Tigers struggled all evening to stop Penn's offense. In the first half, Kreitz kept on finding himself open from behind the arc and nailed five three-pointers for 17 first-half points. "They basically said to me that I'm open and I'm free to shoot it," Kreitz said. "Tonight was just one of those nights when I was feeling it." In the second half, the Tigers defense started putting hands in Kreitz's face. The junior guard, however, adjusted by throwing several cross-court passes to Lyren, who would drive to the basket and find the open Quaker, usually Mboya, Romanczuk or freshman center Geoff Owens. Dunphy also countered by inserting Jordan into the line-up and allowing him to drive to the hoop and draw fouls. The most impressive part of Penn's offense was its ability to move the ball, even though Kreitz and Romanczuk were the only players in the Red and Blue lineup that have seen real game minutes together on the floor in the past. Lyren led the way for Penn in the assist category with eight, several of which came on Princeton-esque backdoor screen passes to Mboya. Freshman Matt Langel also added seven points and five assists, showing that not only can he spot up from behind the arc, but he can also put the ball on the floor. At times in the second half, it looked as if the freshman would sooner defer to Mboya and Kreitz than put up the shot himself. Another positive for Penn was the play of their Owens, who added nine points in just 12 minutes, mostly by posting up on the shorter Lexer. Owens's strong play was especially important for Penn, which was forced to played without forward Frank Brown who is still recovering from knee surgery. The big question still on the minds of Penn basketball aficionados is which is the real Penn Quakers team -- the one that shot the lights out en route to a 21-point lead at the half,or the one whose defense was so suspect that it almost managed to let a 21-point lead slip away. Saturday's game against Lehigh should give a better indication of whether or not Penn can step up the defense for a full 40 minutes, because the Engineers will not field as much competition as the Tigers did.

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