M. Hoops not Laf-ing after shocking loss

EASTON, Pa. -- Lafayette threw everything at the Quakers but the kitchen sink. In turn, Penn looked all but in-sync in last night's 83-79 loss to the Leopards (7-12). The Red and Blue had been slow out of the blocks all season until last Thursday's win over La Salle, but last night's game put them back in sluggish mode and forced Penn to play catch-up. The Quakers have had a special remedy for that situation, bucketing over 50 percent of their shots. For most of the game, Penn's shooting percentage was well into the 50's. Last night, however, Lafayette coach Fran O'Hanlon tried to wash his hands of his Penn background with his window washers, as his Leopards grabbed 15 more rebounds -- including 19 off the offensive glass. And every time the team O'Hanlon was an assistant coach at tried to make a run, his boys grabbed an extra rebound, dropped a deep trey or earned a pair of foul shots to get back in the contest. "We had a seven-point lead at one stretch, and then we threw the ball away, and they came down and scored the next three possessions," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "That hurt us. We had our chance to put some space between us and didn't do it." Offensively, the percentages were there for the Quakers, but the turnovers and fouls were there, too. Penn gave the ball away 15 times, three more than what Dunphy considers the absolute maximum, and committed 25 personal fouls, including a costly technical on freshman center Geoff Owens. What it boiled down to was Lafayette earning its first win against the Quakers since a 83-72 victory six years ago in the same Allan P. Kirby Field House. The Penn offense opened up in all-Garett Kreitz fashion, as the shooting guard logged 7 of the Quakers first 10 points. But one by one, Penn's scoring became evenly distributed as Paul Romanczuk worked his point total to double-digits at the 15:21 mark of the second half. Jed Ryan also got in to the action, nailing 19 points of his own. But Penn had a nagging problem that wouldn't go away -- Lafayette's 6-foot-11, 240-pound Stefan Ciosici. The Quaker's own 6-foot-11 answer to that problem, Owens, was in immediate foul trouble, and fouled out with 7:38 to play. Meanwhile, Ciosici bullied his way inside for easy lay-ups, totalling 24 points and 12 rebounds. For every Quaker that got on the board, Lafayette had someone to answer. For every Quaker that could shoot the three or rumble down low, the Leopards had someone who worked just as hard, if not harder. Dunphy attributes it to his defense, or lack thereof. "We're not a good defensive basketball team at this point,"Dunphy said. "I think that was exposed tonight." "It didn't look like O'Hanlon took a page out of Dunphy's book -- it was as if O'Hanlon went and took the entire book. Seven of his players scored over six points, with three in double-figures. His offense moved as quickly and as patiently as Penn's, with similar schemes. "Penn is difficult to defend because we play a match up," O'Hanlon said. But we had to stay with the zone. "All the things we run, they run. So, we knew what they were going to do, but I don't think that it was that much of an advantage." But O'Hanlon's team accomplished their goal, and jumped out to a 12-5 lead, and increased that lead to eight points on the back end of a free throw by Ciosici. The Quakers slowly played catch-up until one of Jed Ryan's three three-pointers fell to give Penn a 30-29 lead. Penn would close with a 34-32 halftime lead. Twice in the second half, the Quakers began to run, opening up seven- and a six-point leads, but within three minutes of each gap, the Leopards fought back. After tying the game at 70 with just over five minutes to play, Lafayette built up their own six-point lead, and would never look back. Penn had cut it to a two-point deficit with one minute to play, but Ryan intentionally fouled Lafayette's Ted Cole, who bucketed both ends at the stripe. Penn continued to intentionally foul despite being over the 10-foul limit, and the Leopards made enough of the free chances to put Penn away for good. "We turned the ball over 15 times," Dunphy said. "We had enough open looks. Lafayette made their shots at critical times, and they did a good job on the offensive glass and we didn't." O'Hanlon claims that the Quakers came out flat, but the Leopards proved that there is no longer a laugh in Lafayette.