Centennial is certainly no celebration

Penn coach Fran Dunphy has said all season that every game would be a struggle for the Quakers. Anyone who didn't believe him before this past weekend has to believe him now. Penn managed only a split of two home games against Brown and Yale, two teams who had just three Ivy League wins between them before visiting the Palestra. The Quakers (9-12, 5-4 Ivy League), managed to do enough to get by the Bears on Friday, 58-47. But the next night, the Elis stole what appeared to be a certain Penn victory in the final seconds and emerged with a 60-58 win. This was a game the Quakers had in their hands. After taking a 27-24 halftime lead, they continued to slowly build their lead in the second half. When Michael Jordan hit a jumper with 10:18 to play, Penn took a nine-point lead, 49-40. But Yale (9-13, 2-11) scored nine straight over the next 2:52 seconds. Daniel Okonkwo, who had been held to two points in the first half, erupted for 14 in the second half, most of them from the inside. His tip-in and jumper tied the game at 49-49 with 7:26 remaining. "We did not defend him very well," Dunphy said. "We kept him off the foul line, which I was pleased with. But there was a stretch there where we didn't do a good job of stopping his thrust to the basket." The Quakers regained a five-point lead on a Jordan jumper and three free throws from Garett Kreitz with 4:42 left. Two more foul shots from Kreitz (19 points) gave Penn a 58-55 lead with just 26.9 seconds left. Then everything went wrong for the Quakers. Junior Gabe Hunterton hit a three from the top of the key to tie the game. Jordan came right back and drove the lane at the other end, getting the ball to Owens under the basket. But the rookie was called for a charge with just 1.5 seconds left. It was a questionable call from Penn's perspective, but the worst was yet to come. Quakers guard Jamie Lyren was called for a push on Hunterton, who was trying to catch a baseball pass near the Penn foul line. Lyren did have his arms on Hunterton's back, but his push did not appear to be much more than a nudge. "I thought I was going to catch it and have a chance to get a shot off," Hunterton said. "Jamie Lyren put his hands on my back and gave a little shove and the referee called it." Hunterton hit two free throws to put Yale ahead, 60-58. Penn had a chance to tie, when Romanczuk cleanly caught a long inbounds pass about 15 feet from the hoop. He turned and fired, but missed everything as the buzzer sounded. "I caught the ball, and I guess I figured I'd be contested a little bit, and I missed the shot," Romanczuk said. "There's not much else I can really say about that shot. I had to opportunity to tie the game and I didn't." Dunphy was still upset about the calls against Owens and Lyren. "For us not to win the game, a series of four things had to happen, all of them to go against us," Dunphy said. "All four of them did, with Hunterton making the shot, with Geoff getting an offensive foul to give them the ball back, to a foul on Jamie Lyren that ... you don't make that call at that point." It was Penn's third Ivy home loss in four games. The last time the Quakers dropped three league games at the Palestra was during the 1990-91 season. "If we're playing at our best, and we're at home, you'd think we can win the game," Dunphy said. "But we're not playing at our best." Although not at their best the night before, Penn did escape with a win over Brown. "I think we do have some people who are not quite understanding how important every single contest is," Dunphy said after the Brown game. "And to take it a step further, every possession of every game." Dunphy tried to correct that and motivate his players after last Tuesday's loss to Princeton by reminding them how quickly their college basketball careers will go by. But it didn't seem to have much of an effect early on against the Bears. The Quakers jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead,but then Penn froze, going scoreless for the next 7:15. Fortunately for the Quakers, Brown (3-19, 2-8) couldn't do much offensively either. The Bears failed to take full advantage of Penn's drought and scored just six points during the stretch. Both teams shot 10-of-28 from the field for the first 20 minutes and Penn held a 24-21 lead at intermission. It was as if the teams were celebrating Penn's basketball centennial with a score from a hundred years ago. The Quakers hit in the second half, connecting on 12 of 26 shots. Kreitz and Jed Ryan opened the Penn scoring with two three-pointers, and a steal by Romanczuk led to a layup for Jordan, giving the Quakers a 32-24 lead. "We were swinging the ball pretty well," said Kreitz, who led all scorers with 15 points. "We just weren't knocking them down. I think they had to come out of their zone because we were getting so many open looks. " The most encouraging aspect of the game for Penn was the play of freshman center Geoff Owens, who finished with six points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots. He also avoided foul trouble and played 35minutes. "Just [having Owens] on the floor is a nice luxury to have," Dunphy said. "Because he's got great size, he can block some shots and he can change some shots." But Owens is a freshman, and things didn't go quite as well Saturday against Yale. He fouled out late in the game after seeing only 23 minutes of action.

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