Quakers colder than Ithaca in loss to Big Red

Penn shot 32 percent from the floor with four assists in the second game of an Ivy weekend. ITHACA, N.Y. -- From 1993 to 1996, Penn played Columbia and Cornell 16 times and won every game on their way to at least a piece of four Ivy League titles. But if the Quakers did not already know, they learned last weekend that beating the Ivy League's lesser lights and winning championships is not a birthright. Saturday night in Ithaca, N.Y., Penn did what it least wanted to do, fall a game behind Princeton in the league standings. After a lackluster start, Cornell rallied for a well-deserved 61-54 victory at Newman Arena. The win broke an 11-game Big Red losing streak to the Quakers. Penn (7-9, 3-1 Ivy League) also visited Columbia Friday night, emerging with a 63-56 triumph. Up 14-4 eight minutes into the contest, it seemed that Penn was en route to yet another easy stroll through upstate New York. Quakers freshman center Geoff Owens' two short jumpers highlighted a balanced attack that was slicing through Cornell getting inside looks and three-pointers. And then Penn's offense disappeared, not to return all night. "Our shots weren't falling, but all year long coach [Scott Thompson] has said, 'When your shots aren't falling, play defense'," said Cornell senior forward and captain John McCord, who led all scorers with 23 points and all rebounders with 20. Using the inside skills of the 6-foot-6 McCord, for whom the visitors had no defensive answer, Cornell established a strong inside game. The Big Red scored 10 of their first 16 points from within five feet of the basket. That pattern, combined with strong second-half, three-point marksmanship (5-of-10), continued throughout the contest. With the exception of a 9-0 run beginning at the 10-minute mark of the second half which gave the Quakers their final lead at 40-39, the game was all Cornell. Penn got within three several times, only to have McCord or guard Michael Roberts deliver a clutch basket, including several lay-ups coming from set plays. "We executed all our plays down the stretch and that's the sign of a good team," McCord said. Many of Penn's problems can be traced to foul shooting. The Quakers got into the bonus early in the second half and shot 20 free throws in the final twenty minutes alone. But the defending Ivy co-champions could convert only 11 and finished 13-for-22 in the game (59 percent). "Free throws really hurt us," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "If we're going to win close games, we've got to step to the [foul] line and make shots." But while Penn attributed the loss to foul shots and off-nights for offensive leaders Paul Romanczuk (8 points) and Jed Ryan (7 points), Cornell saw the game only in emotional terms, a reaction to being humiliated 24 hours before by Princeton. Thompson claims his team's defensive stand was not x's and o's, but "enthusiasm and focus. They were embarrassed from last night." Penn's loss to Cornell did not come out of the blue. The signs were visible the night before in Manhattan. Facing a team with less offensive balance, Penn was able to escape Levien Gymnasium with a ninth consecutive win over the Lions. Eight unanswered points in the last four minutes allowed Penn to move to a comfortable 57-46 lead with one minute to play. Still, Penn's victory could have been more convincing had the team's performance from the free throw line been better than 19-of-36 (53 percent). But contributions inside from Romanczuk (game-high 19 points) and outside from Ryan (15 points, 2-of-2 from three-point land) helped preserve the victory. The game was marred by sloppy play throughout. Penn's defense on Columbia's star guard, C.J. Thompkins, was good enough to hold the Ivy League's leading scorer to 16 points (five below his average). Still, the main problem for both teams was not suffocating defense, but simply finding a good shot before turning the ball over. Each team was charged with 16 turnovers and they combined for 20 steals. Penn point guard and captain Jamie Lyren, who had been the only Quaker not to miss a start this season, had his streak broken when Dunphy elected to go with the freshman tandem of Matt Langel and Michael Jordan. Lyren saw only 18 minutes of action in the game. "I want more from him, and I just felt we needed a little bit of a change," Dunphy said. "With that, I thought he played well for us tonight. He made a huge three in the second half that really helped us." But the story of the weekend was not any individual one, but Penn's collective failure to keep pace in the league, a loss that makes every game from now a must-win situation. That's tough for a team with an identity crisis. "We're not real sure who we are," Dunphy said. "I don't know if that's a function of inexperience or not, but that's the way it is."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.