AT COURTSIDE: Quakers stay over .500

With these two victories, the Penn men's hoops team will place fourth. Penn had been officially eliminated from the Ivy League race the week before, and Princeton had already wrapped up the league title. So for the first time since 1991-92 season, the Quakers entered the final week of the season with nothing to play for but their pride. That was more than enough this weekend, as they rolled to two impressive victories over Columbia and Cornell. With these wins, Penn guaranteed itself a winning record within the Ivy League. The Quakers also locked up fourth place in the conference, continuing a streak that began in 1968-69 of finishing fourth or better in the Ancient Eight. But Penn aims higher than fourth, and with this year nearly over, the Quakers are already getting ready for next season. "It is the first time in a number of years where we haven't had a chance late in the year to be a champion," coach Fran Dunphy said. "It's no fun for us, but hopefully we're preparing for next year." Penn is trying to do that by closing out this season on a high note. The team has now won three of its last four games and by sweeping this weekend, the Quakers won consecutive games for the first time since they beat Yale and Brown on January 10 and 11. Despite not having a shot at the Ivy title, the team is still motivated, according to guard Garett Kreitz. "I think it's a different type of motivation," Kreitz said. "We're more motivated to show people that we are a good team rather than motivation for a championship. In that sense, it's different. But you have to go out and try to win every game." Penn did that against Cornell and Columbia by jumping out to quick leads. With 11:30 gone Friday night, the Quakers were up 27-8 against the Big Red. The next evening, they blitzed the Lions early and led 26-5 with 11:20 left in the first half. Facing a fired-up team in a hostile gym, neither Cornell nor Columbia could recover. "They played with a lot of fire and intensity and we had a difficult time stopping them," Cornell coach Scott Thompson said. "I think they got the momentum going, and we had a hard time bringing it back to our side." Paul Romanczuk was the offensive star for Penn. The sophomore forward scored 37 points in the two games, racking up 18 against Cornell and 19 -- along with 10 rebounds -- against Columbia. But the outstanding aspect of Penn's play over the weekend was its balance on offense. Five Quakers reached double figures against Cornell, and four scored 10 or more against Columbia. "I'd like to take a look at statistics throughout the course of the year, of how we did when four guys got double-figure points," Dunphy said on Friday. "Tonight we go five, which is obviously even better. But we need that balance in order for us to be a good team." For the record, Penn is 7-0 when it has four or more double-digit scorers. Three of those games have come in the last two weekends, which might indicate that the Quakers are starting to come together -- and that next year might bring more of the same type of basketball. "Every game we've got to go out and improve," Kreitz said. "Next year? we'll start off in a better position. We'll have a team that knows each other." Tomorrow night's season-ending game at Princeton should tell Penn something about where it stands against the league's best heading into next season. "It's a terrific way for us to end our season this year, to play against the best team in the league, the team that's going to the NCAA tournament," Dunphy said. "It just gives us an indication of how far we've got to go to be of that caliber. It's a terrific basketball team, and one that is a great rivalry for us, so we'll certainly use it in the best way we can."

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