Hawks and M. Hoops: MJ vs. Bey

Penn men's basketball is looking for its fourth win in a row when St. Joe's comes to the Palestra Saturday night. Looking at their schedule earlier in the week, the Quakers realized they had some house-cleaning chores scheduled. On Tuesday, the Quakers (7-8) accomplished their first job with a 79-65 win over Drexel. The second task comes against St. Joseph's (5-7) tomorrow evening in a game at the Palestra. The Quakers, winners of three straight and four out of their last five, are playing their best basketball so far this season. On offense, each player in the starting line-up is averaging double figures in points per game, and the team has scored 70 or more points in nine of their fifteen games. Along with this well-tuned offense, Penn's improving defensive play has denied opponents the ability to comeback from deficits. Although they lack size with the missing presence of 6'11" inch sophomore Geoff Owens due to health reasons, the Quakers are playing with more maturity and experience as compared to last year and earlier on this season. "In the more recent games we have really picked up our defense as a team," senior guard Garett Kreitz said. "We have been concentrating more down the stretch in close games." Against St. Joe's last season, the Quakers were unable to pull it together down the stretch, losing 66-61. With 3.5 seconds left and the Quakers down by one point, a steal by the Hawks' Duval Simmonds on a pass from Penn guard Michael Jordan to forward Paul Romanczuk sealed St. Joe's victory. "We didn't close the game out very well down the stretch," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "They made a couple of big baskets. When it comes crunch time, the team that wants it the most is the victor. Hopefully we are really wanting it these days." The same team went on to win the Atlantic 10 Championship, as well as advance all the way to the sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. After defeating Pacific and Boston College, the Hawks fell 83-68 to Kentucky, the eventual runner-up in the tournament. A trip back to the tournament for this year's St. Joe's squad seems unlikely. Even with the stellar play of senior guard Rashid Bey, the Hawks have not been as effective as last season because of their lack of depth. Freshman Frank Wilkins and sophomore Tim Brown have been the only two regular bench players for St. Joe's this season. A reason for the small size of their bench is the absence of guard Yah Davis. Due to academic reasons, St. Joe's has spent the season without the sophomore, their second leading scorer from last season. Under the basket the Hawks have been able to make up for the loss of 1996-97 Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of the year, 6'7" forward Dmitri Domani, and 6'10", Nemanja Petrovic. St. Joe's three 6'8" big men, Robert Haskins (11.1 points per game, 7.4 rebounds per game), Simmonds (10.3 ppg., 4.7 rpg.) and Harold Rasul (9.8 ppg., 8.1 rpg.) have played well this season. In tomorrow night's game against the Quakers, one of the top guards in college basketball will be on display. Bey has been leading the Atlantic 10 Conference with 18.9 points per game. Saving his best for close games, Bey led all players in last year's battle with 18 points. "Bey is the best guard I will face this season," Jordan said. "It is a great challenge to come out and play against one of the greatest point guards in the country. He is quick. He handles the ball really well. He has worked on his jump shot, so he is shooting the ball a lot better than he was previously." Playing against Bey during the summer, Jordan would like to prevent a repeat of last year. "I am going to try to make him feel as uncomfortable as possible," Jordan said. "My job is to give him as much of a headache as I can and make him take bad shots. This is for bragging rights in the summer." Being a Big 5 game, the contest is expected to draw one of the biggest crowds this year to the Palestra. "Any time we play a team from the city we want to go out and beat them," Kreitz said. "St. Joe's is still a great team. We are going to have a tough game and are going to have to play our best to beat them." Putting conference play aside, this week has been Penn's opportunity to demonstrate their ability at home against city rivals. For those who remember last year's game, this year's Penn-St. Joe's game has the billing to be at least as exciting.

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