A tale of two halves for M. Hoops

The Penn men's basketball team was unable to pull of an upset in the final minutes against Kansas. Max Falkenstien, the radio voice of the Kansas Jayhawks for the past 53 seasons, has always wanted to call a game from the storied Palestra. Finally getting his wish almost cost his team its No. 8 national ranking. The return of Penn frontcourt players Geoff Owens and and Frank Brown was nearly enough last night to topple No. 8 Kansas at the Palestra, but the Jayhawks held on for a 61-56 victory in front of 7,852 boisterous Quakers fans. Penn had a chance to tie the game when it took possession down three with 23.1 seconds to play, but the Quakers (0-1) could not find an open player on the perimeter. Penn forward Jed Ryan forced a three-point shot which rolled out of bounds with 1.9 seconds to play. Jayhawks freshman guard Jeff Boschee, who scored Kansas' last five points of the game, sank two free throws with 0.3 seconds to play for the final margin of victory. The loss soured a stellar return by Brown, who scored a career-high 17 points off the bench. They were Brown's first points since last season's 13th game, when he scored two points in 11 minutes of action against Lafayette in a 74-68 Penn win. "The thing I am most pleased about is [Brown's] defense," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "The fact that he shot so well was no surprise." Dunphy has seen Brown in practice over the last month, but to the Penn fans who hadn't seen Brown in nearly a year, his 7-of-9 performance from the field and 3-of-4 from three point range was clearly the shock of the night. Brown's six-footer from the baseline with 8:37 to play gave Penn a 47-45 lead. It would be Penn's last. Kansas reeled off nine straight points over the next 2:43 to build its largest cushion of the game. Penn fought back behind the shooting of Matt Langel, who hit two threes, the second of which tied the game at 56 with 3:13 to play. Those two, however, were the only two he made in eight attempts from downtown. The Quakers three returning deep threats, Jordan, Langel and Jed Ryan were a combined 4-of-18 from long range on the night. "I don't think it was a moral victory because we felt we should have won the game," Jordan said. "You never want to be second best, and today we were second best." Kansas could have put the game away earlier, but Lester Earl missed two free throws after Jed Ryan committed a hold for his fifth personal, and Boschee only made one-of-two after Langel was called for player control with 2:25 to play. Kansas shot just 54.5 percent from the line for the night, but was buoyed by enjoying 22 opportunities from the charity stripe compared to Penn's four. Foul trouble plagued the Quakers throughout the second half, but the final blow came just after Langel tied the game when senior forward Paul Romanczuk was called for holding under the basket. His fifth foul left Penn without its floor leader inside. Ryan and Owens also played down the stretch with four fouls, allowing Kansas' seven-foot-center Eric Chenowith more space underneath the basket. The sophomore recovered from his 3-of-7 first half shooting woes to sink 3-of-4 in the second 20 minutes for the Jayhawks. The entire Kansas team, in fact, recovered from a first half which saw it shoot 25.9 percent to shoot 75 percent (15-of-20) after the break. "I was pleased with our defense," Dunphy said. "If we set a goal before the game it would have been 40 percent." The Jawhawks shot 46.8 percent for the game. The early moments of the game were highlighted by stellar Quakers defense, as Penn forced four Kansas turnovers. On the other end of the floor, Penn was running its offense, but could not find the netting, going just 2-of-9 from the field in the opening five minutes. Nevertheless, at the 12:50 mark Penn grabbed a 8-6 lead on a shot jumper by Jordan. The junior point guard struck again on Penn's next possession, to give Penn a 10-6 lead by the second TV timeout. Kansas moved within one to 14-13, but Kansas coach Roy Williams began jawing at the official near his bench, earning himself a technical -- just his seventh in 11 years as a head coach. Langel put in both free throws, and after the Jayhawks' eighth turnover, Ryan knocked down three more for a 19-13 lead with 5:29 on the clock. "We were bad, and yet give Penn credit for causing a lot of that too," Williams said. Brown then contributed his five points from the bench, including a three pointer with four minutes to play which put the Quakers up 22-14. Owens, the first half's leading rebounder with five, scored Penn's final bucket of the half with a tip-in of a Langel missed three pointer to give the Quakers a 26-19 edge at the break. "The first half was about as ugly as I can remember playing," Williams said. "Robertson had two fouls for boxing out, and it was the only two times we boxed out all half." If anything was holding the Quakers back, it was continuous misfires from downtown. The Quakers were just 2-of-13 from three-point range in the first half. Kansas, meanwhile, was 1-of-6 from long-distance as part of its anemic 7-of-27 shooting performance in the first 20 minutes. As Williams put it, for his team it was "the tale of two halves." Kansas came out firing in the second half, going on an 11-2 run early in the first three minutes. Chenowith was the big man inside, scoring twice and playing strong defense against Owens to force two misses. A three-pointer by Robertson put Kansas ahead 33-30 before the first TV timeout of the half at 15:36. Penn was hurt by fouls, especially Jed Ryan's fourth, which came just 6:16 into the half with Penn leading 34-33. Brown, however, was far from finished. He followed his own missed jumper with a rebound, a layup and connected for three more from the top of the key to tie the game at 37 with 12:18 to play. It was not to be Brown, Owens, or Penn's night in the end, however. For the second time in as many games, Penn played admirably against the nation's No. 8, but could not end on top. With the return of Owens and Brown, plus the surprisingly aggressive play of sophomore Josh Sanger down low, the Quakers showed that their veteran team will provide plenty of excitement this year. Now that Max Falkenstein has made it to the Palestra after a 53 year journey, maybe he should think about hanging around for a while. This season is only starting to get interesting.

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