M. Hoops lays claim to Palestra

The Penn men's basketball team ended a five-year drought against St. Joe's, the game's official host. With the score tied 28-28 at the half, it seemed as if this year's Big 5 men's basketball showdown between Penn and St. Joseph's would feature yet another down-to-the-wire ending. Quakers guard Michael Jordan, however, was not about to let that happen. The tri-captain stole a pass from Hawks forward Andre Howard, drove to the right of the key and knocked down a three-pointer with 12 minutes remaining, giving Penn the prevailing momentum in a 66-58 victory over St. Joe's at the Palestra. Jordan's sequence was preceded by a three-point play by Penn forward Josh Sanger, who cut along the baseline for the basket and foul. The plays by both players turned out to be the game-breaking ones for Penn (9-3, 3-0 Big 5), pushing the Quakers' lead to eight. Still, the Hawks (9-8, 0-3), who also call the Palestra home, refused to go away. "We knew we could get back in the game," St. Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said. "We wanted to take the ball into the lane, which we did on a couple of possessions." The Hawks cut the Penn lead to four at both the six- and four-minute marks. Enough damage, however, had been done, as St. Joe's could not get closer than two baskets away from equalizing the game. "We cut it to four any number of times, and that's when you need to step up and make a stop," Martelli said. "We didn't make key stops when you can feel that you have another team on the ropes. That's what we have not been good at yet." The Penn side of the Palestra crowd went crazy, while the air seemed to be taken away from the St. Joe's faithful. For the players, it was a hole that they did not overcome. "It really hurt our momentum," St. Joe's forward Rob Haskins said. "Transition defense -- it is all I can say about that. Jordan hit the three [and] we tried to fight back but things did not work out well." The Quakers, last night's away team, took the initiative in the early stages of both halves. Penn jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game. The Hawks did not earn their first point until a free throw by center Damian Reid at 4:05. Penn then widened its lead to 11. With slightly more than eight minutes to go in the first half, however, the Hawks started closing the gap. Five consecutive points by Haskins tied the contest at 21. "The biggest goal was the one in the first half, where they go up five points," Dunphy said. "We played such a poor game in that one stretch there. Josh Sanger makes a huge jumper to cut the margin from four to two." The shot from the left baseline closed the gap with three minutes left in the half. With the Hawks up by three in the final minute, Penn guard Lamar Plummer hit a timely three-pointer from the top of the key. The shot eliminated the momentum which the Hawks had briefly built and tied the game heading into halftime. The second half featured another quick start by the Quakers, as Penn set a four-point margin in the first three minutes with some help from the homestanding Hawks. "Our game plan was to keep the ball inside and work from there," Haskins said. "We were inconsistent on doing that. We rushed a lot of shots off first passes rather than being patient, looking inside and passing to [Hawks center] Damian Reid." Needless to say, not sticking to the basic game plan did not sit well with Martelli. "We came out of halftime with what we wanted to do, and [instead] we came out with our two biggest guys [Howard and Reid] on our first three possessions shooting three jumpers," Martelli said. "It doesn't make sense -- it is thoughtless basketball, and then we allowed the tempo to be dictated more by [Penn] than by us." Just as distressing for the Hawks was its play on the boards. After past woes under the basket, the Quakers made a wholesale turn by outrebounding St. Joe's 42-32. "I thought the number one thing would be how hard would you go for a loose ball in this game," Martelli said. "I did not think it was really that technical a game. In my opinion, it turned out not to be. In the second half, they came up with more loose balls than we did." As if that was not enough for St. Joe's to handle, official Joe Mingle whistled a timeout for Penn with two minutes to go. The "T" was called by Dunphy as Penn guard Matt Langel's pass was in the air, about to be stolen by Howard. "That's the best timeout he called all year," Langel said. "I made a pass, Andre Howard jumped out for the steal and coach called timeout right as I let go of the ball, and fortunately the official blew the whistle and called the timeout." Lucky or not, the Quakers are one win away from sweeping all four Big 5 opponents for the first time since 1973-74. Penn looks for its seventh-straight victory when Drexel journeys to the Palestra Thursday.