M. Hoops slams the 'Gate, 68-50

The Penn men's basketball team easily handled Colgate for its fifth straight win in a turnover-filled game at the Palestra. This one was about as fun to watch as an Orgo lecture. Either way, the Penn men's basketball team will take the result -- victory No. 8 on the season. In a game laden with sloppy shooting and an abundance of turnovers, Penn (8-3) handed visiting Colgate (9-8) a 68-50 defeat. At the beginning of the game, it looked like the Quakers were going to run away with it. Penn guard Matt Langel missed a jumper in the lane, but put back his own shot and drew a foul. His free throw gave the Quakers a commanding 22-7 lead with seven minutes to go in the first half. Penn established its inside game quickly, taking advantage of a rare size advantage. The Red Raiders' starting center, Ben Wandtke, measures only 6'6''. The first four Penn baskets came off lay-ups or short jumpers. But as the Quakers began to rely more on outside shooting, Colgate slowly eked its way back into the game. "In the early stages of the game, they really hurt us inside," Colgate coach Emmett Davis said. "I don't know whether it was just [that] our aggressiveness got better as the game progressed or whether they just stopped going inside as much." Never really getting back into the game but always staying close enough to be an annoyance, the Red Raiders kept Penn on its heels for the rest of the half. On the strength of six points off the bench from forward Pat Diamond, Colgate pulled to within 11 points of the Quakers, making the score 33-22 at the half. The second half began very much like the first -- with Penn taking control. The Quakers came out with a spring in their step, starting the half with a 12-0 run. After forward Jed Ryan opened the half with two outside shots, center Geoff Owens dunked off a Paul Romanczuk pass. Guard Michael Jordan put the Quakers up by 23 points with a three-pointer, making the score 45-22 at the 16-minute mark. Once again, however, Colgate refused to lay down and die. After a time-out, the Red Raiders made some adjustments and put together a 12-2 run of their own, inching up to within 13 points of Penn. "We played off a couple of the inside guys when they went high-low and clogged the middle a little bit," Davis said. "We tried to put more pressure on the basketball, get up in the offensive player's passing window so he couldn't see." But 13 points was the closest Colgate would get to the Quakers, who never put the game away but coasted into the finish line, ahead by 18 points. "In the second half we just had some stretches where we weren't playing defense," Romanczuk said. "We weren't running our offense as crisp as usual." Penn assistant coach Steve Donahue said that although the Quakers had success putting some fans to bed, they did not have quite the same success with the Red Raiders. "It's not a pretty game -- if you noticed it wasn't real exciting -- but it's a game where we had to take care of business," Donahue said. "Offensively I thought we got a little stagnant, and they beat us to the offensive boards." Despite the size difference, Colgate out-rebounded Penn 39-30, with a 16-5 edge on the offensive glass. "We can't give up 16 offensive boards to a team that's really not athletic," Donahue said. "It's the hard work that they did. St. Joe's averages 18 [offensive rebounds] a game. It's a real concern. If we don't take care of that part of our game, we're going to have trouble." Like the 1983 White Sox, Penn won ugly last Saturday. But despite the rebounding issues -- which Donahue said would be stressed in practice before St. Joseph's visit tonight -- the Quakers will take the wins any way they come.

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