M. Hoops in control atop Ivy League

Penn finds itself alone in first after two raod wins and a Princeton OT loss. HANOVER, N.H. -- While the Penn men's basketball team bus may have been stuck in traffic prior to Friday night's matchup with Harvard, the Quakers returned to Philadelphia in the Ivy League driver's seat. As Ivy co-leader Princeton was hard at work pulling away from third-place challenger Dartmouth on Friday night, the Quakers had their hands full at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion. But a pair of second-half surges helped Penn emerge victorious, 81-76, to keep pace with the Tigers. The following night in Hanover, the Quakers once again started slow before employing an unbelievable 45-8 run to steamroll Dartmouth. As Penn was putting the finishing touches on its 82-49 romp, the news slowly filtered into Leede Arena that Harvard had shocked Princeton, 87-79, to leave the Quakers alone atop the Ancient Eight standings. "Harvard's always tough at Harvard. Dartmouth's been playing good basketball, they played a real close one [with Princeton]. We were focused and prepared to come up here and get a win," Penn guard Matt Langel said. "It's like we've been saying all season, 'Every game's the biggest game,' whether it's a Big 5 game or an Ivy game. We knew this weekend was going to be tough." At Dartmouth, the Quakers looked to be in trouble early. With Penn trailing 6-2 just 1:48 after tipoff, center Geoff Owens dove under the Quakers' basket to save his own loose ball and split his chin open on the Leede hardwood. Though Owens would return at the 11:24 mark, his chin covered by a butterfly bandage, Penn was already struggling to keep pace with the Big Green. After sophomore Greg Buth followed his own three-pointer by picking Michael Jordan's pocket -- the Quakers' sixth turnover, equal to their number of field goals at that point -- Big Green freshman Charles Harris drained one just inside the arc to make it 22-16, Dartmouth, with 9:15 remaining until the break. But Penn -- as if responding to the announced Harvard 35, Princeton 29, halftime score from Cambridge -- went on a tear. Langel followed a Jordan layup with a leaner over Buth and a running jumper to even the score at 22. With Dartmouth in a daze, the Quakers ran up the score. Frank Brown -- who saw no action in Friday's win -- drained a trey from the left side with 58 ticks on the first-half clock. Langel then nailed a buzzer-beating three of his own on a feed from Jordan to give the Quakers a 40-25 halftime lead. Dartmouth point guard and freshman sensation Flinder Boyd -- who has worn a cast on his broken left wrist all season -- drained a three to open the second-half scoring. Rather than stopping the bleeding, Boyd's hoop stood alone, sandwiched by two remarkable Penn runs. Owens -- who received six stitches at halftime -- checked into the game after Boyd's trey and helped the Quakers put on a show. The 6'11" center was unreal as Penn, which finished the first half on a 24-3 run, ran off a 21-2 stretch over the next seven-plus minutes. During that span, Owens -- the bandage now flapping loosely from his chin -- dropped in a hook shot and a layup, rejected a Buth attempt, grabbed a steal and dished out an uncharacteristic three assists. Langel hit another from downtown -- he finished with three of the Quakers' 11 treys -- to close the run and put Penn ahead 61-30 with 11:22 to play. The Quakers would never look back. "We became disorganized, out of sync? and they just kept coming. We couldn't put a band aid on the problem," Dartmouth coach Dave Faucher said. "That started the decay. We tried to regroup at halftime and come back two-by-two, but that's when fatigue sets in the second night. It's hard to play from behind with all the energy and effort we used the first night [against Princeton]." Ten players registered in the scoring column for Penn as the Quakers rolled to their second 30-point win of the year. The Quakers did not enjoy the same easy success the night before at Lavietes Pavilion. Trailing 41-35 at the half, Penn did not take the lead for good until Langel drained a three from the top to make it 73-71 with 1:29 to play. In the first half, Harvard co-captain Tim Hill more than picked up the slack for fellow co-captain Paul Fisher, out for the remainder of the season with mononucleosis. Hill, a point guard, outshined Jordan in the first half, scoring 14 points, nailing 6-of-6 from the line and handing out six assists with no turnovers before the break. Jordan struggled in the first half, committing six turnovers -- including a handful of traveling calls -- while dishing out just three assists. "It was a big game for us but it was a big game for them too. Tim Hill's a senior, they wanted to win on his home floor in his last game against Penn," said Jordan, who notched his 300th assist in the game, becoming just the fourth Quaker in history to record 1,000 points and 300 assists. "They came out way more emotional than we did." While Hill put on a show in the first half, the second half was all Jordan and the Quakers. The junior tri-captain shot 4-of-5 after the break en route to 24 points, while Penn put together a pair of 9-0 runs to steal an Ivy League victory from the Crimson (11-13, 5-7). But Penn was lucky to even get to the game after an accident on the Mass Pike caused the Quakers to sit in traffic and show up late. "Harvard was gracious enough to set the game time back 15 to 20 minutes for us. We left the hotel in plenty of time but got caught behind in an accident," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Hopefully it won't hurt you but I think it had a little bit of an effect." The effect had clearly worn off by the second half, though, as the Quakers shot a blazing 71.4 percent after the break to pull it out in Cambridge. Jordan nailed 4-of-4 from the charity stripe in the final minute, while Owens -- a 49.4 percent free throw shooter -- added two more crucial free throws after a Mike Beam desperation trey cut Penn's lead to three with 30 seconds left. "There's no way I should be a 50 percent [free throw] shooter. I'm looking to improve that," Owens said. "I've been working on foul shooting every day. It's just a matter of getting in a zone in my mind when I'm shooting free throws." After a doctor's check-up on Owens yesterday, the Quakers were relieved to hear that the center has bruised cartilage in his jaw and did not suffer a break, as first feared. While further reports are expected today, Owens is slated to play tomorrow against Villanova.

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