'Nova stifles Quakers offense down the stretch

The Penn men's basketball team saw a Big 5 victory slip away under Villanova's pressure in the second half. VILLANOVA, Pa. -- With 8:25 remaining in the second half on Tuesday night, Villanova forward Howard Brown went up for a slam dunk on a breakaway. Paul Romanczuk, however, would have none of it, as he challenged Brown and sent him sprawling to the ground. Brown hit one of the resulting free throws to give Villanova a 56-55 advantage -- only its second lead of the game. It was a lead the Wildcats would not relinquish. Although Penn led for most of the game, everything fell apart for the Quakers in the final eight minutes. After going into halftime ahead by four and outplaying the Wildcats for much of the game, Penn simply ran out of gas. The shots stopped falling and the turnovers and fouls started piling up. "For the most part, I thought we did what we needed to do defensively," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "But at the other end, we needed a little bit more patience and some better decision-making." In the first half, the Quakers' offense ran smoothly and they were able to get quality looks at the basket. In the final minutes, though, Penn could not get the same looks. Poor execution on the Quakers' part and an increased defensive effort by Villanova allowed the Wildcats to pull away in a previously close matchup. "I think it was shaky decisions," Penn guard Michael Jordan said. "I think we just made some dumb mistakes down the stretch that cost us the game." Often these dumb mistakes led to turnovers for the Quakers and points for the Wildcats. Penn's poor decision-making was partly the result of Villanova's defensive pressure. The increased Wildcat pressure at the end of the game often left the Quakers in difficult situations. "I think they played very good defense," Dunphy said. "I thought our decisions could have been better but sometimes when that athleticism is turned up a little bit, we have a tendency to make decisions that we don't typically make." Typically, however, Penn has Geoff Owens in the middle. On Tuesday night, though, the 6'11" junior was sitting at home with his jaw wired shut. This left the Quakers with little to throw at Villanova's big man, Malik Allen. Although Josh Sanger started at center, Dunphy made frequent substitutions in the second half to give Penn more offensive power. This left the Quakers with a smaller lineup and allowed the 6'10" Allen -- who finished with seven blocks -- to dominate in the low post. In addition to Allen making stops for the Wildcats when Penn got close to the hoop, the pressure was applied on all parts of the court, especially by Villanova's John Celestand and Howard Brown. Celestand was assigned the unpleasant task of guarding Jordan. Jordan was still able to create opportunities and get points but Celestand's tight defense forced Penn to make several bad passes, commit turnovers and rush shots. Brown, who had five steals for the night and found himself on breakaways multiple times, was the beneficiary of much of the pressure applied by his teammates. "I think we just started putting some more pressure on the ball [in the second half]," Allen said. "[Celestand] applied a lot of pressure to Michael Jordan, which was a big key for the game and it allowed some of the other guys out on the court to cool off a bit." As the Quakers cracked under the defensive pressure, the Wildcats went on a 15-3 run that gave them a 12-point lead with 2:20 remaining in the game. In the final two minutes, the Quakers committed several fouls in a desperate attempt to close the gap. But the damage had already been done. Villanova's tight defense and the Quakers' inability to make the right decisions had done in the Red and Blue. "You know with a team like [Penn] that [scoring] could keep going," Villanova coach Steve Lappas said. "But you hope in the end, you can wear them out." And in the end, the Wildcats did.