The buzzer beats M. Hoops' bid for perfect weekend

The Quakers beat Army, but Penn State spoiled their first homestand. Bitter irony cut through the mayhem in the Palestra almost as sharply as the final buzzer on Saturday. After 40 minutes of futility for the Penn men's basketball team behind the three-point line, Quakers forward Ugonna Onyekwe finally connected on a shot from downtown. But the game-tying shot did not leave the freshman's hands until after the buzzer had sounded. The game was over, and Penn State's 59-56 victory was sealed, turning a positive weekend for Penn (1-2)-- which beat Army (2-3) 71-56 on Friday night -- into a disappointment. Onyekwe's opportunity to send the game into overtime came because Penn State guard Joe Crispin failed to put the game away at the charity stripe. The foul with 9.3 seconds to go was Penn guard Michael Jordan's fifth, so prior to Crispin's free-throw attempts, Penn coach Fran Dunphy designed a play that involved getting the ball in the hands of freshman floor general David Klatsky. Crispin missed his second foul shot and Onyekwe grabbed the rebound. But he hesitated in getting the ball to Klatsky, eating up precious seconds on the clock. "They did a good job of not letting David catch the ball after the foul shot," Dunphy said. "I thought that was a key for not allowing us to get a three off in time." After finally getting the ball, Klatsky dribbled to the top of the key and fed the ball to Onyekwe on the right side of the court for a three-point attempt. It was clear, however, that Onyekwe didn't get the shot off until after the buzzer sounded. "I thought I saw the light go on before I saw Ugonna shoot the ball," Dunphy said. In what could have been redemption for Penn's long-distance struggles on the night, Onyekwe's shot instead drew more attention to Penn's poor shooting. The Quakers connected on just 2-of-20 shots from downtown. Penn's dreadful shooting was at its worst early in the second half, as Jordan and Onyekwe both launched air ball three-point attempts within thirty seconds of each other. Poor shooting was a malady that affected the entire Penn squad against the Nittany Lions, but it was especially tough on the Penn backcourt. Senior co-captains Jordan and Matt Langel were a combined 3-for-24 from the field -- 0-for-10 from downtown. Health concerns may have contributed to the poor play of the guards. Langel is still recovering from an injury to his right foot, while Jordan played with the flu. The Quakers did a good job making up for the subpar outside shooting with their inside size advantage. The Nittany Lions most often used a lineup that included no one over 6'7", while Penn used five players who stand at least that tall. The Quakers hauled in 43 boards and grabbed an impressive 21 offensive rebounds. Leading Penn down low was center Geoff Owens, who had five offensive boards and scored most of his 14 points in the paint. Penn State was in control of the game early, going on a 15-6 run over the game's opening 6:30. The Quakers took their first lead with 5:03 remaining in the first half when Klatsky converted on both shots of a one-and-one caused by a struggling Joe Crispin's second foul. Crispin amassed more turnovers (four) than points (three) in the first half. The Pitman, N.J., native was somewhat affected by the pressure of playing so close to home. "I was just a little too emotional," he said. Crispin made a complete turnaround in the second half. The deceptively quick Nittany Lions' junior scored17 in the final 20 minutes to fuel Penn State's transition offense. "In the transition we got outscored pretty badly," Dunphy said. Typical of the Nittany Lions' transition game was a sequence early in the second half. A turnover by Penn's Frank Brown led to a Jon Crispin to Gyasi Cline-Heard alley-oop layup that tied the game at 34. That play ignited a 12-6 Penn State run that put the Nittany Lions up for good. Penn State held at least a two-point advantage for the final 9:09. For the Quakers, trailing was a big change from Friday night. Penn led for all but 4:08 in the win over Army and never saw its lead shrink to less than 13 in the second half. The Cadets held close early by making nine of their first 14 shots. But Army's outside shooting soon went AWOL. "I think it's hard to sustain that outstanding shooting," Dunphy said. "I think our defense toughened up. From that point on, I thought we guarded very well." Army shot only 32 percent from the field in the last 28 minutes and the Quakers ended the first half on a 22-3 run. Integral to Penn's success on Friday was the play of its freshmen. Dunphy used his first-year players liberally. Onyekwe and Koko Archibong started the game, and, at one point in the first half, a lineup of Jordan and four freshmen outscored the Cadets 6-3 in the two minutes they were together. Archibong ignited the crowd on Friday. The freshman forward thrilled the Palestra faithful in the second half with a one-handed tomahawk jam on a breakaway. Archibong followed that up a few minutes later with an emphatic swat of an Army shot that triggered another deafening ovation. The Quakers dominated the inside against Army just as they did against the Nittany Lions, grabbing 15 offensive rebounds and outscoring the undersized Cadets 34-14 in the paint. As demonstrated by Penn's one-up-one-down weekend, however, a team needs to have more than inside dominance to truly excel.