ANALYSIS: Backcourt experience leads way

Seniors Michael Jordan and Matt Langel were instrumental in the Quakers' victories this weekend. BOSTON -- Just when the Penn men's basketball team looked like it was going to slip from its undefeated precipice at the top of the Ivy League, just when a blemish from Dartmouth or Harvard seemed imminent, Michael Jordan and Matt Langel extended their hands and rescued the falling Quakers. With Jordan and Langel, Penn escaped bruised but not beaten on its last road trip of the regular season. But without the two senior co-captains, the Quakers' spot atop the league would not look anywhere near as secure. On Friday, Langel prevented an upset loss to Dartmouth by scoring 11 straight Penn points late in the game -- a game in which the Big Green had the lead for almost all of the first 23 minutes. And on Saturday, it was Jordan who played the savior role for Penn by knocking away a pass to Crimson forward Dan Clemente with 1.9 seconds left to foil Harvard's best chance for victory. "Langel and Jordan are a heck of a backcourt," Dartmouth coach Dave Faucher said. But more than that, the two Quakers co-captains are a heck of an experienced backcourt. They have combined to play 209 games in their four years at Penn, and that experienced showed through this weekend. When Dartmouth center Ian McGinnis took a pass from guard Flinder Boyd and hit an easy five-footer with 7:56 remaining on Friday, the Big Green had closed the Penn lead to 52-48 and had the momentum and the home-crowd support on their side. But Langel soon changed that. The Moorestown, N.J., native hit a three-pointer 15 seconds later and would add eight more points in the next 4:39 to put the game out of Dartmouth's reach. In the time it took for Langel to hit a runner, a jump shot, a layup and two foul shots to give the Quakers a safe 13-point cushion with 3:02 left, Dartmouth could only muster a Shaun Gee layup. "[Dartmouth was] not playing a lot of help defense, so if you can get by your man a little bit, it seemed like you had an open opportunity to get a shot at the basket," Langel said. And Langel took advantage of those opportunities like a senior guard should, especially in the second half. He scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the final 20 minutes. But it wasn't as if the Quakers' two-guard worked all the magic himself on Friday; Jordan had 21 points of his own. Still, it was Langel -- not Jordan -- who rescued Penn in its most pressing moments on Friday. Saturday, however, was a different story. Jordan's stat line was not overly impressive: 14 points, six assists, three turnovers and two rebounds. But Jordan's contributions went far beyond the scope of the stat sheet. Whenever Penn seemed to be losing its grip on the game, Jordan took over. The Quakers jumped out to an early 18-5 lead and looked to be heading toward a rout. But less than four minutes later, Harvard cut the lead to nine and usurped the momentum. Even Langel was riled at this point, as he kicked a chair on the bench after coming out for a breather. Sensing the game was falling apart at the seams, Jordan sewed it back together by driving the length of the court and hitting a 10-foot jump shot. And the Philadelphia native did the same thing again when Harvard took its only lead on a Clemente jump shot with 15:21 remaining. This time Jordan drove for a layup, and Penn regained the lead for good. But Harvard would not go away, and if not for Jordan's great defensive play in the last 10 seconds, the Quakers would have gone back to Philadelphia with their first league loss in a year. Jordan, however, did nearly cost Penn the game with an up-and-down traveling violation with 9.3 seconds left and the Quakers only up by one. But the Penn senior redeemed himself by diving and knocking away a pass from Harvard guard Elliott Prasse-Freeman to an open Clemente with 1.9 seconds left. So instead of an unguarded 15-footer, Clemente had to take an off-balance 25-footer with Langel's hand in his face after the inbounds pass. Clemente missed the shot, and Penn took the six-hour ride back to West Philadelphia unscathed.

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