M. Hoops puts Ivy lead on the line at Palestra

Penn hosts Cornell tonight, while Columbia visits tomorrow night. Although the Penn men's basketball team looks to be on a clear path to the NCAA Tournament after defeating Princeton on Tuesday, the season is only half over. The second half begins tonight. And Penn (14-7, 7-0 Ivy League) could not be in a better position in the race to the league championship. The Quakers now hold a two-game lead over the Tigers in the Ivy standings. In order for Princeton to steal the title from Penn, the Orange and Black must win their seven remaining games -- including the Penn rematch at the Palestra on March 7 -- and hope that the Quakers slip up and lose to one of the six other league opponents. However unlikely it may seem that Penn will fall to one of the other Ivy teams, perhaps the best chance for an upset is tonight. The Quakers will host Cornell at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Palestra and will welcome Columbia tomorrow at 7 p.m. In the first meeting between the Quakers and Big Red in Ithaca, N.Y., on January 29, Penn escaped with a hard-fought 50-47 victory. "The last game was a fight the whole game, so we don't want that to happen again," Penn guard Matt Langel said. And even though some may look at Tuesday's triumph over the Tigers and think that the Quakers will stroll to the NCAA Tournament without much trouble, the Quakers are focused on the seven remaining games -- and they know that Cornell will not roll over and hand them a win. "Last year, they came in here and gave us a battle. If it was not for Jed Ryan saying he was not going to lose and taking over the game, we may have lost," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Then, we went up there and only won by three, so I'm sure they'll be shooting for us." And the Big Red (8-13, 1-7) certainly have some players who can do that shooting, most notably junior forward Ray Mercedes. Mercedes was named to the Ivy League's weekly honor roll on Monday after dropping a season-high 26 points on Yale this past weekend. Although the Quakers held Mercedes to 12 points in Ithaca a few weeks ago, the last visit Mercedes paid to the Palestra is definitely fresh in the minds of the Red and Blue. Last February, Mercedes and teammate Wallace Prather were basically a two-man team, keeping the Big Red close throughout the entire contest. Mercedes poured in 28 points, hitting 6-of-10 from three-point territory. Point guard Prather was just as dangerous, scoring 22 points and tallying four assists. Both players have been playing well so far this season too. Mercedes leads the Big Red in scoring with an average of 14.6 points per game, while Prather is tops on his team in both assists (78) and steals (44) and is second in scoring (13.8 ppg). Containing these two dangerous players will not be an easy task for Penn. But if anyone is up to the task, it is the Penn defense, which has been stellar of late. During the first half on Tuesday night, Penn forced Princeton into shot clock violations on two separate occasions. While the defensive effort may have been impressive at times, Dunphy and his players know that there is constantly room for improvement. "Our defense has been good, but it can be better," Dunphy said. "We allowed a couple of backdoor cuts. Matt Langel fell asleep on one play and let his guy get behind him." Although the Quakers hope to improve their defense, offensive execution remains the top priority at this point in this season. "We need to get smoother on offense," Michael Jordan said. "That's a concern for us." Jordan has certainly been doing his part in contributing to the Quakers' success on offense. The current Ivy League Player of the Week is averaging 15.8 points per game and continues to move up the list of all-time Penn scoring leaders. He now stands sixth on that list with 1,472 points. As the senior guard leaves his mark in Penn basketball history, though, he is only concerned with getting through the rest of the Ivy schedule. And if the Quakers can get by the Big Red tonight, they can probably expect Columbia to offer more of a challenge than it did earlier this season. Although Penn disposed of the Lions (10-11, 4-4) with ease in a 63-37 romp on January 28, Dunphy acknowledges that Columbia is playing much better and cannot be taken lightly. The Quakers may have a lead in the race for the league title, but they know the race is far from finished. They start to head for the homestretch tonight.