W. Track wins gold six times at Cornell

PRINCETON, N.J. -- With the calm demeanor expected from a five-year senior, Penn forward Frank Brown took the pass from teammate Matt Langel in the corner and knifed home the heart-stopping, game-ending three pointer. There were still four minutes and 37 seconds remaining on the clock at Jadwin Gymnasium, but the clutch bucket had given Penn a 47-38 lead and, more importantly, squashed the momentum of a Princeton comeback attempt. Only 42 seconds earlier, the Tigers had pulled within two after being down 25-18 at halftime, but following Brown's three-pointer, all Princeton could do was writhe and gasp its way to the final buzzer. Even the traditional Princeton chants of "safety school" with under a minute remaining were weak and short-lived -- more solemn than spirited. Penn beat rival Princeton on the court last night, 55-46, but more than that, the Quakers (14-7, 7-0 Ivy League) may have beaten the Tigers (13-9, 5-2) into possible submission in the Ivy League race. "It's very tough to swallow right now," Princeton center Chris Young said. "It wouldn't sting as bad if we didn't have that earlier loss to Yale. But we did, and now it just doesn't look good." The Quakers now have a two-game lead in the Ivy League and look to be in the driver's seat on the road to the NCAA Tournament. The main reason for this was the laudable job Penn's defense did containing Princeton's top scoring threats last night. Tigers center Chris Young, who scored 30 points in Princeton's game against Harvard on Saturday, was held to just 11 last night. And the Quakers held guard Spencer Gloger and forward Mason Rocca -- two of Princeton's most dangerous offensive players -- scoreless in the first half last night. But, although Gloger -- who may have been hampered by strained ligaments in his left hand -- finished the game with a goose egg in the points column, Rocca almost single-handedly kept the Tigers in the game in the second half. Rocca scored 16 of Princeton's 28 second-half points. The lone Princeton senior, however, did seem to fade toward the end of the game. Rocca, who has not been able to practice with the team since December 15 because of tendinitis in his ankle, had no field goals in the last 7:28. "[My ankle] was pretty painful," Rocca said. "As the second half wore on, it really started to ache a lot." Rocca's two free throws with 5:55 remaining brought Princeton to within two points of Penn at 40-38. But the Tigers, who trailed for the last 29:04, would get no closer. A foul by Princeton's C.J. Chapman on the ensuing possession sent Langel to the line, where he sank two shots to stretch the Quakers' lead to four. Then Penn center Geoff Owens stole a Chapman pass intended for Young to set up a fast-break layup for Brown. After Chapman missed a shot from behind the arc on Princeton's next possession, the stage was set for Brown's nail-in-the-coffin three-pointer. Brown ended up with eight points in 18 minutes, while Michael Jordan led the Quakers with 14 points and Onyekwe added 12 on 5-of-10 shooting. Onyekwe also blocked four shots and did not commit a single turnover in 37 minutes, despite playing in front of what he deemed to be "as tough a crowd as you can get for an away game." "There's not much fright in him," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Even from the first game that we played at Kentucky, he just figured we were supposed to be out there playing, and it wasn't any big deal." The highlight of Onyekwe's night was his 360-degree spin and two-handed dunk with 10.3 seconds remaining. Following an emphatic block of a Rocca shot, the slam provided an exclamation point to Penn's victory. The game went back and forth in the early going. After the Quakers took an initial 4-0 lead, the Tigers went on a 12-2 run in a span of only 2:26. Penn answered with a 19-2 run and went into the locker room at halftime leading 25-18. The first half seemed a little abnormal from the Penn side, however, as backup Oggie Kapetanovic amassed more minutes (14) than starters Owens and Brown combined (13). Foul trouble was the impetus for this anomaly, as Brown and Owens committed two fouls each in the game's first four minutes. When Owens picked up his second foul with 16:02 remaining, the Jadwin scoreboard indicated that the Penn center had three fouls, at which point Dunphy removed both Brown and Owens from the game. Brown spent the next 11 minutes on the bench, while Owens sat until the 2:37 mark of the first half. The Quakers held the Tigers to 28.8 percent shooting from the field on the night, as every Princeton player shot under 50 percent. Prior to the last two Quakers victories at Jadwin Gymnasium, Princeton had won six consecutive games against its Philadelphia rival. But, at least publicly, Penn players are not corroborating the death of Princeton in the Ivy League race. "We have seven more games to play," Jordan said. "It's not over yet." But the Quakers were unable to completely mask their emotions. Onyekwe held on to two orange Princeton foam noodles following the game. And although he tried to hide them, it was plain to see that he was going to save the two souvenirs. Perhaps they will just serve as a reminder of his first Penn-Princeton game. Or perhaps, more specifically, they're the spoils of last night's battle in Jadwin -- one that left the host Tigers in critical condition in the Ivy League title race.