M. Hoops shows promise in loss

The Penn men's basketball team gave its fans in the sold-out Palestra something they've been waiting five long games to see Saturday night -- solid basketball against a high-caliber opponent. Unfortunately for the overall record of the Quakers (0-6), their period of brilliance on the court only occurred in the second half of this weekend's losing effort against No. 17 Maryland (5-3). But in clawing back from a 22-point halftime deficit to lose by just six points to the tough Terrapins, 87-81, Penn proved that it might be on the verge of snapping its worst losing streak to open a season since the seven-game blunder by the 1984-85 squad. "We're getting there, I would say," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I don't think we're playing our best basketball, but we had a stretch where we were making a lot of shots." That scoring stretch out of halftime -- when the scoreboard read 52-30 in favor of Maryland due in large part to a 21-1 first-half run by the Terps -- was anchored by Penn shooting guard Lamar Plummer. After contributing only eight points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field in the first period, Plummer found his groove in the second half when he sank an astounding five three-pointers. Plummer's hot hand not only helped give the senior a career-high 23 points on the night, but also sparked the Quakers in outscoring the Terrapins by a 51-35 margin in the final stanza. "In the first half, I think I took some shots that I shouldn't have taken," Plummer said. "In the second half eventually what I did was relax and take shots in the flow of the game." Plummer stayed quiet in the beginning of the second half while the scoring by Penn's frontcourt trio of Koko Archibong, Ugonna Onyekwe and Geoff Owens -- who had a monster two-handed slam-dunk two minutes into the period -- kept Penn's deficit hovering around 18 points. Plummer then began to take his cue at the 13:49 mark, when he drained a baseline three-pointer to bring the score to 64-47. Plummer hit his fourth three-pointer of the game 31 seconds later when his attempted alley-oop pass to Archibong accidentally flew straight into the basket. "That was a pass to Koko, but it went in the hole," Plummer said with a grin about the bucket that cut Maryland's lead to 64-50. Maryland guard Juan Dixon, who also led his team with 23 points, immediately replied to Plummer's magical three-pointer with a shot of his own from behind the arc. While Dixon's bucket gave his team a 67-50 edge, the Terrapins suddenly found themselves flustered by the Quakers defense. Maryland committed two turnovers and was unable to score during a 3:14 stretch, in which Penn picked up seven points to bring the deficit within 10. Dixon halted the Penn scoring run with a layup at the 9:44 mark, but it wasn't enough to stop the Quakers' momentum on both sides of the court. On the Terps' next possession, Dixon made another drive, but this time he was met by a high-flying Archibong who swatted the ball right into the hands of Plummer. The Penn guard raced down the open floor, but instead of going for a layup, he stopped at the arc and nonchalantly drained a three-pointer to give the Quakers their first single-digit deficit since the clock read 12:16 in the first half. Penn's next basket came from Plummer, who again knocked down a transition three-pointer. The basket brought the score to 73-63 with 6:39 remaining. "[Plummer] came down a couple times in transition in the second half when we needed big baskets," Dunphy said. "That's not an easy shot to take with nobody underneath, but at that point we needed to score some points." Plummer's seventh and final three-pointer came not in transition, but under the pressure of an expiring shot clock to give Maryland just a 75-69 lead with 4:20 left in the game. At that point, though, Terps point guard Steve Blake took over for his struggling team. The sophomore scored 10 points in a row -- his only scoring contribution of the game -- for Maryland over a 3:17 span, as well as blocking a three-point attempt by Klatsky to clinch the less-than-impressive win for the Terrapins. "The first half was about as good as we've played all year," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "At halftime I guess we decided we had played hard enough. "That's not to take away from Penn. What they did in the second half, that took a lot of guts... [Penn] really had a realistic chance to win that game with about five minutes left."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.