Tough defeat for Men's Hoops

It was supposed to be a warm, fuzzy night for the Penn men's basketball team and its fans. Mere hours after the Palestra was christened anew, Penn forward Ugonna Onyekwe had pieced together his fractured game and carried the Quakers to an eight-point lead over La Salle with just 1:17 remaining. In the western half of the Palestra, all was right with the world. But with an incredible 10-0 run to close out the game, the Explorers shocked the Quakers in their home opener, 61-59, and handed the Red and Blue its fifth straight loss of the season. Instead of closing out what was believed to be a sure win, the final minute of the game became nightmarish for Penn. All of the things the Quakers had done poorly in its previous four losses --ÿall of the things they had gotten away with for 39 minutes of basketball last night -- came back to haunt them. After Onyekwe made one of two free throws with a minute and change left to give the Quakers a 59-51 lead, Penn forward Koko Archibong committed his fifth foul on La Salle forward Victor Thomas' layup attempt. Thomas' shot went through the net, and the Explorers had new life. The La Salle senior made the ensuing free throw -- one of his game-high 27 points -- cutting the Quakers' lead to 59-54. Unthinkably, Penn senior shooting guard Lamar Plummer, with the full force of La Salle's press upon him, turned the ball over twice on inbounds passes, leading to two easy Explorers baskets. With the Red and Blue holding onto a slim 59-58 lead, Butler fouled Penn freshman Charlie Copp, who had recently been inserted into the game by Penn coach Fran Dunphy. With all eyes upon him, the inexperienced freshman missed both free throws, making the Penn final tally an abysmal 9-for-21 mark from the charity stripe. "If we handle the basketball properly, even though we shot it poorly -- I'm not saying we didn't, because it's obviously crushing us at this point -- we should have had enough to win the game despite [the free throw shooting]," an obviously disappointed Dunphy said. La Salle was able to corral the rebound on the second missed free throw attempt. On the other side of the floor, Thomas sank a leaner in the paint over Onyekwe and Plummer to give La Salle a one-point lead with just 24 ticks left on the clock. With just about every fan in the arena on his or her feet, Penn worked the perimeter on the subsequent possession, but Copp was called for travelling with six seconds left. "Charlie got a little rambunctious trying to take the ball to the basket in the end," Dunphy said. "He wanted, probably, to try to atone for the foul shots. He'll learn." The Quakers immediately fouled La Salle guard Julian Blanks, who sank his first free throw attempt but came up short on the second. The rebound came to Onyekwe, who pushed the ball up the floor to Copp. The freshman's desperation three-point attempt hit the back iron and bounced away as time expired. As the Quakers shuffled slowly off the court, the Explorers celebrated in the middle of the arena. The exciting ending glossed over what was an extremely sloppy game for both teams. In the first half, the shooting woes for Penn and La Salle were nearly identical, as the Quakers were 9-for-26 in field goal attempts and the Explorers were 9-for-25. The Explorers jumped out to a 17-11 lead, but Penn senior Lamar Plummer scored 10 points in a row to give the Quakers a 22-17 lead. But , the Quakers could not widen the gap between themselves and the Explorers after Plummer's hot streak ended. And Butler's 3-pointer as time expired was a sign of things to come in the second half. As hot as Plummer was in the first half, Butler was hotter in the first five minutes of the second half. He torched the Quakers for 13 points in those five minutes as La Salle raced out to a 43-36 lead with 11:38 to go in the game. But he and his teammates cooled off, and the inspired play of Onyekwe -- who responded positively to being benched for most of the last 10 minutes of the first half -- helped lead the Quakers back in front.

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