M. Hoops aims for Ivy revenge

The Penn men's basketball team begins the second half of its Ivy League season tonight, just three days removed from a blow-out victory at Princeton.

The Quakers (17-6, 4-3 Ivy) will host Harvard (12-8, 5-3) at 7 p.m. and will be trying to avenge last month's 78-75 overtime loss in Boston.

That Saturday night thriller in Massachusetts was one night after the Crimson came within two points of beating Princeton, which escaped Briggs Cage with a 50-48 win.

The results of that weekend are now all that separate Penn from the 5-2 Tigers in the Ivy League standings. Yale continues to pace the Ancient Eight with a 7-1 mark.

Since that weekend, however, Harvard has struggled. The Crimson squeaked past Columbia on Friday before losing at previously winless Cornell on Saturday.

While Harvard will be looking to get back on track, Penn will try to continue its winning ways -- the Quakers have won their last two games by a combined 34 points.

"It hurt us losing up there," Penn guard Andrew Toole said. "They played well, made a lot of big shots. We want to beat them not just because we lost the first time, but to keep our championship hopes alive."

In the teams' last meeting, Toole fouled out. The junior guard also fouled out of Penn's loss at Yale last Friday. Since then, though, he has not committed a single foul.

It will be important for Toole to stay out of foul trouble tonight, as guards Patrick Harvey, Elliott Prasse-Freeman and Andrew Gellert are the Crimson's top threats. Toole's defensive agility will be key for the Quakers in stopping that dangerous trio.

Toole was one of three Quakers with 17 points on Tuesday night at Princeton, along with forwards Ugonna Onyekwe and Koko Archibong.

Archibong scored 13 points against Harvard in January, but shot just 3 for 9 from the field in the loss.

"We're definitely going into this game with a lot more sense of focus," Archibong said. "Especially after last time."

Penn has nothing to improve on from its last match-up with tomorrow night's opponent, Dartmouth (9-12, 2-6). At Leede Arena in January, Jeff Schiffner caught fire from downtown, hitting a season-high six three-pointers in a 16-point win.

The Big Green pose less of a threat to the Quakers than Harvard, but have played well recently, sweeping Cornell and Columbia on the road last weekend after an 0-6 start to the league season.

"I think they're coming together as a team, and we're going to have to be ready both nights," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "In the world of college basketball, you take each game as a tremendous challenge, and any team can beat you at any time."

Dartmouth has not won at the Palestra since 1997, but can be dangerous if guard Flinder Boyd is on his game. The senior from Los Angeles scored 24 points when Penn last faced the Big Green.

Since losing to Yale, though, the Quakers have known that every game is a must-win situation, and that remains the case this weekend. If the Red and Blue play as well as they did at Brown and Princeton, they should have few problems taking care of business again.

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