View the slideshow of unpublished photos
Regardless of whether the Ivy League presidents want a postseason tournament, they're getting one this season.
Last night, the Penn men's basketball team defeated Princeton, 64-48, giving the Quakers a share of the Ivy title along with the Tigers and Yale, setting up the first-ever three team Ivy League playoff.
"I think it's great for the league," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "Obviously when we were sitting there at 2-3 [in the league], it was about the only hope we had."
Penn (24-6, 11-3 Ivy League) is the number one seed in the tournament by virtue of their 3-1 record against the other two champions. Princeton (16-10, 11-3) and Yale (19-9, 11-3) play tomorrow night at the Palestra at 8 p.m.
The winner will take on the Quakers at Lafayette in Easton, Pa., on Saturday for the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Last night's win over the Tigers was the culmination of a comeback that began after the Quakers lost to Yale on Feb. 8, which put Penn in sixth in the Ivy League.
"I think [the season's comeback] speaks a lot to our ability to bounce back after the adversity we faced earlier in the season," Penn forward Koko Archibong, who scored 11 points, said. "It means a lot for us to have battled back... but we're still not done yet."
Although it was the final game of the year, both teams came out stiff last night. At the first media timeout 5:20 into the contest, Princeton led, 2-1. When the Quakers hit their first field goal with 13:49 left in the first half, they had a 3-2 lead.
"The game was going well in the beginning," Princeton coach John Thompson III said. "But the ball just didn't go in."
After going down by three, the Quakers went on an 11-0 run to go up, 14-6, taking a lead they would never relinquish.
That run was sparked by Penn guard Andrew Toole and center Jan Fikiel, who each scored four during the spurt.
Particularly impressive was Penn's ball movement on Toole's jumper with 8:20 to go. The Quakers did their best impression of the Princeton offense, with all five players touching the ball before Toole hit a jumper on an assist by Jeff Schiffner. The junior had more assists than the entire Princeton team last night, dishing seven to the Tigers' six.
At the end of the first half, the Tigers clawed back into the contest, however. Senior guard Ahmed El-Nokali hit three three-pointers in the final three minutes, including a heave near half court at the buzzer, to bring the Tigers within five, 24-19, at the break.
"As I saw the ball in the air, I said to myself, 'That ball is going in the basket,'" Dunphy said. "I thought that might hurt us."
Princeton, however, was not able to capitalize on that late first-half surge. After going 0 for 8 from behind the three-point arc in the first half, the Quakers rebounded hit 5 of 8 attempts in the second.
Conversely, Princeton, who was 3 for 9 in the first stanza, hit only two of their 13 attempts in the second twenty minutes.
Toole hit two of those five second-half threes for the Quakers. He led all scorers with 19 points, 10 of those coming in the second half. In all, Penn shot 65 percent from the floor in the second half.
Although Penn's offense struffled early, its defense was rock solid the entire game. For the second straight contest against Penn, the Tigers did not hit any backdoor layups, a trademark of their offense. Senior Mike Bechtold, who scored 25 points in a win over Columbia on Saturday, missed all six of his shots and did not score any points.
Penn "put different guys on him, they guarded him well," Thompson said. "He didn't have the opportunity to get too many shots."
The loss was particularly deflating for Princeton, who could have clinched the Ivy League title outright with a win.
"Definitely a bad loss because the emotions were really high for this game," El-Nokali said. "But we'll be back on Thursday -- there's nothing else."
For the Quakers, the title is their 21st since formal Ivy League play began in 1957. For Saturday's playoff championship, Dan Solomito claims that the Quakers do not care which team they face.
"I'll take either one," he said. "I'm pretty confident in us against any team in this league -- and most teams in the country for that matter -- I think we'll do just fine against whoever."
