NEW YORK -- As Jeff Schiffner drove to the basket with the clock dwindling in double overtime, the Chester, N.J., native found himself doing something he only dreamed of as a kid.
The Penn senior guard capped his drive with a jumper that gave Penn a 63-61 lead over St. John's at Madison Square Garden and left the Red Storm with only eight-tenths of a second to respond.
The subsequent St. John's cross-court inbounds pass was tipped by a Penn player and the Quakers secured their 63-61 victory in the opening round of the Dreyfus Holiday Festival.
"I'm from North Jersey and I grew up a Knick fan, so I was really excited for today's game," Schiffner said. "To be able to do it in [Madison Square Garden] is great."
Penn (4-4) found itself behind early as St. John's (2-6) scored the game's first two buckets, but the Quakers responded with 10 straight points. All of the 10 points were the result of shots behind the arc as junior guard Tim Begley capped the run with a free throw after being fouled as made a three-pointer.
The Quakers built their advantage up to 10 points by the end of the first half and held a lead of at least five points over the Johnnies until 5:27 left in the second half. At that point, St. John's sophomore guard Darryl Hill hit a jumper to cut the lead to 48-45.
St. John's went on to score the next three baskets and invigorated their fans as they went up 51-48 on an Andre Stanley layup with 2:35 remaining in the half.
Penn responded with its own five-point run on a layup and slam dunk by junior Adam Chubb and a free throw from Begley to give the Quakers a 53-51 lead with under a minute left. Another Stanley layup tied the game at 53 with 22.4 seconds left in regulation and an errant Penn shot sent the game into overtime.
St. John's seemed to have the momentum going into the extra period as they scored the first five points, but Penn answered with five points including a Schiffner three-pointer that knotted the score at 58 with 1:31 to play in the period. Neither team would score again in the first overtime forcing another session.
In the second overtime, each team only tallied three points a piece before Penn had their final possession and Schiffner made his game-winning drive.
NOTES: Schiffner led all scorers with 17 points on 6-for-21 shooting from the field. 38 out of Penn's 70 shot attempts were from behind the three-point arc. Both teams shot below 40 percent from the field (Penn: 31.4%/St. John's: 39.3%). Penn struggled from the free-throw line shooting 9 of 19 for 47.4 percent.
