PRINCETON N.J. -- The confidence which the Penn men's basketball team lacked at the beginning of Ivy League play this season might simply have gotten off at the wrong train station on the way to New Haven two weeks ago.
It was found last night, waiting at Princeton's Jadwin Gymnasium for the Quakers' 209th meeting with their traditional archrivals.
Senior Jeff Schiffner used it to hit five of seven three-point attempts on the way to a game-high 22 points.
Freshman Mark Zoller used it to score 16 points and grab five rebounds, establishing himself as a dominant force inside against Princeton center Judson Wallace, arguably the Ivy League's best big man so far this season.
And the entire team used it to defeat the Tigers, 67-52, and firmly re-establish the Red and Blue's place in the thick of the Ancient Eight title race.
Penn trailed only once in the matchup, after Wallace got the game's first points with a layup. The two teams traded baskets for much of the first half, and the Tigers were able to cut the lead to 16-14 with 8:35 to go before halftime. After that, the scoreboard tilted heavily in the Quakers' favor, as Schiffner, junior Tim Begle, and junior Eric Osmundson hit successive three-pointers. Zoller and junior Jan Fikiel added key points in the paint. Another Schiffner three pushed the score to 34-21, and Penn coasted from there to a 38-24 halftime lead.
"It was a must-win for us," Zoller said. "We had to come out and play the best we could, jump on them early."
The sizeable contingent of Penn students in Jadwin's upper balcony was in full throat again quickly in the second half. A slashing run to the basket by Zoller with 2:30 to play left senior center Adam Chubb unguarded in the post for an easy dunk, which pushed Penn's lead to 20 points.
Princeton cut the lead to 14 midway through the half on a three-pointer by freshman Max Schafer. But Begley responded with a layup at the other end, which drew a foul from senior Ed Persia. The home team's momentum was dashed from then on.
"They certainly were going to make a run," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said of the Tigers. "We just needed to stem the tide a little bit."
Crucial to Penn's ability to stay ahead throughout the game was its 60 percent accuracy from three-point range, with Schiffner playing a large role.
"We've gotten some good looks and just have to continue to work at doing that," he said. "I think it's out there when we're running our offense we're tough to stop."
Wallace knew that allowing the Quakers to shoot so many early outside shots was not going to help the Tigers extend their unbeaten Ivy League run to five games.
"They got their confidence and they are a really good shooting team," the junior said. "You can't really let a team like this get out of the bag."
One area in which there was no adversity for Penn was personal fouls. Chubb committed two on Wallace early and was sent to the bench for much of the first half as a result, but committed only one the rest of the way. As a team, the Quakers only committed nine fouls and the Tigers had a meager three free throws the entire game, of which they made two.
"I thought we did a good job of stopping dribble penetration for the most part," Dunphy said. "We did a lot of switching to keep people out there in front of us."
Although there were plenty of reasons to celebrate a big win over an old foe, Schiffner knows that it will not be enough if the Quakers want to win a third consecutive Ivy League championship -- especially with road games against Columbia and high-flying Cornell this weekend.
"We're in this position -- and it's a clich‚, and we've talked a lot about it -- but we have to take things one game at a time," he said. "We're just going to have to go into this weekend with the same philosophy and that's how we're going to have to do this for the rest of the season."
For his part, Princeton coach John Thompson III acknowledged that the Tigers were somewhat complicit in their own demise.
"There were a few things that we have been attentive to that we weren't as attentive to tonight," he said. "At the same time they didn't miss."
And although the Tigers were able to score 11 of the game's final 15 points, the team had to watch its fans head for the exits early, as a raucous rendition of "Rock 'N Roll Part II" came down from the upper balcony to officially signal Penn's return to the Ivy League title race.
