Quakers break century mark against Harvard

Just five minutes into Friday night's matchup between Penn and Harvard, the Palestra crowd began its night-long series of chants for cheesesteaks.

With over a minute left in the matchup, junior guard Pat Lang delivered, knocking down a three-pointer at the top of the key to put Penn over the 100-point mark for the first time since the Quakers toppled Dartmouth, 100-62, on Feb. 16, 2002.

This time, just reaching 100 points wasn't enough for an unstoppable Red and Blue squad.

Backed by accurate shooting, and an unusually effective inside game, Penn secured its first win in Ivy League play with a 104-69 rout against Harvard.

A message has now been sent to the rest of the Ancient Eight: Penn is not ready to write this season off. A third consecutive Ivy League crown is still the Quakers' goal.

"We were obviously a wounded team coming off last weekend," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said after the game. "We needed to play well, and show some energy early on."

But Penn did more than just secure a victory -- they dominated all aspects of Friday's game.

The Red and Blue led the game for its entirety. The closest Harvard came to leading the game was in the first minute, when Crimson center Graham Beatty hit a jumper to tie the game at two.

From that point on, it was all Penn.

When the Quakers shuffled into the locker room at halftime, there was little to correct. The Red and Blue shot 73 percent from the field -- and 70 percent from behind the arc -- a daunting statistic for the Harvard coaching staff. Penn senior guard Jeff Schiffner hit four three-pointers in the first half alone, and eventually finished the night with an impressive 24 points, five assists and two rebounds.

All but one Penn starter tallied double digits in scoring Friday night, with a particularly solid performance coming from senior center Adam Chubb.

The difference between Friday night and Penn's performances the weekend before was not in shooting percentage alone.

The Quakers stepped up their transition game considerably, beating Harvard with effective outlets, a hurried offense and quick jumpers. Shooting guards Tim Begley and Schiffner both took advantage of what little pressure Harvard applied in the transition game.

Most importantly, Penn put to use its formidable, although inexperienced, bench to use.

Seven bench players saw time in the rout, and each of them scored at least a bucket to combine for 36 points.

Most impressively, freshman guard Ibby Jaaber tallied 13 points, three rebounds and five steals on the night.

"We need people off the bench," Dunphy said. "And different games present different opportunities to get more people minutes.

"Obviously, this home game was a great chance to see what some guys who haven't played all that much can do."

"We still control our own destiny," Schiffner said.

Two wins down, only 10 to go.

Around the Ivy League Friday's games PENN 104, Harvard 69 Cornell 96, Brown 81 Princeton 61, Dartmouth 45 Yale 63, Columbia 58 Saturday's games PENN 67, Dartmouth 49 Brown 90, Columbia 81 Princeton 58, Harvard 50 2OT Yale 67, Cornell 48

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