Quakers lose control of their own destiny as Brown sweeps Penn for first time since 1991

After playing near flawless basketball over the past five games, the Penn men's team took the court Friday night, facing off against the same Brown Bears team that gave the Quakers their last loss.

Unfortunately for Penn, the game turned out to be a lot like their first meeting, as the Bears upended the Red and Blue, 78-74. This was the first win for Brown at the Palestra since a 61-58 victory Jan. 11, 1991, the last year the Bears swept the season series.

For the Quakers, there were many areas that left room for improvement.

Leading scorers Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley were outplayed by their Brown counterparts. The two guards shot just 3-of-22 from the field, while going a miserable 1-of-13 from three-point range. The two scored just 13 points combined, well below their season averages.

Despite the struggles of Penn's two offensive leaders, they were clearly not alone.

As a team, the Quakers shot a mere 3-for-21 from beyond the three-point line and, more importantly, the Red and Blue failed to convert on eight of their 23 free-throw attempts.

"They came in here with a game plan that was to shut down threes," Dunphy said. "We shot 2-for-21 and obviously they shot the ball a lot better."

Another problem that handicapped the Quakers all evening was turnovers. The Red and Blue turned the ball over an astonishing 21 times that led to 22 points for the Bears.

"There were turnovers that really led to some easy baskets and that's just demoralizing," Dunphy said. "They get two points or three points just because we did a bad job of protecting the ball down at the other end."

On the other side of the court, the Bears backcourt seemed to experience little difficulty getting their shots to fall against the Penn defense.

Brown's speedy point guard, junior Jason Forte, was able to get through the Penn defense and create shots for himself seemingly whenever he chose to. For the night, he missed only five shots while scoring 29 points, enough to outscore every Penn guard who played (the five Quakers guards scored just 27 points).

Aiding Forte's offensive outburst was senior Patrick Powers. Powers contributed 22 points to the Brown point total while single-handedly connecting on more three-point attempts (four) than Penn's entire team.

Not all went wrong for the Quakers, however.

Penn's two big men, senior Adam Chubb and freshman Mark Zoller, carried the load for the Red and Blue from start to finish.

Zoller set a new career high by halftime, as he went to the locker room with 19 points and finished the game with a team-high 24 points and nine rebounds. Chubb was not far behind, as he claimed his fifth double-double of the season after collecting 21 points and 10 boards.

Both players dominated the interior, collecting personal fouls on Brown's big men, combining to record just five fewer rebounds than the Bears' entire team.

Despite being outplayed for much of the second half, the Quakers were able to put together a valiant comeback and closed to within one point,74-73.

"You just keep playing no matter what happens," Chubb said of the comeback. "You have to convince yourself and your teammates that we're going to [come back] and you just keep plugging away."

However, Brown was able to convert clutch free throws at the end of the game to finally put away the Quakers.

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