Quakers outrun Columbia

NEW YORK -- Columbia coach Joe Jones wanted to give fans at the crowded Levien Gym a reason to cheer. But Penn's Jeff Schiffner stole the show.

The senior swingman torched the Lions for 17 points in the opening stanza alone as the Quakers outran Columbia, 91-76, for their fourth win in a row.

Schiffner, who was coming off a knockout performance against Princeton Tuesday night, finished with a career-high 28 points, including four from three-point range.

But while the Chester, N.J., native may have been the star for Penn (11-8, 4-2 Ivy), the Quakers' supporting cast was equally impressive. Freshman Ibby Jaaber logged 20 minutes on the hardwood -- the most he has seen in a game for the Red and Blue -- and put on his own kind of show, adding 16 points and four assists.

Jaaber's effort on the floor, however, is less apparent on the stat sheet than it was to the 3,125 people in the seats. The 6-foot-2 guard injected life into a Penn transition game that had been cold in the game's opening minutes.

Penn coach Fran Dunphy described Jaaber as "an integral part of what we did tonight.

"Ibby came in there and did some great things at both ends of the court," Dunphy added.

The Quakers got off to a shaky start in the opening seven minutes, allowing Columbia (6-14, 2-5) to go on a 12-1 run and build a six-point advantage. Schiffner knocked in his first triple of the game with 12:49 remaining to get the Penn offense flowing.

"We just needed to settle down a little bit," Schiffner said.

The pace of the game picked up dramatically from that point, as Penn and Columbia traded baskets. But the Lions quickly found themselves in foul trouble, picking up their seventh team charge with more than 12 minutes left to play, giving the Quakers the bonus for the rest of the half.

After Columbia junior Allan MacQuarrie missed the front end of a one-and-one, senior Charlie Copp pulled down the rebound and pushed the ball down the floor to Schiffner, who sank a three-pointer to give the Quakers the lead with 5:37 to go.

As time was winding down, Jaaber missed an easy layup, but got the putback to drop, giving Penn a 45-36 advantage going into the intermission.

"We've been giving up fast breaks at the end of the half," Jaaber said. "And I didn't want to be the reason for that."

The Lions' first-half performance took a little wind out of the sails of the Columbia faithful, but they roared back to life midway through the second half when sophomore Dragutin Kravic sank a layup to pull within nine.

Jaaber responded, seizing the opportunity for a wide-open layup at the other end, to keep the momentum going for the Quakers.

"I thought we made some great plays in the second half," Dunphy said. "Schiff and Begs had some great assists for easy baskets."

Penn scored 30 points in the paint on the night, making good on Dunphy's strategy to go inside to the basket as the No. 1 priority. "Our thought is to establish ourselves inside first, and we were bigger than Columbia," Dunphy said. "We thought we could take advantage of that tonight, but it took us a while to do that."

The Quakers did hold the height advantage -- the Lions starting five are on average 6-4, while Copp is the only starter for Penn under that height.

"We just made shots," Dunphy said. "They pressured us, and we got some easy baskets."

In fact, the Quakers made 61.5 percent of their shots on the night, including 41.2 percent of their long balls.

"You're not going to beat a Penn team that shoots 61 percent," Jones said. "They did go 7-for-17 from three, but they also got a lot of easy shots in transition."

Junior Matt Preston led the way for Columbia with 28 points -- a career high.

"He epitomizes everything I'm trying to do here," Jones said. "He played one of his finest games of the year."

While the Lions hit 52.5 percent of their shots on the night, the difference in the game came at the charity stripe. Penn made 28 trips to the foul line -- dropping in 20 -- while Columbia only attempted eight freebies.

The Lions this season have changed dramatically from Columbia teams of late. Not only have they tripled the number of wins from a year ago, but have shifted to a more fast-paced offense.

"It's a brand-new system and a new style of play," Jones said.

The Quakers will see a similar style of offense tonight as they travel to Ithaca, N.Y., to take on Cornell. The game can be seen on YES Network at 8 o'clock.

Friday's Ivy League scores:

PENN 91 Columbia 76 Yale 78, Dartmouth 40 Brown 91, Harvard 67 Princeton 69, Cornell 64

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