Bittersweet sweep

It took the Penn men's basketball team just three minutes to pull away from the Columbia Lions and finish off its weekend sweep with a 64-50 victory.

The Quakers led for most of the first half, but it was not until both teams took the floor after the final media timeout of the first half that Penn broke the game wide open.

"I think that [run] was the key to the game," Penn head coach Fran Dunphy said. "We made some shots, did well defensively, I think they were stuck on 20 for a while. That was definitely the key to the game, it gave us a great cushion in the second half."

Junior guard Tim Begley led the offensive charge, as he knocked down two three-pointers as well as converting a reverse layup into a three- point play by knocking down his free throw.

The Lions finally ended Penn's run, as sophomore Dalen Cuff stroked home a three-pointer of his own. The shot cut the deficit to 16 points as the two teams entered the locker rooms, but the damage had already been done. Columbia would be unable to overcome the deficit in the second half. The two teams traded baskets at the start of the second half, and Penn built its lead up to as much as 23 points before the Lions made a final attempt at a comeback and closed to within 14 at the game's end.

For the Red and Blue, the defense seemed to carry the team.

The Quakers were able to shut down Columbia junior forward Matt Preston, a feat they were unable to achieve the first time these two teams met.

Preston scored just two points in the first half and was held below double digits for the game. The Wantagh, N.Y., native dropped a career-high 28 points against the Quakers the last time they played the Lions in New York.

Penn's defense "did a very good job on Matt," Columbia head coach Joe Jones said. "I was more proud of his 10 rebounds, but he's a warrior and he gives us an opportunity to win every night because of how hard he plays. He had some open looks at threes that didn't fall and I think that hurt his game."

Penn shot just 41 percent from the field and freshman Ibby Jaaber's three-pointer was the lone long distance hit during the second half.

Jeff Schiffner led the scoring charge with 12 points, and Penn had five players in double digits.

The balanced Quakers attack allowed Dunphy to go with an unusually small lineup in the second half.

With freshman forward Mark Zoller in foul trouble -- he only played 18 minutes for the entire game -- Penn used a lot of four-guard sets in the second half.

Columbia doesn't "have great size, so we got away," with the four guard sets, Dunphy said. "When we do it and do it well, we can cut and get some easy opportunities for ourselves."

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