Fifty seconds remained on the clock, and Penn was clinging to a 62-58 lead over St. Joseph's. Senior guard Tim Begley was inbounding the ball for the Quakers along the sideline on the Hawks' end of the court. Begley turned to sophomore forward Steve Danley, to whom he was inbounding the ball, and told him to hand the ball back to him after the pass.
But Danley did not give the ball up. He saw the defense cheating towards Begley, spun along the baseline and dunked the ball with two hands, sending the Red and Blue faithful in the crowd of 7,452 at the Palestra into a frenzy.
For all intents and purposes, the game was over.
"He made a hell of a play right there," Begley said.
Danley then went on to grab the next rebound with a terrific boxout off a missed free throw by John Bryant, demonstrating that he has the ability to play on either side of the floor, while also keeping his head in the game down the stretch after making a big play.
For the game, the native of Germantown, Md., did not have overwhelming statistics -- scoring 10 points on just 3-of-8 shooting, with six rebounds and six assists in 22 minutes of action.
However, Danley's impact on the team goes far beyond his numbers.
He brings the most intensity on the team, and showed last night that he can run the offense from the post position.
At 6-foot-8 and 215 pounds, Danley is the tallest and one of the biggest players in the Quakers' starting lineup, but he is not very big compared to the players he routinely guards -- normally the opposition's biggest player.
Last night, Danley drew the assignment of 6-11, 250 pound Dwayne Jones. He banged bodies with last week's Atlantic 10 and Big 5 Player of the Week all night, and together with Ryan Pettinella held Jones to eight points on just 1-of-4 shooting.
On offense Danley positioned himself well, taking advantage of Jones' tendency to stay behind players in an attempt to block shots. He was then able to dish out his team-high six helpers, which tied for the game-high with St. Joseph's Dwayne Lee. Danley also only committed one turnover against the fierce defense of Jones.
The sophomore made several other very intelligent plays during the game. On one, with the shot clock running down, he drew the Hawks' Dave Mallon in the air on a good head-fake, got the contact for the foul and converted the ensuing three free throws.
He even has expanded his outside shooting this season. In each of the four games leading up to last night, Danley was 1-for-1 from behind the arc. Last night he was 1-for-2,bringing his total to 6-of-8 on the year. Danley did not even attempt a three-pointer last season.
After coming off the bench last year, averaging 2.6 points and2.6 rebounds per game, this year's 8.6 points and 4.6 rebounds represent a big step forward.
However, to take the next step, Danley still has some things to work on in his game.
He occasionally makes careless fouls, which, as was the case last night, have limited his playing time. He also missed a big one-and-one free throw with 33 seconds left in the game.
Altogether though, Danley's impact is only positive for Penn. Perhaps this is summed up the best by coach Fran Dunphy.
"Steve's doing a great job for us."
