Begley and Jaaber explode for 22 apiece as Penn holds Forte to one basket in easy win over Brown

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The game plan for defeating Brown is simple: stop Jason Forte.

The 6-foot-1 guard torched the Quakers for 23 points in Penn's 92-88 loss here last season. Described by Penn coach Fran Dunphy as "a prolific scorer," Forte is leading the Ivy League with 17.3 points per game this season.

So it came as no surprise that Forte opened the game with a three-pointer from the right wing on the Bears' first possession.

And, save for a handful of free throws, that would be all anyone heard from a frustrated Forte, who took only four shots and finished with just eight points.

The Quakers, meanwhile, had a blast as they built a 32-point lead in the second half, and coasted to a 79-62 victory. It was the 11th straight win for Penn.

"They're not a team that's getting complacent at all with a big lead," said Brown coach Glen Miller. "They're really hitting on all cylinders, they're playing well and they're executing."

Penn took a cavalier attitude into the game, and kept that tone the whole time. Call it confidence, or maybe youthful exuberance. Ask sophomore Mark Zoller if he had a good time in this game. His response: "yeah, definitely."

Early in the first half, the Brown band stood in unison and shouted "Hey Zoller, 1970 called, they want their hair back."

The 6-7 forward just grinned and shrugged it off. Perhaps the band did not realize that Penn ran the table in the Ivy League that season.

Moments later, the aforementioned Zoller launched a cross-court pass to classmate Ibby Jaaber who put up an uncontested layup sparking a 19-8 Penn run.

The Quakers led by as many as 14 in the first half as they pushed the tempo of the game into high gear. With the cushion, Dunphy gave his starters a break, and freshman David Whitehurst got some serious minutes with Steve Danley sitting out and Eric Osmundson under the weather.

With the reserves in, things got a little rocky. Three consecutive steals by the Bears (9-12, 2-5) led to three straight layups, and Brown cut the advantage to five at the break.

"We panicked a little," Dunphy said of the lapse in focus.

But in the second half, it was all Quakers.

Luke Ruscoe's layup made it 31-28 to open the period, but that's as close as the Bears would come the rest of the night. Ruscoe managed just one other bucket on the night to finish with four points.

The Red and Blue then manufactured a 40-13 run led mainly by dominant inside play and back-to-back three-pointers from senior Tim Begley. Zoller and Jaaber traded buckets down low while the Bears continued to hoist ill-fated three-balls at the other end -- Brown finished the night 4-for-23 from beyond the arc.

Begley, who recorded 22 points on the night had to be satisfied with the adjustments the team was able to make in the locker room.

"We got our big guys pushed away from the basket a little bit more in the first half and we were forcing a lot of passes to the wings" he said. "I think when we just let things come to us in the second half things started working out."

All the while, Penn controlled the glass to the tune of a 51-25 rebounding edge. Zoller and Jaaber combined for eight offensive boards, which helped Penn to tally 21 second-chance points.

"We did a good job on the offensive glass and got a couple of big stick-backs and those are important for us," Dunphy said.

The usually stoic Jaaber even cracked a smile after finishing off a broken Danley layup with an emphatic one-handed jam.

It was just a byproduct of the team's upbeat swagger on a night when the sophomore class was making all the noise -- Jabber scored 22, Zoller added 14, and Ryan Pettinella had 10.

"We were the playmakers tonight, whereas it's normally Tim and Ibby making plays, and Oz. But tonight we were the playmakers," Zoller said.

To cap it off, Danley jumped up and punched the air as senior Nameir Majette scored the Quakers final basket of the night with a minute to go. It wasn't a game in the NCAA Tournament, and Penn held a 25-point lead at the time, but you wouldn't know it from the level of enthusiasm.

The Quakers were not without mistakes -- they left Ruscoe wide open for a half dozen three-pointers and committed 26 turnovers -- but for a game that should have been much closer, a big win is hard to balk at.

NOTES: Zoller's 14 points and 12 rebounds were good for his second double-double of the year. He said afterward that while he heard the band's comments on his hair, it's staying that way. "That's almost my trademark," he said.

Penn's 26 turnovers were the most this season.

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