Even though it is not a member of the Philadelphia Big 5, Drexel and Penn played a classic Big 5-style game last night at the Palestra.
It was an ugly, physical game, but Penn never trailed and eventually wore Drexel down en route to a 68-49 victory.
The win was the fourth in a row for the Quakers (3-2) over the Dragons (2-1) and was easily the best defensive effort of the young season. Penn forced 19 turnovers and held the Dragons to just 33-percent shooting, both season-worsts for Drexel.
"It was a tremendous win for us," Penn coach Glen Miller said.
After allowing opponents to score 69.4 points per game on 43.4 percent shooting in their first three games, Penn was able to shut down the Dragons, who had shot 43.5 percent from the field in their first two games.
Drexel coach Bruiser Flint lamented his team's poor performance, which he said is no odd occurrence in the Palestra. In Flint's seven matchups with the Quakers here, his team is 1-6 and has been outscored by over 12 points a game in the losses.
"We lose to these guys just like this every year," he said.
Penn was especially successful in a 3-2 zone defense, but Flint thought that it was mostly because his team played so poorly.
However, Penn junior guard Brian Grandieri insisted that his team played with a stronger defensive intensity the entire game than it had previously this season.
What was different in the previous contests was "basically a lack of effort on the defensive end the first four games," he said.
Offensively, Penn was led by senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber, who dropped in 22 points on a strong 9-of-13 shooting performance. Fellow senior Mark Zoller also had a strong night, with 16 points and 10 boards - his second double-double of the year - and Grandieri chipped in nicely with 12 points, nine boards and eight assists.
Senior forward Steve Danley and sophomore guard Tommy McMahon were the only other Quakers to score.
Only one Drexel player, senior guard Dominick Mejia, scored in double figures, but he only made three of 10 field goals.
Junior center Frank Elegar, who is a key to Drexel's offense, struggled mightily, scoring eight points with eight turnovers in only 23 minutes.
"He just wasn't very good tonight - he was awful, actually," Flint said.
Both teams started slow, with 11 combined turnovers in the first six minutes as Penn went out to a 5-4 lead.
But the Quakers scored the next 12 points, hitting five consecutive field goals to race to a 17-4 advantage with 11:39 left in the first.
The teams largely traded buckets until the 4:31 mark of the half, when Drexel had its best offensive spurt of the game.
Led by eight points from senior guard Dominick Mejia, the Dragons went on a 10-1 run to cut the lead to two. But Penn added six quick points before a three-pointer by Tramayne Hawthorne with five seconds to go ended the first half with Penn leading 31-26.
Jaaber said the Quakers struggled before the break mostly because players went one-on-one instead of running set plays out of the half-court offense.
But the second half started much like the first. Both teams continued to turn the ball over and struggle with their shots, but Penn gradually upped its lead into double digits, mostly on the strength of its defense. After a Zoller three on the Quakers' first possession, Penn went six of seven trips without scoring.
But Penn held Drexel to five points in the first eight minutes of the half, offsetting the Quakers' own offensive struggles.
The big play during that span came off Penn's second offensive rebound of a possession, when Grandieri grabbed the board and found his way to a layup and foul, getting the Quakers' lead to 40-30 with 13:38 to play.
After the margin stayed relatively constant, Grandieri fed Jaaber for a bucket. And then the senior returned the favor, feeding Grandieri for an alley-oop layup that turned into a three-point play, upping the score to 52-36.
From that point on, Penn was able to break Drexel's press, although not easily. The Quakers kept increasing its lead - which grew to as much as 21 - and it coasted to victory.
Penn finished the night at 48 percent from the field and was good in spurts, especially late in the second half.
Miller and Jaaber both attributed that to more patience as Penn slowed the game down and made the most of its opportunities.
The Quakers also had a huge improvement from the foul line. After shooting 62 percent in the first four games, Penn went 16-of-19 last night, including a perfect 7-for-7 from Danley.
"We've taken a lot of foul shots this week," Miller said, adding that his offense is designed to get to the line, so Penn needs to convert its attempts in order to be successful.
Both teams next face opponents from the Garden State as Drexel visits Rider on Monday and Penn hosts Monmouth on Tuesday.
