It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't what Drexel did. But it was a win in the home opener and on coach Glen Miller's debut on the Palestra's home bench.
Paced by 26 points from Mark Zoller, Penn struggled in the first half before opening up a double-digit lead and easing past Florida Gulf Coast, 97-74.
The Quakers (2-2) and Eagles (0-2) were neck-and-neck throughout most of the first half before an unlikely source spurred them on a 19-3 run. Freshman Darren Smith hit three straight three-pointers and sophomore Kevin Egee added another trifecta during the stretch, which pushed the Penn lead to ten.
"I'm happy for Darren," Miller said. "He's been hesitant offensively, just trying to do the right things, and as a result he's been neglecting his own offense.
"Today, for him to hit some shots, we really needed a lift like that."
The Eagles cut the deficit to six at halftime, but were unable to get any closer after that, as Penn exploded in the second half. FGCU's full-court press gave the Quakers fits in the first half, but after halftime their execution improved and the press gave them little trouble.
As a result, the team shot 21-of-28 (75 percent) in the last 20 minutes, while Zoller poured in 19 of his 26 points and Brian Grandieri had 15 of his 19.
The Quakers' hot shooting, the high tempo of the game, and the referees' tendency to call fouls (Penn was in the double bonus for the majority of the second half) made the game a high-scoring affair. The end-to-end action, coupled with the Quakers' superior athleticism, wore the Eagles down and allowed Penn to boost the lead up above 20 toward the end of the game.
"We did a great job for 37, 38 minutes," FGCU coach Dave Balza said. "Earlier in the game, when they broke the press, we were still there and able to guard 5-on-5. I thought we stopped doing that over the last couple of minutes."
But if FGCU lost its grip on the game, it wasn't for lack of desire or effort. FGCU sophomore Landon Adler found himself going head-to-head with Zoller on both ends of the floor, and didn't back down from the challenge, scoring 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
The Eagles simply worked harder than the Quakers did in the first half, enabling them to stay in the game and frustrating Miller.
"What I was most disappointed with was to have a team outhustle us," he said. "And getting outrebounded really caused us problems."
The rebounding advantage manifested itself the most on the offensive glass, where the Eagles walloped Penn. Every FGCU player that played grabbed at least one offensive rebound, and as a team the Eagles beat Penn 16-6 in that statistic.
"They killed us on the boards," Zoller admitted.
But even for its struggles, Penn left the Palestra on a positive note. The Quakers' late run was emphatically punctuated by Ibrahim Jaaber, who turned in an efficient, 15-point and 8-assist effort. On a fast break with under a minute to go, Zoller made a sudden, one-handed pass to the streaking Jaaber. The senior co-captain elevated until his hand was several inches above the rim and then slammed down an alley-oop as the home crowd roared its approval.
That was closer to what the Quakers and their fans had in mind.
