SPORTS UPDATE: Experienced Orange sends Quakers to 0-2 start

Syracuse, N.Y. - Ibrahim Jaaber was back on the court tonight against the Orange, but that didn't seem to matter. Neither did his 18 points, four assists, or four steals. The Quakers lost, 78-60, to a No. 20 Syracuse team playing at the top of its game in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. After contributing just five points in 23 minutes of work in Penn's season-opening defeat to UTEP the previous night, the senior captain logged 36 minutes against the Orange, only sitting when the game was well out of reach. But Jaaber insisted that the previous night's woes had no bearing on his performance tonight. "I didn't want to come out today thinking about last night at all," he said. "I didn't want to carry any frustrations from last night into today, so I kind of put that away, locked it away in a closet, for nobody ever to see again." Jaaber did most of his damage in the first half (12 points on 5-of-5 shooting), but it was there that the Quakers (0-2) saw Syracuse (2-0) build its lead. The Orange entered the break with a 37-24 edge after closing the half on a 23-7 run after the Quakers had taken a three-point lead with eight minutes to play. "We started out the game, hung around, did some good things," Miller said. "You've really got to keep Syracuse from going on those spurts, and we were unable to do that." Senior captain Mark Zoller played just 14 minutes in the half, but didn't contribute much while he was on the floor, either. The returning All-Ivy first-teamer shot 0-or-3 from the floor before halftime, with no points, rebounds or assists to speak of. It was clear that Syracuse's size advantage down low went a long way in limiting the effectiveness of players like Zoller and establishing a strong inside game for the Orange. Syracuse only out-rebounded the Quakers by two for the game, but held an 18-12 edge on the boards at the break, including 7-2 for offensive rebounds. Syracuse 6-foot-9 senior Terrence Roberts led the scoring effort for the Orange with 16, with almost all of those points coming off of offensive rebounds and easy dunks. For the game, he pulled down nine boards, four of them offensive. "I got some pretty good looks," Roberts said. "My main thing was to chase every rebound and just try to get anything I could. . I think that did it for me, and I think my team did a great job tonight with that." Although they would never recapture the lead, the Quakers did threaten in the second half. They put together a quick 8-2 run to pull back to within seven at 50-43, but the glimmer of hope disappeared as quickly as it had developed. An Eric Devendorf three-pointer sent the lead back to double digits, and Syracuse got an unexpected boost off its bench from fifth-year senior Matt Gorman, who poured in a career-high 12 points, including a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays to put any thoughts of a comeback out of the question. "We made a nice run in the second half, I thought, at least to get the deficit to seven with 12 and change to go," Penn coach Glen Miller said. "But a few offensive rebounds and turnovers, and it leads to a spurt by Syracuse." And that was the story tonight for an Orange team that shot 54 percent from the floor and seemed to get the big play or the big shot whenever it needed it most. Without that execution, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim knows things could have turned out a lot differently. "This was a game that could have gotten real close," he said. "We had a very good offensive and defensive game tonight." Now, the Quakers are left to pick up the pieces after starting off a promising season with two losses. Tomorrow, they will be facing a team in St. Francis (N.Y.) that finds itself in much the same predicament. But for Penn to put any fears of Joe Scott Part II out of its mind, it will need to be the one picking up its first win.