La Salle shootout one for the history books

By Josh Hirsch

Senior Staff Writer

jjhirsch@sas.upenn.edu

When Penn beat La Salle 93-92 last week, it was not just the team's first one-point win in more than five years.

It was also Penn's highest aggregate scoring win in almost 20 years, and it was the second-highest aggregate score since 1990 (with the highest being the Quakers' 89-99 loss to Villanova last month).

This came courtesy of a game that had 15 lead changes and five ties in the last 11:26. Not once until there were 14 seconds left did either side lead by more than three.

Penn scored on 15 of its last 19 possessions, including its last seven, while the Explorers did so on five straight and seven of eight in the last four and a half minutes, for a total of 13 scores in 19 chances.

But it was Mark Zoller coming up with the one defensive stop and steal on an errant pass by Mike St. John, which gave the Quakers the win.

"I think that says a lot about this team and their character, just finding a way to win," Zoller said.

And after so many tight losses, senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber said that the victory at La

Salle would be a big boost for the team.

"Confidence would be the first word I would mention. We need to be able to win close games and you can't do that if you're not confident," he said.

Change of pace. Penn's two highest-scoring games this season have been its two Big 5 contests, games that have traditionally been lower-scoring. Last year, the Quakers' four games averaged a combined score of just 110.5. This year's matchups with Villanova and La Salle have averaged 186.5 points per game, a major change.

For Penn coach Glen Miller, the score is not important.

"In the end [all] that matters is the win," he said.

Zoller said that while he is not accustomed to the scoring, the close games and fierce competition of the Big 5 is still strong.

"I think they're the same in the intensity at that it goes down to the wire," he said.

But Jaaber, while acknowledging the constant intensity, said that there is something different when every possession is not as important as it was when teams were scoring in the 40s.

"Nobody wanted to give points up to anybody," the veteran of 14 Big 5 games said.

One reason for the high scoring affairs has been the athletic nature of the Big 5 teams. Penn's four worst defensive efforts have come against the highly athletic North Carolina, Villanova, Seton Hall and La Salle.

With two more athletic teams this week in Temple and Saint Joseph's, Miller is concerned with getting the overall team defense better.

"We can't get beat off the dribble as easily as we have been," he said.

Freshman Darren Smith may be key to better defense, as he mostly shut down La Salle's Darnell Harris last week. But Miller is not locking into Smith as his go-to defender. He'll take anyone who can get a stop.

"A lot of guys can play good defense," he said. "We're always looking for a new guy."

"I shall call them mini-games." Penn's media notes before each game list a section on "Mini-games," which detail the Quakers' performance between media timeouts every four minutes.

So far, Penn's best four-minute stretch has been the opening four minutes. The Quakers are 13-1-2 in the first "Mini-game," only losing to Syracuse.

The reasons may lie in Penn's up-tempo style.

"Guys are looking forward to getting in the game," Jaaber said. "Now that we run we catch a lot of teams off guard."

Zoller and Miller felt it was more of a confidence issue.

"Guys aren't coming out nervous, they're coming out and hitting shots," Miller said.

"I think we're just real prepared to play," Zoller added. "We want to come out on teams early and set the tone."

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