Four wins over break would have been too much to ask for the men's basketball team - the last time Penn went undefeated over winter vacation was 1979, when the Quakers ended up in the Final Four.
But after coming home with a 2-2 record, the Quakers will enter Ivy League play this Friday with a shortage of momentum. Here The Daily Pennsylvanian recaps all of the hoops action from the past three weeks.
Penn 90, Illinois-Chicago 78
Dec. 21 - Junior guard Brian Grandieri has not built a reputation as a superstar. His knack for being in the right place at the right time has garnered far more attention than his occasional scoring outbursts.
So with Penn struggling to keep up with a talented Illinois-Chicago team at the Palestra, Grandieri seemed an unlikely choice to turn things around. But with a supporting cast of underclassmen, he proved that these Quakers go much deeper than the three seniors who have dominated thus far.
The result was 19 points off the bench from Grandieri - all but two of which came in the second half - that helped Penn erase an early deficit and beat the Flames 90-78.
"That was the role I played last year - coming off the bench - so it wasn't anything new for me," Grandieri said. "Coach [Glen Miller] came in at halftime and questioned - not our manhood, but our character. The guys responded."
Senior forward Mark Zoller still led the Quakers with 21 points, though he struggled early on, especially from long distance. Classmate Stephen Danley had a dominant game inside, hitting six of eight shots, and senior guard Ibrahim Jaaber tallied nine points, nine assists and six steals, becoming the Ivy League's all-time leader in the last category.
But the three had scored plenty against Villanova and Fordham, only to see each game slip away. This time, Penn's up-and-comers got into the act as well, and its defense came around in due time.
When the Flames mounted a late charge, crucial field goals by sophomores Tommy McMahon and Brennan Votel helped seal the game. Both have struggled offensively this year, but McMahon still notched eight points and three assists on some nifty inside passing.
"All those are critical situations where guys that aren't our main guys came up with big plays," Miller said.
UIC certainly came up with its share of big plays. Swingman Othyus Jeffers was a mismatch for Penn all night, working himself open off the dribble and outmuscling the Quakers' guards on the inside. He finished with 27 points and 14 rebounds, eight of them offensive.
With Jeffers scoring virtually at will, Miller went from a man-to-man defense that called for switching to a straight man, and eventually to the aggressive zone defense that the team has shown periodically this year.
The Flames didn't have an answer for it, and their three-point shooting dropped off. They finished 6-for-20 from distance.
"We were having a difficult time stopping" them, Miller said. "But we got one stop, got two, got three, got four, so we stayed in it."
"We've got to pick each other up. Everyone doesn't have their 'A' game every night," Grandieri said. "That's the way we have to win."
- Andrew Scurria
Seton Hall 94, Penn 85
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Dec. 23 - A cold afternoon from the field and ineffective defense off the dribble sent Penn to another loss as the Quakers closed out 2006 with a 94-85 loss to Seton Hall at the Continental Airlines Arena.
After crashing back to earth in an 80-61 loss to Virginia Tech two days earlier, the Pirates (7-2) exploited a shaky Penn defense to go on a 13-3 run late in the first half. The Pirates' scoring tear was led by their sixth man, Larry Davis, who came off the bench to post a career-high 27 points and 10 rebounds by game's end.
Yet the whole Seton Hall squad matched up favorably and easily shook the Quakers' defenders off their marks.
"Our number one game key was to keep them from getting into the lane with dribble penetration," Miller said. "That was probably 90 percent of their offense, so we did not do a very good job with our number one game key."
After digging themselves into a 13-point hole at halftime, the Quakers made a game of it in the second half, but were thwarted at the brink of every lead change.
With just over four minutes remaining, the Quakers cut the deficit to 74-70. With two Seton Hall players already fouled out, it seemed Penn was on the road to its second comeback win of the week - and perhaps a valuable upset of a high-major school.
After Seton Hall stud-freshman guard Eugene Harvey drained a short jumper, the Pirates intercepted a long inbound and scored two more. Harvey stripped the next inbound pass from McMahon and finished the play with another two points.
In the span of 15 seconds, the Pirates extended their lead from four to ten and did not look back.
The Quakers finished just 14-24 from the foul line for the game, as opposed to Seton Hall's nearly flawless 26-30. That performance, coupled with a 3-of-16 night from deep, wasted strong efforts from Zoller and Jaaber.
Just one game after becoming the Ivy League's all-time steals leader, Jaaber broke out on offense for the first time this season and scored 28 of his career-high 32 points in the second half. His ability to get ahead of Seton Hall's transition defense for easy lay-ins earned the praise of the opposing coach.
"Jaaber is a tremendous player," Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez said. "He could start for anyone in the Big East."
But Jaaber could not get the production he needed out of his teammates. Penn had notched 18 assists on 29 field goals against UIC, but had 15 on 34 against Seton Hall - along with an uncharacteristic 17 turnovers.
- Eric Karlan
(2) North Carolina 102, Penn 64
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Jan. 3 - For a few brief moments, the world turned upside down.
Penn came out against North Carolina firing, appearing more than prepared to compete against the nation's No. 2 team that was looking for its tenth consecutive win.
But despite an early ten-point lead, the Quakers were unable to keep up with the explosive North Carolina squad and fell to the Tar Heels, 102-64.
Penn (6-6) started out looking fresh and scored the first five points of the contest. The Quakers found a powerful weapon in their backdoor cuts, which helped them shoot an effective 13-for-23 from the floor in the first half.
The Tar Heels (13-1) showed why they are the nation's second-best team by quickly responding to the Quakers' tactics and limiting Penn's opportunities inside, forcing miscues.
McMahon started things off with a three on Penn's first possession and followed up with an inside cut for a layup.
A three-pointer from sophomore guard Kevin Egee gave Penn its largest lead of the game, 18-8, prompting North Carolina coach Roy Williams to do something few coaches in the country can - replace all five starters.
"The first couple of minutes, needless to say, I was not pleased," Williams said. "Everything that we said in the scouting report, [Penn] did, and our guys stood out there looking like they never heard anything about it."
Sophomore guard Bobby Frasor, in his first game back since a foot injury sidelined him for six games, responded with back-to-back baskets for the Tar Heels to start a 24-7 North Carolina run.
The Quakers coughed up four turnovers in their next four possessions to help put the Tar Heels up by 14.
After shooting 56.5 percent from the field in the first half, Penn's offense crumbled under the Tar Heels' relentless defensive press, netting just 33.3 percent from the floor in the second.
Jaaber led the team with 21 points, eight assists, four rebounds, three steals and a pair of blocks. Zoller had a frustrating night with six turnovers and just eight points, but chipped in by grabbing 10 rebounds.
"Across the board we're not going to play a point guard as fast as [Ty] Lawson, and we're not going to play a big man as good as [Tyler] Hansbrough or [Brandan] Wright," Zoller said. "But this'll get us prepared for [the Ivy League.]"
- Parisa Bastani
Penn 66, Elon 64
ELON, N.C., Jan 6 - Trailing late in the game and with their leading scorer on the bench, Penn seemed on the verge of being upset by Elon. But Jaaber, without the assistance of his most prolific teammate, helped guide Penn to a 66-64 win with two big plays on the offensive side.
Down by two with 2:16 to play in the game, Jaaber - who finished only 1 for 5 from behind the arc - hit a three that gave the Quakers (7-6) a one-point lead. After a pair of free throws by Elon (3-10) put Penn back down by one, Jaaber guided the ball in to junior Mike Kach, who sank an acrobatic layup for an and-1.
Kach's three-point play with 1:38 remaining gave Penn a lead it would not relinquish.
In the first half, Miller used 10 different players despite being without freshman guard Darren Smith, who did not dress for the game. The result was 17 points overall from a bench that has struggled throughout the nonconference season.
After opening up with a man defense, the Quakers found themselves down seven after only two minutes. Miller responded by switching to a zone, but the Phoenix exploited it with some sharp outside shooting. Elon shot 47 percent from behind the arc, including a pair of three-pointers on consecutive possessions by senior Chris Chalko late in the second half. He finished five-for-nine from distance.
But after all of their struggles, the Quakers now have the benefit of a winning record entering Ivy League play this weekend.
- Fred David
