In game of runs, Penn laughs last

With Penn smothering Princeton's offense, Stephen Danley's layup to put the Quakers up by 10 seemed like it could be the final dagger to the Tigers' hopes for an upset.

The Princeton squad was not ready to concede yet. Danley's basket would be the last points that Penn would score for the next eight minutes.

The Tigers took advantage of the Quakers' scoring drought with a 10-0 run to scratch back into a game that everyone thought would not be decided easily.

Senior forward Mark Zoller was anything but surprised.

"Anytime you play a Penn-Princeton game it's going to be significant," said the tri-captain Zoller, who led the Quakers with 17 points. "You throw the records away and play the game as hard as you can. . With just the way they play, you're going to have a close game."

Last night proved to be no exception, and it was two runs that ultimately determined the game.

Penn's double-digit lead went as quickly as it came, as Princeton went on its 10-0 romp that was punctuated when freshman guard Lincoln Gunn sunk his first free throw after a Danley foul to knot the score up at 29 apiece.

But the burst of energy was followed by a problem that the Tigers have had all season. Their inexperience came back to bite them.

Gunn went on to miss his next foul shot, and the squad would miss its next two wide-open three-point attempts - any one of which could have given Princeton its first and only lead of the night.

"Those are winning times," Tigers coach Joe Scott said. "Those are the times you make those shots, you put the pressure on Penn, and they have to respond . and that's what our young guys have to learn to do."

Danley started the charge for the Quakers by scoring on a member's bounce that found its way into the hoop.

Like the game, the shot may not have been pretty. But it was enough to jump-start Penn's 12-0 run.

"We were showing a bit of frustration with our lack of ability to score the ball," Penn coach Glen Miller said of the scoring drought. "But we hung in there, got defensive stops and we were able to get to the foul line, and get them into the bonus early and I thought that was a real key."

With the two runs combined, there were over 14 minutes where only one team was scoring and the other wasn't scoring at all.

But Princeton's big run showed that the odds of the Tigers pulling off an upset were anything but lopsided, despite Penn's pre-game status as the heavy favorites.

With the history of this heated rivalry, nobody should be surprised.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.