The wait is finally over. The Quakers are in the win column.
Senior captain Brian Grandieri stabilized the offense and led the Quakers in scoring, as he has all season long, and the underclassmen that Grandieri had called out just a few days earlier finally showed up to help Penn right its ship with a 93-77 victory over The Citadel last night at the Palestra.
After struggling to find a rhythm in the first three games, freshman Harrison Gaines turned in a memorable performance, becoming only the fifth player in program history to reach the 12-assist mark in a game.
Classmate Tyler Bernardini was one of the chief beneficiaries of Gaines' court vision, knocking down open shot after open shot to ignite Penn's aggressive offensive attack and effectively break down the Bulldogs' zone defense.
"The first few games, I was pretty nervous going in and kind of struggled," Bernardini said following his 18-point performance. "It was just good to get a win."
Last night's Penn squad looked entirely different from the one that suffered demoralizing losses to Howard and Loyola. Against The Citadel, the Quakers excelled in almost every area that had plagued them earlier in the season.
The same stifling fullcourt press that Loyola used to discombobulate the young Quakers 11 days ago didn't work for The Citadel. Penn's increased confidence and ability to attack the pressure generated 22 fast-break points, compared to only two for the Bulldogs.
"There was a lot of indecision against Loyola with the same press," Quakers coach Glen Miller said. "Today, we were much more aggressive looking up the floor and knowing where our pressure releases were. Once we had successes a few times it built some confidence."
While Penn jumped out to an early lead and never trailed during the game, The Citadel kept the contest close throughout the first half. The Bulldogs went 11 for 17 for the game from beyond the arc. Austin Dahn led the way with 18 points, hitting two of his four threes from well beyond NBA range.
But in the beginning of the second half, Penn's starting lineup of Gaines, Bernardini, Grandieri, freshman Jack Eggleston and sophomore Andreas Schreiber went on a 16-6 run to swing all of the momentum in the Quakers' favor.
Penn broke the press with ease, and Gaines was able to penetrate and give Bernardini and Grandieri several open looks.
"They did a tremendous job of handling our press," Bulldogs coach Ed Conroy explained.
For the Quakers, it was the first time all season that Miller left one group of five on the court for a full six minutes. The unit moved the ball well in the half-court set with Gaines at the point. Once the Bulldogs stopped pressing, the Quakers could spread out the floor to create more scoring opportunities. The Red and Blue had a total of 30 assists on the night, a season high.
"I love teams that share the ball with each other," Miller said. "Teams that I've coached that have been good have been high-assist teams."
With a win finally under its belt, Penn now has the opportunity to build on a positive performance.
"The mood in the locker room has been real morose over the past month," Gaines said. "Now we'll have happy faces going back to the dorms."
The wait is finally over.
