EASTON, Pa., Nov. 28 - How quickly a lead can come and go in college basketball.
After a hard-fought first half that saw the Quakers head into the locker room down five, they came out strong after the break. Penn clawed back and took a one-point advantage with 12:09 to go.
That lead would be its last of the game.
A big offensive board by Lafayette's Bilal Abdullah led to a second-chance bucket from long distance by guard Andrew Brown.
Up to that point, the usually-accurate Leopards were shooting under 35 percent from downtown. Then, one drop of rain led to a downpour.
Paul Cummins added his own three on Lafayette's next possession, and then Brown nailed a 22-foot pull-up over junior guard Kevin Egee.
Three possessions, three threes. No points for Penn.
And despite Quakers coach Glen Miller's time-out, the Leopards just kept pounding - to the tune of an 18-2 run over four minutes that effectively put the game away.
Penn never got closer than 13 points.
"It just spiraled downhill," Miller said.
As much as bleary-eyed senior Mike Kach insisted that "he wasn't going to quit" during that stretch, it looked like his team did. They got lazy on defense.
"We took a lead and next thing, we're on the ball with our hands down," Miller said. "You can't do that against a team that shoots as well [as Lafayette] . we paid the price for it."
The Red and Blue's mistakes, the freshmen's inexperience and Lafayette's strengths were all magnified during those four minutes.
Two turnovers led directly to Lafayette baskets, and almost every poor shot by the Quakers resulted in a Leopards score on the other end.
Penn freshmen took all five of their team's field goals during that run and only made one.
The aggressiveness on their part was encouraging, but the more experienced opponent was able to take advantage of that fact and control the game.
Overzealous perimeter defense from Penn let Lafayette penetrate for easy buckets inside.
The Leopards' high-motion offense confused the young Quakers squad, which missed assignments from hand-off screens gave up open shots from downtown.
None of that would have made a difference if Lafayette shot as poorly as it did earlier in the game. But all the good looks that it missed in the first half started to fall midway through the second.
Basketball is a game of runs, and the Leopards got hot at the right time.
Their poise despite losing the lead stood in sharp contrast to Penn's excitement in spite of gaining it.
Poise is something the Quakers lack right now, and expectedly so. It cost them in overtime against Drexel, and it cost them last night.
