CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- His team had recorded a humiliating loss at Florida Gulf Coast, and Penn coach Glen Miller knew something -- anything -- had to change against Miami.
Why not the frontcourt?
"We just scored six points in a half and got beat by thirty points," he said. "Just time to change the lineup, mix it up a little bit. If anything, hopefully it gives us a little spark."
Projected starters Justin Reilly and Jack Eggleston began the game on the bench. The switch to Cameron Lewis and Andreas Schreiber provided an initial boost, but not the sustained one Miller was hoping for, and his team fell 88-62 at Miami's BankUnited Center.
Penn's attempt to match up with the Hurricanes inside was certainly unexpected, and the Quakers' first three possessions (Schreiber miss, Schreiber miss, Lewis turnover) did little to ease any wariness.
When yet another Schreiber miscue propelled the nation's third-best three-point shooting team to a 9-2 lead, it looked even worse.
But the Swede was helped out by his even less-experienced partner. Cameron Lewis, relegated to the bench since a November 11 start at Loyola (Md.), found his rhythm inside: three straight Lewis layups slashed a 9-point Miami lead to three.
The switch made waves up front, but Penn could not obscure its flaws elsewhere. Clumsy entry passes and sloppy ball-handling, fixtures of the FGCU game, resurfaced and the Hurricanes regained control. At halftime, the Quakers were left with a 10-point deficit, 14 turnovers and little momentum.
Those miscues helped to whittle down what Penn had going for it. The 15th giveaway led to a fast break that gave Lewis his 3rd foul and earned Schreiber a lecture on the bench. Miami tore the cover off the game in a heartbeat, with nine points in the 75 seconds after halftime. By the time Lewis and Schreiber had each racked up his fourth, it didn't matter anymore. Dwayne Collins (18 points, 12 rebounds) and Brian Asbury (22 points) reaped the rewards for Miami when the likes of Conor Turley and Dan Monckton had to fill in for Penn.
"Our defense set the tone in the second half," Hurricanes coach Frank Haith said. "We were very aggressive, knocked a lot of balls loose, caused 21 turnovers. We converted a lot of those in transition."
Miller preaches a consistent, game-long effort, but if such a feat was hard in November it would have been nearly impossible tonight. The Quakers endured a second consecutive game without point guard Harrison Gaines and upperclassmen Brennan Votel and Michael Kach -- all three were lost to injury.
Matched against a promising ACC team stirred by a recent upset loss to Winthrop, they seemed to accept their fate, willing to look ahead to a game that would be far more embarrassing to lose than this one.
"I'd like to think [our defense] has improved, and it continues to improve," Miller said. "It's just that you've got to be able to put 40 minutes together, whether you're playing Miami, or whether you're playing [NJIT]."
See also: Change for change's sake doesn't always help
Who should be handling the ball?
