6-3 Egee comes up big with blocks

It was a nightmarish few minutes for Penn, but the ending was as good as anyone could have dreamed.

The Quakers had just seen a 16-point advantage vanish in only 12 minutes. Down by two with 6.5 seconds on the clock, Dartmouth had one last opportunity to complete a miracle comeback.

Penn's Michael Kach broke up the inbound pass, but Big Green forward Elgin Fitzgerald snagged the loose ball.

He heaved up a shot that rolled around the rim and hung there for at least a second.

Somehow, it fell outside of the cylinder, sealing a 68-66 Red and Blue victory.

"I don't know if someone's sanding those rims," Penn coach Glen Miller said, "but I thought that ball was down."

Had the ball gone in and sent the game to overtime, it would have been fitting given the nature of the final stretch.

With five minutes to play, Dartmouth guard Michael Giovacchini brought his team within three by converting a surreal fadeaway four-point play from the corner.

But twice in the final four minutes, Giovacchini was thwarted by Penn's Kevin Egee - the 6-foot-3 guard swatted two of his shots into the stands.

Egee, who also hit seven of eight free throws, had only four blocks this season before Saturday, but his rejection of Giovacchini with eight seconds on the clock gave Penn a huge boost.

"I was real proud of him," said Cameron Lewis, one of Penn's most prolific shot-blockers. "I've seen him do some of that in practice before."

While Egee's Herculean effort down the stretch lifted the Quakers, it was their frontcourt that helped them get out to a 12-point first-half lead.

Lewis flirted with a double-double, posting nine points and 10 rebounds, and neutralized Dartmouth's big men - including seven-foot center John Marciano - on offense.

Freshman forward Jack Eggleston was Penn's most potent offensive force, pouring in a career-high 16 points and grabbing six boards (three on the offensive glass).

Perhaps the most telling statistic, however, was that Penn attempted just five three-pointers. While the Quakers missed all five attempts, the fact that they weren't forced into long-distance shots is a testament to a more physical offensive approach.

"All the Ivy League games are gonna be like that, it's gonna be a battle," Eggleston said. "You look at a game like St. Joe's, we settled for outside shots, and we realized that's not the way we're going to be effective."

The Red and Blue didn't score a single fast-break point, but they grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and scored 18 second-chance points.

While Miller said he was happy with this ability to convert on these opportunities, he was troubled by the ease with which Dartmouth brought themselves back into the game.

"Down the stretch run I thought we lost our poise," he said, citing turnovers and poor perimeter defense as Penn's biggest problems. "It just really broke down. Certainly any coach would tell you it's a nightmare to have a 16-point lead, 14-point lead and come down and have a chance to lose the game."

It might have come down to a lucky play, but the Quakers will take the "W." They might even concede that another force had a hand in it:

"Must be the Ghost of the Palestra," Miller said.

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