NEWARK, N.J., Jan. 17 - Like most of his Penn teammates, sophomore guard Harrison Gaines looked lethargic in the first half against winless NJIT.
From the outset, the Highlanders were determined to slow the pace of the game and deny the ball to Penn's first option, Tyler Bernardini. It was hardly a new strategy, yet the Quakers once again looked tentative and confused on offense, managing only 25 points and coughing up 12 turnovers in the first frame.
Gaines committed three of those turnovers in only six minutes of self-proclaimed "lackluster" play.
At halftime, coach Glen Miller gave Gaines a pep talk and hoped that someone would step up alongside forward Brennan Votel - who scored 12 first-half points - to carry the team offensively.
"I'm not going to go into exactly what he told me," Gaines said, chuckling, "but it got me going."
Nearly six minutes later, the Quakers had only tallied another seven points with Gaines still riding the bench. Clinging to an uncomfortable seven-point lead, Miller inserted Gaines at point guard for freshman Zack Rosen - and hit the jackpot.
The spark was immediate, as "The Goo" lived up to his nickname by slithering through the defense and proceeding to take over the game.
"My role is just to come off the bench, providing energy," he said. "I came out in the second half, and I just told myself, 'I gotta get going.' So I started to push the ball. When I'm in transition, I'm really comfortable."
The increased pace opened up NJIT's defense - and the floodgates to Gaines' scoring spree.
After converting a missed NJIT jumper into an easy transition layup for Votel, Gaines put his head down and drove to the basket, dropping two consecutive floaters over the Highlanders' forwards.
When NJIT's Justin Garris shaded back a few steps to respect the drive, Gaines calmly drained a three-pointer.
After establishing a perimeter threat, he drove the lane twice more - first drawing a foul and then creating an opportunity for a put-back slam dunk by senior Cameron Lewis. After a Garris miss, Gaines sunk another trifecta from the corner for good measure.
In that span of 3:50, Gaines scored 11 of Penn's 13 points, extending the Quakers' lead to 18 and putting the game out of reach. After being shutout in the first half, Gaines finished with 15 points on 5-for-10 shooting.
"He's one of the few guys on our team that can really create his own shot," Miller said. "So his aggressiveness was needed in the second half. . He gave us a big lift."
The Quakers are in dire need of a consistent scoring threat to complement Bernardini, and Gaines may have all the tools necessary to fill the void.
"He's a tough matchup," NJIT coach Jim Engles said. "He's a good open-court kid, he's very athletic; he's hard to guard off the dribble."
But until Gaines can put together a string of similar performances - let alone a complete 40 minutes - Penn can only hope that his emergence was a turning point, rather than a flash in the pan.
