NEWARK, N.J.-The scariest thing about the New Jersey Institute of Technology's Fleisher Center isn't who plays in it. The Highlanders' basketball team has set historical lows since entering Division I after the 2005-06 season and, naturally, don't boast a particularly impressive set of weapons.
And the arena itself certainly isn't frightening--it looks no different than a cavernous high school gym, providing opposing teams with an almost welcoming atmosphere.
So what's there to fear about playing at the FAC? It's the possibility of emerging immortalized as that team - the one that broke NJIT's epic losing streak. Penn caught the Highlanders after loss No. 50, and there was certainly a sense of apprehension of becoming the answer to an obscure trivia question.
"I'm not gonna lie," senior captain Brennan Votel said, "the thought goes through your head. I remember Cam [Lewis] saying some time before the game, he was like, 'We gotta get this win. We don't want to be on SportsCenter.'"
The Quakers will experience no such immortality. On Saturday they pushed NJIT's slump to 51 games in a 59-40 victory that seemed to inch along to its almost inevitable conclusion.
The Highlanders' (0-18) brand of slow-it-down basketball flustered Penn (4-8) at the game's onset. They honed in on sharpshooting wingman Tyler Bernardini, who scored 10 points on just 4-of-10 from the field.
"We tried to take Tyler Bernardini out. We really tried to take the ball out of his hands," NJIT coach Jim Engles said. "We slow the game down the way we play defense. When we don't score it's sort of like a soccer game out there."
Despite the game's lagging pace, Penn coach Glen Miller's mind was probably racing at certain points.
Guard Isaiah Wilkerson, who sat out last semester, led NJIT with 15 points, but it wasn't the Highlanders' offense that was the story.
The Quakers turned the ball over 18 times, and couldn't separate themselves before halftime, allowing NJIT to coast within seven at the break.
"Second game in a row we were real careless with the basketball," Miller said, referencing Wednesday's 15-turnover effort against Temple. "There's not much to talk about. We gotta make short, crisp passes, cut a little harder and just be sharper."
In the end, though, these shortcomings were overcome by a few rock-solid individual efforts.
Votel carved out a spot for himself down low early on, netting 12 first-half points on 6-of-8 shooting.
"If we didn't produce early, then we could be in a ball game," he said. "I just wanted to be the guy that kind of brought some energy."
The second-half energy, however, came from guard Harrison Gaines, who ultimately replaced freshman Zack Rosen at point guard. Gaines described his own early effort as "lackluster" after being kept off the board before halftime, but the sophomore poured in 15 points in the second frame with accurate jump shooting and strong dribble-drives.
With Bernardini out of the picture offensively, Gaines stepped up and provided the spark the Quakers needed to put away NJIT for good.
It wasn't a big-time matchup, and the spotlight hardly shined on the Fleisher Center on Saturday. But Penn's outlook after the victory was abundantly clear.
"Bottom line," Votel said, "a game is a game."
