M. Hoops | Big Green spoils big weekend

Eight measly seconds. That's what prevented the men's basketball team from completing a tremendous start to their Ivy League season.

After opening conference play with their biggest win of the season, a 66-60 road victory over Harvard Friday night, the Quakers held an eight-point lead and owned all the momentum with 5:24 remaining against Dartmouth Saturday.

But the Big Green used a 15-4 run from that point on, including a three-point play by senior Dan Biber at the 8-second mark and beat the Quakers, 63-60, for the first time since Feb. 8, 1997.

Despite the Dartmouth loss, the win over Harvard (9-9, 1-3 Ivy) helped the Quakers (5-11, 1-1) answer a lot of questions about their effort and intensity. After another 0-4 Big 5 season, they entered the Harvard game needing to prove that they could maintain the high level of play that they demonstrated in a loss to St. Joe's last Saturday.

"When you play against that type of competition, if you can keep your heads up, it gives you some confidence that you've faced about as tough a situation as you're gonna face," coach Glen Miller told reporters after the game. "I thought it definitely helped us coming into Ivy League play."

The Quakers certainly kept their heads up against Harvard, especially point guard Zack Rosen. The freshman was playing in his first career Ivy League game but handled himself like a seasoned veteran.

"He really plays with this presence about him. You'd think he was a junior or senior," sophomore Jack Eggleston told Philly.com's Jonathan Tannenwald after the game. "He just knows what's coming, what's going to happen. He's one, two, three steps ahead of the defense every time."

The Quakers' floor general finished with a season-high nine assists to go with 15 points. Unfazed by the raucous atmosphere at Lavietes Pavilion, Rosen was at his best with the game on the line. Down three points with 3:47 remaining, he found Cam Lewis for a slam, followed that up with two free throws after a strong drive and capped off an 8-1 run with a daring no-look dish to Eggleston for another dunk.

"He's incredible," said Eggleston, who led Penn with 19 points along with five boards.

Rosen's heroics, though, did not seal the deal. Still just a one-possession game at 62-60 with 17 seconds left, the Quakers needed senior Kevin Egee's two free throws after securing a loose ball and drawing an intentional foul from Harvard's leading scorer, Jeremy Lin.

Lin drew all the attention as the game approached, but thanks in large part to the defense of freshman Rob Belcore, the Ancient Eight's second leading scorer was held to a pedestrian 13 points and six assists before fouling out.

"[Belcore] has had all the toughest assignments on the perimeter [this season], and he's doing a pretty good job," Miller said. "I was confident that with his size and with his physicalness that he could do a decent job, which he did."

But Saturday, Belcore and the rest of the Quakers' defense had no answer for Dartmouth's Alex Barnett. The senior from St. Louis continued his quest for Ivy League Player of the Year with a 24-point outing on an efficient 7-for-11 shooting.

Still, it was Biber's game-winning three-point play that turned the table for Dartmouth (4-13, 2-1 Ivy). The final three of his 17 points blew out the candles from Penn's Friday night celebration and reminded the Quakers that the Ivy League season has only just begun.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.