M. Hoops | Miller shakes up lineup, but Big Red too much

No, they didn't right the Ivy ship against the defending champs, but you can't mark the Quakers down for creativity.

Unable to build on a hot start from a fully-retooled starting five, Penn fell, 88-73, to Cornell Saturday night at the Palestra. The Red and Blue (5-13, 1-3 Ivy) now sit three games behind conference-leading Princeton, who improved to 4-0 in league play by downing Cornell (15-7, 5-1) and Columbia this weekend.

"They're a very skilled team, much more skilled than us," Penn coach Glen Miller said of the Big Red. "They're not untouchable, but they're very good."

After his team's failure to match Columbia's physical presence Friday night, Miller hoped that his new-look lineup could turn the contest against the finesse-driven Big Red into a "street fight."

The Red and Blue's new crew: seldom-used big men Justin Reilly and Conor Turley, alongside spot-starters Harrison Gaines and Kevin Egee. Rob Belcore got his 11th start of the year.

Leading scorers Tyler Bernardini and Jack Eggleston and top assist man Zack Rosen - all of whom had started every game this season entering Saturday - began the contest on the pine.

"Guys don't have a pass to play 30-something minutes a game if they're not playing productive enough to play 30-something minutes a game," Miller said. "Tyler and Jack and Zack Rosen struggled a little bit. They didn't exactly tear it up against Columbia."

By all appearances, Miller's maneuver had the desired effect. The Quakers jumped to a 15-8 lead over the first six-plus minutes, controlling the paint and forcing the sharpshooting Big Red into heavily-contested looks. Such ball pressure forced the visitors into just 2-for-7 shooting in the early going.

"We came out and put the thug on them," said Gaines, who led the Red and Blue with 20 points. "We tried to get gully, and we went out strong."

Steadily, though, the Big Red found their footing. In a 25-25 game, with 5:02 left in the half, senior forward Ryan Wittman drilled a three-pointer to kick-start a 19-4 run that left Cornell with a 44-29 lead at the end of the opening frame.

Junior Geoff Reeves capped the spurt with an off-balance, buzzer-beating jumper, prompting coach Steve Donahue to unleash a Tiger Woods-style fist pump as he made his way to the locker room.

After converting just 2-for-17 long-range attempts against Princeton Friday, "you start squeezing a little bit," Donahue said. "We got a couple of big ones there that finally got us going."

Beyond recovering its long-distance stroke, Cornell was able to turn the Quakers' early aggression against them. The Big Red found themselves in the shooting bonus with just under 14 minutes to go in the first half, and parlayed the Quakers' perpetual hacking into 39 free throw attempts overall.

In their unfamiliar reserve roles, both Bernardini and Rosen fouled out of the game. On the offensive end, the two combined for 17 points on 4-for-15 shooting, while Eggleston was held scoreless in 13 minutes.

"They have respect for their teammates who started the game. They were cheering them on," Miller said of the trio.

"The roof's not falling in. We don't have any internal problems. We're just a struggling basketball team."

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