Big Red get redemption for earlier upset to Penn

ITHACA, N.Y. — With a thick snow blanketing the sleepy hills and gorges of Cornell University, the Penn men’s basketball team put up an ice cold performance Saturday night against the Big Red.

The absence of fiery sophomore point guard Zack Rosen characterized the Quakers’ 68-48 licking at the hands of Cornell. The victory guaranteed the Big Red (25-4, 11-1) at least a share of the regular-season Ivy title.

Rosen was taken out of the game after he committed his third personal foul with 11:56 still to play in the first half.

From that point, there was little Penn (5-20, 4-7) could do to stem the Big Red senior triumvirate of Louis Dale, Ryan Wittman and Jeff Foote, who combined for 38 points, 15 rebounds and six steals.

“The game kind of got away from us a little bit when [Rosen] went out,” Quakers coach Jerome Allen said. “Obviously he is our best overall player, and you really don’t like to lose him.”

Though he only played 28 minutes — compared to his normal 38-to-40 — Rosen led the Red and Blue in many stats, shooting 7-for-10 from the field on the way to 23 points, three rebounds and an assist, despite committing four turnovers.

The next leading scorer for the Quakers was sophomore forward Mike Howlett with nine. After that, no Penn player scored more than four.

Still, Allen blames himself and his assistants for allowing an 11-5 Cornell run while Rosen was out of the game for nine first-half minutes.

“As a staff, it’s our responsibility to develop guys,” Allen said, “because it’s a team sport.”

And team on team, there was no way the Quakers could match up with Dale, Wittman, Foote and the Big Red.

A three from Dale and two quick buckets inside from rarely-used senior forward Andre Wilkins — who started because of Senior Night — gave the Big Red a 7-0 lead just 3:14 into the game and more or less spelled doom for the visitors.

“Getting down early to a team with this much experience and this much ability, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot,” Allen said.

But to ask Rosen, it would seem that a good deal of violent fouls dealt by the Big Red went uncalled, while the officials patrolled Penn vigilantly.

“I thought the game was very touchy-feely,” Rosen said in the visitor locker room after the defeat. “Some of those calls [on me] just didn’t need to be made.”

Rosen characterized the officiating in one word: “Bad.”

But like his coach, Rosen is hesitant to fall back on excuses like biased referees.

“That’s the way it goes,” Rosen said. “You just got to adjust.”

Rosen couldn’t adjust to what he considered poor calls, and the Red and Blue couldn’t adjust to losing Rosen for an extended period of time.

With two games left in conference play, Cornell is one-step closer to secure an outright Ivy title. Theoretically, Harvard and Princeton still have a chance to catch up, but both teams must win out and the Big Red must go winless.

Penn, meanwhile has three more games before the end of a disheartening season.

Then the players will get to adjust to watching an Ivy foe make moves in the Big Dance while they watch on TV.

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