Quakers look to rebound vs. Lafayette

For junior Zack Rosen, a good shooting game is like flipping a coin — heads, the shots fall — tails, they don’t.

And whereas Saturday’s 4-for-11 performance from Rosen was surely a tails night, he has a 50 percent chance of coming up heads tonight when Lafayette (1-3) comes to the Palestra.

But Rosen and the Quakers (1-2) aren’t leaving things to chance.

“Shooting and offense in basketball is something you can’t control,” the all-Ivy guard said. “Defense is something you can control, so we’re going to continue to focus on things we can control, day in and day out.”

On Saturday, however, the Quakers couldn’t lock it down on their half of the court, letting the Dragons go on a 14-point run that straddled the break.

“We allowed Drexel to do whatever they wanted,” coach Jerome Allen said. “But if we remain consistent on the defensive end, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win.”

So with just two days to turn things around and quell a two-game losing streak, Penn will continue to work defensively in practice, Rosen said.

“We’re trying to zero in and focus on the stuff we need to do to get better,” the co-captain said. “We’re going to try to come out and get a really strong defensive effort and hopefully [our shots] will go down and theirs won’t.”

And while the coaching staff is devoting practice time to improving the defense ­— Penn pulled down just 19 boards Saturday — perimeter shooting was still on the players’ minds.

Before practice began Monday night at the Palestra, Rosen, senior Tyler Bernardini and freshmen Miles Cartwright and Dau Jok, all took turns shooting from range for nearly 20 minutes.

The four guards combined to go 9-for-26 against the Dragons.

And while Lafayette isn’t hitting the hot 55.8 percent that Drexel shot Saturday, the Leopards have three players averaging over 13.5 points per game, including first team All-Patriot selection Jared Mintz, who leads the team in scoring, free-throw shooting and rebounds.

Both teams are coming off tough losses. The Quakers faltered in a second-half smothering by Drexel, while the Leopards took an even worse defeat in their last game, a 41-86 licking by No. 7 Villanova Saturday.

So the Quakers will look to build confidence against the Leopards before they head west to face No. 5 Pitt over Thanksgiving break.

The final factor at play for the Quakers will be the fan base. Saturday, Rosen saw what we he said was one of the top two crowds he’d ever played in front of at the Palestra.

But with a Tuesday night bill, and many students skipping town early for the holiday, the point guard isn’t expecting another raucous turnout.

“A lot of my friends are gone,” he said. “But I don’t think Lafayette will have as big a student section as Drexel had the other night, so hopefully — hopefully we’ll still have a home-court advantage.”

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