Mike Wisniewski | Rosen needs some wingmen

With Penn down two points and less than 10 seconds to go against James Madison on Saturday, everyone in the Palestra knew who the Quakers wanted to take the last shot.

And so the Dukes keyed in on Zack Rosen, which forced Mike Howlett to take the game’s final shot — a layup attempt that was emphatically blocked as time expired.

“It was obvious we were going to try not to let Zack get the last shot off,” James Madison coach Matt Brady said after his team’s 60-58 win over Penn. “We scrambled. We brought a second guy to him on the catch, we brought a second guy to him on the ball screen … We weren’t going to let him get the ball back.”

Without a doubt, Rosen is the Quakers’ most dynamic player, leading the team in points, assists, three-pointers and field-goal percentage, among other categories.

“He’s as good as any guard we’ll play against this year,” said Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon following the Panthers win a day earlier — high praise considering that the Panthers play in arguably the best conference in college basketball.

As Rosen leads the nation with 27 three-pointers on 60-percent shooting from beyond the arc, James Madison’s strategy is one opposing teams will continue to use without hesitation.

That means the Quakers will need other options to step up on offense in order to snap out of the funk that has led to a three-game losing streak.

Excluding Rosen, the Red and Blue are shooting at an abysmal rate from three-point land. The wings of a much-heralded Penn backcourt, Tyler Bernardini and Miles Cartwright, are a combined 18-for-68 (26 percent), well below each of their averages last season. And they’ve both had open looks.

There were signs of improvement in that area on Saturday as Rosen’s supporting cast managed to hit 7-of-17 from long distance against the Dukes, after Friday’s 3-of-14. Going forward, that needs to continue if the Quakers are going to win. Their 3-4 record has proven that Rosen’s one-man show alone cannot carry the team every night.

And with the perimeter game streaky at best, it is alarming how Penn has recently abandoned its play down low. Though the Quakers were certainly at a size and athletic disadvantage against Pitt, they should not have been outscored by 32 points in the paint. In a much more even matchup against James Madison, they were outscored there again by eight points.

“You can’t beat teams like that if you don’t take care of your house [the paint],” coach Jerome Allen said.

Again, there was a bright spot against the Dukes in the production of freshman forward Henry Brooks, who scored 10 points during his 14 minutes off the bench.

The good news for the Quakers is that there is more than enough time to do so before Ivy play beings in January.

“Going forward, I’m positive. I look forward to the work and to the process,” Allen said. “We’ll respond.”

MIKE WISNIEWSKI is a junior classical studies major from Philadelphia. He can be reached at Wisniewski@theDP.com

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