Penn basketball to face Drexel in 'Battle for 33rd Street'

Saturday’s Battle of 33rd Street is being touted by Penn Athletics as a “Red Out.”

But if the Quakers have their way, their matchup against Drexel will be “lights out” as they hope their outside shooters heat up against the Dragons.

While both teams had strong performances beyond the arc last season, neither has shot well from the perimeter of late.

In Tuesday’s loss to Fairfield, Penn (1-2) went just 2-for-14 from deep.

Drexel (0-2) has had plenty of struggles of its own from distance with a 7-for-23 performance in its season-opening overtime loss to Kent State, though senior guard Chris Fouch converted 6-of-12 treys on the night.

Even with the Dragons’ struggles in their opener, the Quakers know they have a tough task ahead of them in defending guards Fouch, Damion Lee and Frantz Massenat. The trio combined to help Drexel lead the Colonial Athletic Association in three-point shooting at 37.8 percent last season.

“We’re just going to stick to our regular principles,” junior forward Fran Dougherty said. “Coach Allen has a pretty good defensive scheme going, and if we buy into it and really stick to our principles, then we’ll be fine.”

Dougherty may be the key to the Red and Blue’s offense against Drexel.

The 6-foot-8 captain has been a scoring machine, dropping 31 points against Fairfield to bring his overall average up to 20.3 points per game.

Saturday, he has a chance to score plenty more, as the Dragons have an athletic but slightly undersized frontcourt — they don’t have a single player over 6-foot-9 in their normal rotation.

But Drexel’s forwards are plenty skilled at getting to the boards, as junior Dartaye Ruffin grabbed nine rebounds against the Golden Flashes and senior Daryl McCoy averaged 6.7 rebounds per game last season, good for ninth in the CAA.

Dougherty, however, is excited for the challenge.

“They’re always tough on the boards, so that’s really tough for us,” he said. “But I think that we can bring them out and use some of our quickness on the perimeter to go by them.”

With all of the hype surrounding Dougherty’s strong start to the season, junior guard Miles Cartwright has quietly averaged 16.7 points per game through three contests while going 50 percent from deep.

To succeed, though, he’ll need help from his young backcourt companions.

Freshman guard Jamal Lewis has not been able to find his shooting stroke yet, going a combined 2-for-14 over the last two games, including just one three-pointer. Fellow newcomer Tony Hicks has cooled off after a hot debut, failing to convert a three-pointer in the last two games after going 3-for-3 from beyond the arc in Penn’s season-opening win over UMBC.

Coach Jerome Allen emphasized polishing other aspects of the Quakers’ game in order to help regain their shooting stroke.

“We need to focus on just having tremendous ball and body movement,” Allen said. “Really executing and covering all the details and screening for one another.

“I think if we do those things and keep it simple, then I’m quite sure those things will take care of itself.”

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