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antoniowoods

An uneventful evening at the Palestra suddenly erupted with excitement after nearly 38 minutes of one-sided basketball when sophomore guard Antonio Woods connected with junior forward Matt Howard on an emphatic alley-oop.

With the arena finally on its feet and the Quakers hanging on by the skin of their teeth, it seemed like the Red and Blue had a puncher’s chance to steal a victory.

Penn, who trailed for over 38 minutes, finally drew even with 1:12 to go following a Navy turnover and two clutch free throws by senior center Darien Nelson-Henry.

Unfortunately for Quakers the rally stopped there as they proceeded to ultimately fall to the Midshipmen, 65-59.

It was a tale of two halves on Wednesday night. The Red and Blue (4-3) dug themselves a 12-point hole after 20 minutes of play and coughed up 11 turnovers in the opening period.

Coach Steve Donahue noted that Navy (7-2) was challenging defensively. The Midshipmen forced sloppy play and rarely gave up shooting lanes, forcing Penn to heave numerous tough prayers as the shot clock expired. The stingy defense combining with Nelson-Henry and Woods facing foul trouble didn’t help the cause.

“Give Navy credit,” Donahue said postgame, “But we lost it in the first half.”

The game’s officials may deserve a bit of credit too. On a few calls that didn’t go their way, players and even Donahue appeared confused and occasionally livid.

Freshman guard Jake Silpe was at the wrong end of a few of those calls, getting called for multiple walks and a carry.

Donahue accredited the traveling infractions to a stutter step that Silpe often utilizes. A move his coach didn’t recall ever being whistled this season.

As for the carries Donahue appeared more perplexed.

“We had two carries called. I haven’t seen that all year. I haven’t seen it in practice. I didn’t see it in the game. I didn’t see anything different,” the first-year coach stated.

Still, despite their early struggles, Penn found a way to climb back.

“We got a little fat and happy,” Navy coach Ed Dechellis admitted of his team’s play in the final half.

Antonio Woods led the charge down the stretch, almost singlehandedly keeping the Quakers within striking distance as he scored 13 of his 16 in the second half. Then, when a Navy three-point play appeared to take back any momentum the Red and Blue had mustered with just over four minutes to play in the game, Woods connected from distance, touching nothing but nylon on the clutch triple.

But then the star two-guard inexplicably went cold.

After the Midshipmen converted on their own end, Woods missed the front end of a critical one-and-one. Then, after Howard chased down the long rebound, Woods failed to convert on the potential game-tying 18-foot jumper.

Following a quick, tough two by Navy’s Shawn Anderson, Woods found himself at the stripe again, this time with his team down four. But again, the man who had willed his team back into the contest came up short on both of his free throw attempts as any remaining hope of the Quakers pulling off the comeback win fell just short.

However, despite faltering in his final chances it would be silly to blame Woods for the loss. Without his gritty play when the Red and Blue appeared otherwise out of gas there never would have been an opportunity for Penn to steal a win.

“I trust him like no one else,” Donahue said of Woods. “But, he’s probably not as confident in his shooting right now,” he went on to admit. “His foul shooting is just in one of those funks that he’ll get out of.

“I think we have the makings of a great Ivy League player.”

With Howard pacing the Quakers with just 29 minutes of time on the floor, the squad should be well rested for Friday’s matchup with a pesky George Mason squad (3-5) that has notched victories over Oklahoma State and Mississippi.

Penn will remain above .500 for at least one more game. If they continue play how they did in the last 10 minutes of Wednesday's loss they may stay above that line for at least awhile longer.

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