1993-94 IVY LEAGUE M. HOOPS STANDINGS: It's snow contest in New England

Quakers plow past Brown, Yale NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Shawn Trice was sporting a red T-shirt. For a few moments, Barry Pierce had his back to the court. Players chatted with an eye toward the action. It may have looked like some of the starters on the Penn men's basketball team were getting ready for pre-game warmups. But it was Friday night at Brown, and Penn had five-and-a-half minutes remaining in the game. After having built a more-than-comfortable 30-point lead, the Quaker starters had a chance to relax on the sidelines and watch their teammates complete the victory. Back-to-back Ivy League road games are supposed to be grueling. But this weekend, the Quakers had it just about as easy as it could get as Penn (17-2, 7-0 Ivy League) dominated Brown 79-59 Friday and cruised to a 76-66 victory over Yale (6-14, 3-5) Saturday. How easy was it? The entire weekend Penn was without a lead for about four minutes -- when Brown (9-11, 3-5) led 10-7. However, Penn's lead ballooned to as many as 33 points later in that contest. "We gave a whole lot of defensive pressure," junior forward Scott Kegler said. "When teams aren't used to that, it flusters them and it throws them off their game a bit. It makes them put a little bit more arc in their shots or makes it go a little off." That's the polite way of saying Brown shot 34 percent for the game (hitting just 7 of 25 for the first half) and had 25 turnovers. But Penn wasn't content with its 37-22 halftime lead as it opened the second stanza with an impressive 22-4 run and never really gave the Bears a chance to rise from hibernation. "Coach [Fran Dunphy] does a real good job of stressing that the first five minutes of the second half are the most important part of each and every game," junior guard Jerome Allen said. "You really know who is going to win the game in pretty much the first five minutes because teams come out hungry. We just want to come out and turn our defense up and get some easy baskets." The Quakers came out about as ravenous as they would have been had they missed their pre-game meal. The starters played well enough that Penn coach Fran Dunphy was able to allow the entire team to nibble at Brown, with each of the 13 players getting at least six minutes of playing time. "It's great to win a game like this," Kegler said of Penn's second consecutive win by more than 20 points. "You don't have to play guys like Matt, Barry and Jerome 40 minutes a game to get a win?.A lot of the guys who might not be getting a whole lot of minutes get in the game and get their confidence going. It's really good for team morale." In Saturday night's matchup at Yale, the Elis may have hoped for an upset to boost their morale. After all, the Elis had given Penn a formidable 52-51 scare last season at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. But the closest Yale got to an upset was hearing about it from the P.A. system, which announced Brown's 71-68 upset of Princeton. That news received the biggest cheers of the night as Penn handily defeated the Elis 76-66. To say Allen was unconscious at the start of the Yale game would be an understatement. Any doubts of him still being hampered by recent tendinitis in his right shoulder were put to rest in the early going. Allen opened the game with four consecutive treys and scored 14 points in the first 13 minutes of the game before he missed for the first time that evening. "I just wanted to concentrate on being aggressive and trying to get off to a good start and trying to get everybody active," said Allen, who had a team-high 44 points on the weekend. "We kept pushing the ball. It just so happened in transition I was getting open shots and they fell. I'd rather take a layup than a three. But if the three's there, I'll take it." Up 37-25 at intermission, Penn was held scoreless for the last four minutes of the first half and didn't quite dominate those crucial first five minutes of the second half. The Elis hung tough and outscored Penn 41-39 in the second stanza while hitting 15 of 29 shots. While Penn made several trips downcourt only to miss baskets and rebounds, Yale made more than half of its shots (15 for 29) and answered almost all of Penn's buckets. "I would still like us to tighten up our act a little bit," Dunphy said. "I'd like us to make better choices with the basketball. They don't have to score necessarily, but they have to move the ball." For much of the game it didn't seem like moving the ball was necessary as Penn created quick opportunities in transition and after a pass or two, could take an open shot. Even though the Quakers weren't able to empty the bench in the second half, the lead steadily hovered between 10 and 20 points, and Penn cruised to victory. "At the end, the score doesn't indicate the type of game it was," senior captain Barry Pierce said. "We were very comfortable for most of the second half." As comfortable on the court as watching the game from the sidelines.

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