Penn's perfection: a feat for history

Quakers dump Cornell and Columbia NEW YORK -- It was already clinched. A tourney trip was guaranteed. But games on the schedule still have to be played. And expectations don't just fade away. Neither do the numbers that go with them. Fourteen-and-oh, 24-2, 29 -- some mighty lofty figures signifying the possible achievements for the then-No. 24 Penn men's basketball team (24-2, 14-0 Ivy League) in its final regular season games. Those possibilities became a part of Quaker history after an 81-66 victory on March 6 at Cornell (8-18, 3-11) and an 89-69 win the following day at Columbia (6-20, 4-11). Penn extended its Ivy League win streak to 29 straight extending back exactly two years from a win at Cornell March 7, 1992. The 29 wins are one shy of the Ivy record set by the Quakers from 1969-72. "I think it's very significant," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I think it increases in significance the older these guys get when they can reflect back on this thing 20 years from now. I'm real proud of our guys for having that accomplishment." One would have to go back more than 20 years to find the last time a team could boast the same achievement. The only other consecutive undefeated seasons in Ivy history were recorded by the Quakers in 1969-70 and 1970-71. But before Penn could notch those significant numbers, there was one figure in the way. Eighty. As in minutes of basketball against Cornell and Columbia. "Sure you've clinched the Ivy League but that doesn't mean you can lose your focus," junior guard Matt Maloney said. "We want to be playing the best basketball we can going into the tournament. That's what we came out here to do." If the idea of the weekend was to finish at a peak then Maloney set the pace with 40 points (7 of 11 treys) in his strongest weekend of the season. "I think he's just about all the way back to where he was," Dunphy said. "It looks like every time he squares up the ball's going in the hoop. When he's making them he's swishing them. It's not like they're ugly jumpers. He's really looking like he's got it together?.It's a long season and there are going to be times when you struggle but he seems to be through that and really on top of his game." Against the Big Red, the Quakers let Cornell stay within striking distance --Efor about 10 minutes. Then junior swingman Scott Kegler hit his first three trey attempts over a five-minute spurt to put Penn up 19-15. A local business ran a "Couch Potato" promotion in which "lucky" fans got to view the game from a plush couch at courtside. The Big Red looked like it could have used a spell on that couch as the Quakers went on a 12-0 run and closed the half up 37-30. But if it could have used a couch in the first half, Cornell needed a coffin in the second half as the Quakers took off on a 17-5 run after intermission with Maloney (19 points, 4 of 5 treys) scoring 11 of the 17 en route to the 54-35 lead. Penn held Justin Treadwell, the league's leading scorer, to a whopping total of six points including zero in the second half. With his big man (who had been good for a steady 16.3 points per game) reduced to mediocrity by Penn's frontcourt rotation, Cornell coach Al Walker made wholesale substitutions. Most of the 10-man Big Red squad probably looked longingly at that couch as it found itself on the bench for at least a stretch as nine players played more than 13 minutes. "I think we were pretty focused going in," Maloney said. "They were ready early. I think we wore them out late in the second half." Penn did give Cornell fans a chance for an "overrated" chant with some errant passes and Jerome Allen's 1-for-10 shooting. But the Quakers were never really in danger as the closest the Big Red came in the second half was a 13-point deficit with 2:28 left to play, and Allen did aid the cause with seven rebounds and nine assists. In their final appearance of the regular season the Quakers seemed eager to move into the postseason. Penn opened against Columbia with a 26-6 run and perhaps its strongest half of basketball this season. With 9:14 left in the half and the Quakers up 28-8, the game clock malfunctioned giving the teams a time out. At this juncture, Penn senior forward Barry Pierce had as many points as the entire Lion squad. Penn was playing so well that as the Lions formed a serious huddle on the sidelines, Dunphy had a leisurely drink of water and didn't feel much need to address his team. He probably didn't direct his team's next play -- an alley-oop from Maloney to Allen. It was quite a display for 2,657 fans, many of whom were Penn alumni perhaps catching their first glimpse of the Quakers this season. They saw a balanced attack with four Penn players in double figures. Allen found his shot as he had gone 2 for 22 in the last two games but snapped out of his slump with 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting (10 of 11 from the foul line). But if Columbia was made to look like it didn't belong on its home floor in the first half, Lion senior forward Jamal Adams came out of the locker room with something to prove in the last game of his career. Adams was on fire in the second stanza for 23 points going 7 of 8 from the field with eight more points at the line. His game-high 31 points was also his career best. "I don't think we defended very well tonight but a lot of that is the way Columbia plays," Dunphy said. "They opened the floor and Jamal Adams is very good?.We were very sharp for a while but we kind of played passively for stretches at a time." But a little inconsistency can still go a long way. "Our personality is such that we're not going to play well for 40 minutes," Dunphy said. "Why I don't know, but they're a pretty good group and they seem to know just how to get the job done. So I'll live with their lapses?.If you said to me before the season you're going to be 24-2, you're going to run the table in the league but you're going to be inconsistent in games I'd say, 'Yeah I'll take it.' " And if anyone had told the Quakers they'd go two straight seasons without an Ivy loss? "We always thought we had the potential to win a lot of league games," junior forward Shawn Trice said. "I think after that [the 1991-92 season] we thought we shouldn't lose any more league games. And we haven't yet." · FREE THROWS: Besides the historic repeat, Penn has added some other feats to its record book. Over spring break, the Quakers moved up to No. 24 in the AP poll and broke into the USA Today/CNN coaches poll at No. 25, before dropping out of both polls this week.?In going 12 for 12 at the charity stripe against Cornell and Columbia , Maloney is a perfect 36 for 36 in Ivy contests.

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