Streak at 46 and counting

Penn slips past Yale, Brown Last month on Palestra Place: A freak play in the final moments of the Atlantic City Shootout left point guard Jamie Lyren with a cast on his foot, which will not be removed until early February, while backup center Vigor Kapetanovich left the team for the remainder of the year to address academic concerns. Forwards Cedric Laster and Bill Guthrie also missed time to sort out academic issues, while guards Donald Moxley and Garett Kreitz shed their warm-up jackets to lead the team in scoring in the first starts of their respective careers. The Quakers fell into a free-throw-shooting drought in the Arizona desert, and still the record for consecutive Ivy League victories crept up three more notches to 46. So went the winter break chapter of the continuing Penn men's basketball saga. After opening the Ivy League season with an enormous road victory over Princeton on Jan. 6, the Quakers scrapped their way past Brown Friday and Yale Saturday -- 66-56 and 74-71 respectively -- to jump out to an early lead in the free-for-all for this season's Ancient Eight crown. On Dec. 29, the Quakers traveled to Tempe, Ariz., for the Arizona State Tournament where Penn suffered a pair of 12-point losses -- 77-65 to Detroit Mercy and 79-67 to Southern Methodist in the next day's consolation game. "They're still not sure who they are as a team," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said after watching his team barely hold off the Bears. "Hopefully, we're growing and learning at this stretch of the season. "Our defense is going to have to carry us. I don't think we're a great offensive team by any stretch. We're going to need that consistency on defense." Against Brown, the Quakers (4-5, 3-0 Ivy League) got 18 points each from Kreitz and swingman Ira Bowman while center Tim Krug tied his own school record with six blocked shots. Krug, who was isolated for most of the game on the Bears' 240-pound center James Joseph, brushed away a Joseph hook shot and poked away an entry pass on consecutive trips downcourt to key an inspired late defensive effort. An 8-for-12 team effort from the charity stripe in the final minute-and-a-half proved good enough to preserve the victory. And of course, it didn't hurt that Brian Lloyd, Brown's all-Ivy sharpshooter who had already poured in 20 points, turned his left ankle on a jump shot with 4 minutes, 54 seconds remaining. "We're probably going to need this kind of victory a number of times over the course of the year," Dunphy said. "We've got to be better at the foul line down the stretch. Our defense was as good as it can be later in the game, and we're certainly going to need that. Our kids know how to win and we're going to need that badly." That poise became essential in a rhythmless showdown with Yale the next night. The Quakers squandered a 12-point halftime lead, and fell behind 47-45 when the Elis' Gabe Hunterton, last season's Ivy League rookie of the year, capped the Yale comeback with a twine-tickling trey. However, Kreitz, who had been quiet most of the night, answered immediately with a trifecta of his own from the left wing to ignite a decisive 13-1 run. "It took us until late in the game to really come up big," Dunphy said. "I thought Ira made a couple of big jumpers in the lane, Donald Moxley's three, and Garett Kreitz's three was big as well." Kreitz, who got an unexpected chance to break into the starting lineup when Lyren broke his foot Dec. 9, against Penn State, has made the most of it. The sophomore guard, who has seen mostly mop-up duty in his career thus far, has averaged 12.4 points per game in the five games he has started and assumed the team lead in three-pointers with 16. His range is so good that it took Kreitz four starts just to hit his first two-point field goal. "People have had the opportunity to step up and have taken advantage of it," Bowman said. "Here are people who have been playing behind guys -- in Garett's case for more than a year now. People are coming into this year having worked hard over the summer and put themselves in a position where they would be able to take advantage of an opportunity. "It's the same thing with Donald. He hasn't played for three years now, and here he is stepping up and hitting big shots. They give us more weapons down the stretch." Moxley, who led the Quakers with a career-high 19 points on torrid 8-of-11 shooting in his first start against Princeton, has given Penn a lift since he entered the starting lineup -- particularly since he is one of the few Quakers capable of breaking down defense off the dribble in addition to drilling jumpers. With Penn's offense at times stagnant and its free throw rolling off the rim nearly as often as they roll in, a multidimensional player like Moxley will be a valuable asset as the bulk of the Ivy League season approaches. "We're still trying to figure out who's going to get the big basket at the right time," Dunphy said. "Obviously, Ira and Tim are going to have to do most of that, but we've got to be better." One player who will not be around to pick up any of the slack is Kapetanovich, who has elected to concentrate on his Wharton studies this semester. "He's going to sit out the rest of the season and really concentrate on his academics, take care of that, and hopefully next year he'll be back and ready to go." Laster returned to the bench Friday against Brown after sorting out some academic problems, although he did not play. Guthrie is expected to return shortly. Dunphy said none of the three players were in any way technically ineligible. For Lyren, who will be X-rayed again on Jan 18., the optimistic target date for him to return is Feb. 2, when the Quakers resume Ivy play against Cornell. Lyren was averaging 7.8 points and 2.5 assists per game when he went down.

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