M. Hoops' early run crushes Drexel

The Quakers own 33rd Street after jumping out to a 17-2 lead during their 79-65 defeat of the Dragons. Once again, the Penn men's basketball team jumped out to an early lead against an opponent last night, the Drexel Dragons. This time, however, they didn't squander that lead in favor of another close game. The gap only got bigger as the game went on. "You have to give Penn a lot of credit, they played great, shot great," Drexel coach Bill Herrion said. "But the thing that really disturbs me is that typically, our teams never get out-scrapped, out-hustled, out-competed, and in the first half, we definitely got all of those." On the strength of a 17-2 run, the Quakers (7-8) jumped out to a huge lead in the first five minutes of the game, which was officially a road game for Penn despite being played at the Palestra. Drexel (6-9), wore the white jerseys in last night's battle for 33rd Street. The Quakers donned their road blues with such success that they may want to do so for every game from now on. "After the way we shot the ball in the first half, it would be an idea," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. Sophomore point guard Michael Jordan put the Quakers ahead early, hitting first a long two-pointer, and then a three-pointer. Junior forward Paul Romanczuk picked up where he left off against Bucknell, taking the ball strong to the hoop, drawing fouls and playing stellar defense on Drexel big man Joe Linderman down low. Before the first media timeout was taken, Penn was up 20-4. "We wanted to help off of the other forward that they have to minimize the damage that Linderman would do to us," Dunphy said. "And I thought we did a real good job." Linderman was held to just four points on 1-for-8 shooting in the first half. In the first five minutes, Linderman took four shots. Not one hit the rim. In addition to their strong defense, Quakers sharpshooters couldn't miss. Ryan scored all 12 of his points in the first half. Both Jordan and sophomore guard Matt Langel had career nights. Jordan led all scorers with 27 points on 8-10 shooting, while Langel netted 21, 7-of-7 from the line. "From the beginning of the game, we were running the fast break, we were running our offense really well, executing," Langel said. "When you're open, it's a lot easier to hit the shot." Up 30-16 with seven minutes to go in the half, and with the shot clock winding down, Jordan took a 23-foot shot from the top of the arc and banked it clean off the backboard. Langel matched his teammate and classmate by attempting a 24-foot prayer just three minutes later. It dropped. "We can't shoot the ball any better than we did in the first half," Dunphy said. "Mike makes a 'banky' from top of the key and Matt makes a ball that hits the front of the rim and goes in. " Perhaps most impressive, the Quakers dominated the Dragons on the boards in the first half, out-rebounding Drexel 21-11 in the half and 34-21 for the game. The Quakers' domination in all aspects of the game resulted in a 24-point halftime lead. Doubling up the Dragons 48-24 at halftime, the Quakers had all fans in attendance licking their lips and dreaming of hot Abners' cheesesteaks. "I told them at halftime, 'You got a decision to make. You can be totally embarrassed if you want to and lose by 40 or 50 the way the game was going, or we can try and learn a lesson from this," Herrion said. The Quakers came out in the second half with that same fire. Jordan sank another three-pointer just over one minute in, as the Quakers went back to work on their lead. Langel, again, followed suit by hitting a trey of his own, extending the lead to 30 points, as big as it would get. With 12 minutes remaining in the game, and his team down 25 points, Herrion called a timeout and gave his troops the marching orders. The Dragons began to chip away at the lead. Linderman and Dragons guard Mike DeRocckis took Drexel on a run. "Their two big scorers are Linderman and DeRocckis," Dunphy said. "I thought we did a real good job on both of them in the first half." Drexel's run came just as the Quakers went cold. The Quakers committed two key turnovers and the Dragons converted, spurting a 15-2 run, drawing within 12 points of the stunned Quakers. With the lead cut to 62-50 with just 7:00 remaining, Jordan had enough and took over the game single-handedly, scoring eight straight points, including two clutch three-pointers. The Quakers built the lead back up to 18. "I shot a lot this morning," Jordan said. "Before the game, I played 'horse' with Goldy [Jeff Goldstien]. I beat him 'h-o-r-s-e,' and he didn't get a letter, so I was kinda' feeling it in warmup." Linderman wasn't ready to give up just yet, and continued to pound away inside, keeping the Quakers on their feet in an attempt to trim the lead. Langel, however, extinguished the Dragons' fire with two running jumpers in the lane, a shot he has perfected and made his own over the last several games. The second put the Quakers up by 20, and finished off their struggling neighbors.

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