GAME ANALYSIS: Lehigh guard stopped

Brett Eppehimer finished with only 11 points, hitting 4-of-15 shots. Looking at the statistics of Lehigh senior guard Brett Eppehimer made him seem like the best thing since sliced bread. But in Lehigh's 73-56 loss to Penn at the Palestra last night, he looked more like burnt toast. Eppehimer entered the game averaging 25.2 points per game, but he could only muster 11 against an impressive Quakers defense. Penn used a combination of guards Michael Jordan, Matt Langel and Mike Sullivan on defense to hold Eppehimer to his season-low in points. The threesome harassed the 5'11" guard into 4-of-15 shooting from the floor, including 2-of-7 from three-point range. "We really had a concerted effort to not let him go off," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "We knew he was going to get shots?We knew he would probably get to the foul line on occasion. If we could contain him, versus stop him, I thought we would have a good chance of winning the game." The different styles of the three defenders seemed to disturb Eppehimer's rhythm. Langel and Sullivan are both 6'5", while Jordan makes up for his 6'0" frame with his quickness. Sullivan only played 17 total minutes in the first two games, but his defensive assignment last night earned him 16 minutes of floor time. "Sully did a real good job," Dunphy said. "He had that assignment and took pride in that assignment. He's quick enough and he's also long, so it would have been hard for Brett to get shots over him." Sullivan was guarding Eppehimer during a six-minute stretch late in the first half where the Quakers turned a five-point lead into 11. Sullivan even picked up his first two points of the season during that stretch, on a driving lay-up. The Penn scoring run started after Eppehimer threw up an airball that got the crowd involved with taunts of "airball." This seemed to throw him off, as he tried to score on three of Lehigh's next four possessions. After a driving lay-up on the next trip down the floor, he missed a shot that was altered by Quakers center Geoff Owens. Two plays later, he threw up an ugly shot that did not even hit the rim, with the crowd continuing to chant "airball" every time he touched the ball. "We knew that Eppehimer was going to come in and shoot a lot because he's their go-to-guy and they set a lot of screens for him," Jordan said. "We tried to make every shot tough and contest every shot. Mike Sullivan did a great job.? He probably did a better job than I did. I got to give kudos to Sully because Sully really locked him up." While Eppehimer seemed upset by the defense and the crowd, the Quakers were in the midst of a 19-6 run to end the half with a 42-26 lead. "I thought he got a little frustrated tonight, and that's not a typical game of his," Lehigh coach Sal Mentesana said. "Normally he's pretty controlled because he gets hit quite a bit and he's used to special defenses and people really leaning on him. I think tonight the opportunity to play here ? that gets to your head." Without the allure of a top 10 team, the Quakers could only draw 2,113 fans to the Palestra. But the crowd still managed to make an impact by unnerving Lehigh's star when the Engineers needed him the most. In the second half, the three Penn defenders teamed up to make Eppehimer a non-factor, as he went 1-for-7 for three points in 16 minutes. Without Eppehimer's firepower, the Engineers could not come any closer than 13 in the second half. Part of the Quakers' success on defense was also attributable to the defensive presence of Owens in the middle. He had 18 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots, largely due to a five-inch height advantage over Lehigh's tallest starter. "When Brett did get by his man, all of a sudden, boom, there was big number 51 in front of him, made him pull up and then those guys would recover and make it tough," Mentesana said. While Eppehimer came to town with a lot of fanfare, he was no match for the Penn defenders, who held him to his lowest point total in two years.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.