Quakers sting Yellow Jackets

ATLANTA -- It was happening again.

The Penn men's basketball team had kept up with Georgia Tech in the first round of the Las Vegas Invitational, even holding an 11-point lead with just over six minutes to play. But like it had for Penn so many times last year, it was all slipping away.

The Yellow Jackets -- a team that was 118-5 at home against non-conference opponents since 1981 -- began to swarm. Isma'il Muhammed jolted awake the 8,602 fans at Alexander Memorial Coliseum from their game-long slumber with a fast-break slam, and Marvin Lewis kept them alive with a three-pointer and a pair of foul shots.

The clock showed 4:39, and the Yellow Jackets had closed to within four points. The game was going according to last year's script -- Penn stays close for a half, maybe more, and then fades away.

But then Penn forward Ugonna Onyekwe, with the crowd roaring in his ears, took a pass at the three-point line, faked a drive and launched a shot.

Swish. The crowd quieted, and so did Georgia Tech's comeback attempt. Penn (1-0) held on to defeat the Yellow Jackets (1-1), 79-74, and thus it became obvious that this was a very different Quakers team.

"Last year, they were in a lot of situations similar to tonight and they let it slip away," said Penn freshman Tim Begley of his new teammates. "We talked about it at halftime. We talked about how last year we played with them for 20 minutes but then that last 20... we didn't want that to happen again."

Very little of anything related to last year's 12-17 season happened again last night.

Last year, the Quakers started 0-8. Last night, they won their first season opener in four years. Last year, the Quakers started Onyewke, Koko Archibong, Geoff Owens, Lamar Plummer and David Klatsky. Last night, they started Onyekwe, Archibong, a transfer from Elon (Andrew Toole), a sophomore (Jeff Schiffner) and a true freshman (Begley).

"We felt great as a team," Onyekwe. "Our chemistry is so much better this year. We were more relaxed [last night]. We just had fun out there."

Onyekwe, especially, had himself a blast. At least, he should have. The Penn junior -- Ivy League Rookie of the Year as a freshman but a disappointment last year -- scored 30 points on 13-of-18 shooting (4-of-4 from three-point range). It was the first time a Penn player had scored 30 points since Garrett Kreitz did it in February of 1998.

"What is there to say, really?" Archibong said. "He played great and pulled the whole team right along with him. And that's what we need every time out, for him to step up like that."

Onyekwe wasn't quite a one-man show, though, as all five of Penn's starters scored at least nine points, including Archibong, who had a solid 13-point, eight-rebound effort.

Toole, however, struggled mightily at times. Penn coach Fran Dunphy said at an alumni reception prior to the game that he put a lot of pressure on Toole this year, and it appeared as if Toole had a little trouble adjusting to it initially.

He committed eight turnovers and was just 1-of-6 on three-point attempts, but the junior transfer did have seven assists and played noticeably better in the second half.

"I was definitely rusty in the first half and I think it showed in some of my decisions and some of my turnovers," said Toole, who had to sit out all of last year as a transfer.

Toole wasn't rusty on the game's initial possession, though -- none of the Quakers were. Onyekwe tipped the opening jump ball to Archibong, who passed to Schiffner, back to Onyekwe, to Toole and then finally to Begley for a three just 12 seconds into the freshman's career.

"You're supposed to take shots," Begley said. "Just because I'm a freshman, I can't be passing up the first shot of the game."

Thanks in part to that opening play, Penn took an early 16-11 lead. But Georgia Tech went into halftime up, 41-33, and extended its lead to as large as 12 points. But then the Quakers went on a 38-15 stretch.

"I thought we had the game right where we wanted it, up 12 a couple possessions into the second half," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said.

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