The Penn men's basketball team hit another roadblock Saturday night in their quest for an Ivy League title. Cornell's Joe Case hit two free throws with 3.1 seconds to play, and Ugonna Onyekwe's desperations shot at the buzzer rimmed out as the Lions stunned the 3,867 at the Palestra with a 54-53 upset of the Quakers. The Quakers (15-5, 2-2 Ivy League) led, 28-25, at the half and quickly stretched their lead to 36-28 four minutes into the second half. But the Lions (10-10, 2-2 Ivy League) went on a 15-2 run to grab a 43-38 advantage with just over 10 minutes to play in the game. Onyekwe led the Quakers with 17 points on 7 of 13 shooting. Junior forward Koko Archibong added 12, and Andrew Toole had 9 points and six assists for the Quakers. Forward Craig Austin led the Lions with 14 points and six rebounds. The Quakers were outrebounded, 14-9, in the second half and 26-22 overall, and they were outscored, 24-14, in the paint. Penn had stretches where they went over five minutes without a field goal in the first half and over seven minutes without a one in the second, and only got four points from its bench. The Red and Blue's final chance to win the game came after Case's two free throws. Sophomore guard Jeff Schiffner inbounded it downcourt to Onyekwe, who took a dribble and fired off a long jumper which just missed.
The next game for the Quakers is Friday night at Yale. In other Ivy League action tonight, Brown came back to beat Dartmouth, 74-71, Yale upset Harvard, 66-57, and Princeton jumped out to a 32-9 halftime lead and cruised against Cornell, 60-38.
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