New York pair M. Hoops' biggest weekend of year

Six straight wins is what it took for the Penn men's basketball team to have the Ivies back in its control. During the Quakers' three-week run, Penn (8-3) vaulted from an unfamiliar sixth-place in the Ivy League into third, trailing only Princeton (9-2) and Yale (9-3) in the race for the Ivy crown.

And with a date set with the Tigers for next Tuesday night, the Quakers are in position to clinch at least a share of the conference title -- if they can win out.

"When we were 2-3 we knew we had the ability to win the league," Penn junior guard David Klatsky said. "To have destiny finally back in our hands is great."

What the Quakers also have in their hands is a date with the Ivy League's pair of New York schools, Columbia and Cornell.

While neither team has been atop the Ancient Eight for a while -- the Big Red, however, were the last Ivy team other than Penn or Princeton to win an Ivy crown -- Penn still knows that it will face a daunting duo in its first road games since Feb. 8.

"We are going to play two of the toughest games we could possibly have right now," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said.

The Quakers come into tonight's 7:30 p.m. tip off against Columbia with revenge on their minds. The Lions handed Penn its only home loss of the season in a 54-53 squeaker on Feb. 2.

In a game decided in the closing seconds, Columbia stole a victory after Penn freshman Tim Begley was called for a foul with 3.2 seconds left in the game.

The Lions' Joe Case then nailed a pair of foul shots for the win.

"They beat us at our place on a pair of free throws," Klatsky said. "Now we've got a little payback to give them."

Payback for Penn will only come if the Quakers can slow down Columbia's veteran inside-outside combination of Craig Austin and Treg Duerksen.

Austin, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, is having another stellar season -- putting up 16.4 points per game along with 5.5 rebounds per contest -- and has given Penn a lot of trouble in the past.

The last time the two teams played at Levien Gymnasium, on Feb. 17, 2001, Austin manhandled the Quakers' frontcourt en route to 25 points, six rebounds and a 12-point win.

And in this year's first Penn-Columbia matchup, it was the senior again who took the lead. While he had a poor 6 for 20 shooting night from the floor -- Austin shoots 45 percent from the field -- the forward was still able to score 14 points.

Penn's Jeff Schiffner will be the primary defender responsible for slowing down Austin tonight.

"Austin is one of those players who is just a very good basketball player," Dunphy said. "I don't know how we are going to limit his touches, but I hope we can limit his effectiveness."

Besides limiting Austin, the Quakers will also have to keep a close eye on Duerksen -- who will be lurking behind the three-point line.

The shoot-first guard comes into tonight's game on fire. In Columbia's three-point loss to Harvard last weekend, Duerksen nailed five-3 pointers.

Duerksen "shoots the ball incredibly well on the move," Penn guard Andrew Toole said. "We've just got to get him to put the ball on the floor a little bit."

The Quakers will again have their hands full on Saturday night, when they travel to Cornell.

While the Big Red (2-10) have struggled in the Ivy League, their top two dogs, Wallace Prather and Ka'Ron Barnes, would certainly relish the role of spoiling Penn's Ivy title hopes.

The senior Prather torched Penn for 26 points at the Palestra and a stirring upset of the Quakers would add an impressive final line to the guard's Cornell resume.

"I'm sure the Cornell group would just love to end their season with a win against us," Dunphy said.

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