Men's Hoops triumphs in opener against Penn State

If the opening game for the Penn men's basketball team was a battle for state supremacy, the Quakers passed with flying colors.

The Quakers overcame a poor shooting performance and pulled away in the second half for a 62-37 victory over Penn State at the Palestra on Saturday night.

"I thought we played well," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I didn't think we played great, but I thought we played well."

The Quakers' defensive effort was their best statistically since a 63-37 win over Columbia in 2000. The Nittany Lions had not been shut down like this since a 76-36 loss to Temple in 1986.

Penn's defense offset its poor shooting performance, as the Quakers hit only 37.0 percent of their shots and 26.1 percent from three-point range.

"We took some rushed shots, but we also had some open looks that just didn't go down," Dunphy said.

On the other side, the Nittany Lions did their part to match the Quakers brick-for-brick. They shot just 29.6 percent from the floor, missed all 14 threes they took, and also were only 45.5 percent from the free throw line.

"You shoot 29 percent for the game, 45 percent from the free throw line, it's tough to beat anybody," Penn State coach Jerry Dunn said.

The Quakers never trailed in the contest, jumping out to a 7-2 lead just four minutes into the game, before both teams went cold from the field.

Penn eventually expanded the lead to 14-6, before the Nittany Lions went on an 8-0 run to tie it up.

Jeff Schiffner, who scored 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting, had the only Penn points in a span of almost 10 minutes. Ugonna Onyekwe finally ended the drought with a layup, putting Penn up, 20-17. Onyekwe led the Quakers with 15 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

A late Penn spurt put the Quakers up, 25-19, at the half, and they kept the lead, stretching the advantage to 38-25 five minutes into the second. The Nittany Lions would never again get within single digits.

Although the Quakers won by 25 points -- and outscored the Penn State football team, who had beaten Michigan State, 61-7, earlier in the day, in the process -- there were still some concerns for Penn.

Jan Jagla, Penn State's 7-foot German import, had 16 points and 11 rebounds on 8-of-16 shooting. Onyekwe and fellow forward Koko Archibong weren't able to match his size on many occasions down the floor.

"Jagla is a scorer," Dunphy said. "He can step away from the basket and make perimeter shots, and we wanted to stop that... he had a good scoring game, and Ugonna and Koko will be alerted to that."

Jagla did miss both of his three-point attempts.

Penn shut down both of the Lions' guards, however. Brandon Watkins shot 2-for-8 and Sharif Chambliss shot an abysmal 1-for-10 and missed all seven of his three-pointers.

"We thought if we could slow down [Watkins] a bit, it would cut down on his looks," Penn guard Andrew Toole said. "Schiff did a great job [on Chambliss] running around all those screens -- just being a pest -- and really getting a hand up, contesting his shot and making it difficult for him to get good looks."

The Quakers return to the Palestra hardwood tonight when they take on Drexel at 7 p.m.

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