M. Hoops led by Onyekwe in Big 5 win

After coming off the bench for the past five games, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year returned to the Penn starting lineup and returned his team to the win column. Ugonna Onyekwe scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds -- both team highs -- as the Quakers defeated La Salle at the Palestra last night, 79-66. The victory means that the Red and Blue (8-5, 3-1 Big 5) retain a chance at the Big 5 title, dependent upon Saint Joseph's (2-0 Big 5) final two city contests. The Hawks defeated the Quakers, 66-48, on Saturday night at the Palestra, and Penn coach Fran Dunphy was pleased with the way his team turned the page after such a frustrating loss. "I thought it was a character game for us, coming off the St. Joe's game," Dunphy said. "We needed to step up and really play well." Points were at a premium in the first half for both clubs, but La Salle (8-9, 0-2 Big 5) had particular trouble finding its touch. Neither team scored until Penn senior Andrew Toole converted a Jeff Schiffner steal into a layup at the 17:44 mark. The Explorers would not get on the board until Jermaine Thomas nailed a three with 3:37 gone by. The Quakers used threes from Toole and sophomore Tim Begley to get the offense moving -- for a while -- as Penn opened an 18-5 lead at the 11:03 point. But the Quakers did not score again for another 5:27, during which La Salle was able to slice the lead to 18-15. The teams headed to the locker room with Penn ahead, 27-21, following a first half that would even seem low-scoring to Mike Mitchell and Rob Milanese. The story was different, however, in the second half in which Penn consistently connected from beyond the arc and reeled off 52 points. Penn had a scare with 14:41 remaining in the half, when a breakaway layup by David Bell gave La Salle its first lead since it was ahead, 3-2.

But Begley answered right back by firing a three-pointer from the left side to put Penn back in front, 38-36. After La Salle freshman forward Steven Smith connected on a three, junior guard Schiffner hit from downtown to conclude a frenzied sequence and give Penn a 41-39 lead, which it never relinquished. Schiffner "made three threes in the second half and had a pretty good look at the fourth," Dunphy said. "They were important." Through it all, Onyekwe played consistently, scoring 10 in the first half and 12 in the second. The London native twice dazzled the bipartisan Palestra crowd of 6,127 with mammoth slam dunks. The second came when La Salle seemingly vacated the paint, allowing Onyekwe to drive the lane and go in for the right-handed jam. That gave Penn a 69-52 advantage with only 3:48 remaining and served as the exclamation point for the Quakers' successful evening. "Are there times [Onyekwe] drives you crazy? Yeah," Dunphy said. "But he's got a lot of athletic ability, and he's improving his basketball knowledge. I thought he played terrific tonight." Onyekwe said after the game that his performance is not really affected by his presence in or out of the starting lineup. "Really, it doesn't make any difference to me," he said. "I just have to do the best I can. "Coming off the bench, actually, you get a chance to see the flow of the game before you come in, so that is an advantage, but in any situation, I just have to play." Penn will open its Ivy League season on Friday night at home against Dartmouth.

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