Quakers look to rebound

On Saturday night at the Palestra, Saint Joseph's trio of outside shooters pushed Penn to its collective limit, outracing the Quakers on both ends of the floor. Though La Salle is a young team this year -- headlined by athletic guard Gary Neal -- the Explorers (8-8, 0-1 Big 5) will look to flummox the Quakers (7-5, 2-1 Big 5) tonight at the Palestra with a similar press and outside shooting that the Hawks showed on Saturday. "Neal pretty much can shoot from anywhere, so you gotta get a hand on him pretty much when he gets the ball over halfcourt," Penn sophomore Tim Begley said. "Hopefully we can get some helpside defense on him, rather than just letting him shoot jumpers." Neal leads the Explorers in scoring this year with 16.8 points per game, and has attempted 7.9 three-pointers per game this year. Joining Neal in the backcourt are Mike Cleaves and Jermaine Thomas, both of whom are also threats from long distance. But stopping La Salle's shooting will only be half the battle. The Quakers will look to rebound from a subpar shooting performance against St. Joe's in which they scored 48 points on 17-for-48 shooting. Those shooting woes came on the heels of consecutive over-95 point games against Southern California and Monmouth. "I don't know if they'll deny as much as St. Joe's did," Begley said of the La Salle defense. "Hopefully we'll be able to swing the ball a lot better and move it around the perimeter, rather than just being stagnant on offense." Complementing Neal in the scoring department is the reigning Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week, forward Steven Smith, who has averaged 18.8 points and 8 rebounds in this past week's games against Massachusetts and Richmond. "They present a different issue for us," Dunphy said of La Salle's offense compared to that of St. Joe's. "All five guys can score whereas in St. Joe's, the bigger guys are not scoring threats. "Against Smith and Bell -- David Bell -- they can step outside and make shots as well as well as play inside." In addition to being Penn's final Big 5 game of the season, the Explorers' journey to the Palestra will also pit Dunphy against his alma mater -- Penn's coach graduated from La Salle in 1970. Tonight's game will also mark the return of reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Ugonna Onyekwe to the Quakers' starting lineup after five games in which Adam Chubb got the starting nod. Despite not starting, Onyekwe continued to play significant minutes off the bench, including his 23-point performance in 33 minutes against Lafayette and 26 minutes against the Hawks. "I'm just going to come out and do the same thing that I've been doing every game -- just play hard," Onyekwe said. Onyekwe's position in the starting linuep is particularly relevant because the game is the final contest in the Big 5 schedule and immediately preceds 14 consecutive Ivy League matchups. "Obviously this is the last Big 5 game for a lot of us, so we want to come out and give ourselves a chance to tie and be co-champions," Onyekwe said. "And we want to go into the [Ivy League] with momentum coming off a win, so it's a big game for us." With five non-league losses up to this point in the season, a consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament will undoubtedly rely on an Ivy League championship. "Come Friday night, it's a clean slate," Begley said. "And everybody is pretty much tied for the Ivy League title."

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