Penn catches fire

After 16 years at Penn, Fran Dunphy knows when his team is about to bust out of a slump.

Following a loss at Wisconsin on Saturday, the Quakers coach actually seemed rather pleased with his team's performance.

Obviously, Dunphy knows something about his squad.

Penn bounced back last night in resounding fashion, crushing neighborhood rival Drexel, 81-50, in front of a bipartisan crowd at the Palestra last night.

After the game, Dunphy took the time to tell everyone else, 'I told you so.'

"I really felt like we were getting it in the Wisconsin game," he said. "I thought we ran our offense better; we were much better defensively. So I almost felt this coming. Hopefully it'll be something we can build on for the future."

Senior guard Tim Begley scored 22 points, and sophomore forward Mark Zoller added 22 points and 12 rebounds off the bench to lead the Red and Blue (2-2).

But early on, it was the Dragons (0-1) that took the lead.

Continuing a trend that began Thursday night against Providence, the Quakers shot the ball poorly at the outset, and fell behind Bruiser Flint's squad 17-9.

But with the insertion of Zoller into the lineup for starter Jan Fikiel, things began to turn Penn's way. While the team had trouble making shots, it was Zoller's dirty work down low that kept the Quakers in the game early on.

Then they started making shots.

Two Zoller free throws and a three-pointer by Begley started a 50-14 run that spanned nearly the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first nine minutes of the second half.

Both coaches felt that the key to Penn's turnaround was its defense.

"They out-toughed us today, bottom line," Flint said. "You can say what you want to say. They played like a cornered animal."

The Quakers tied the score at 25 on a three-pointer by Zoller, and after sophomore guard Ibby Jaaber found classmate Steve Danley for an easy layup, they never trailed again.

Particularly encouraging for the Quakers was the play of Jaaber, who shrugged off a slow start to tally 13 points, six rebounds and six assists.

"Ibb is a big, big part of what we're doing," Dunphy said. "He made a couple of big plays in the first half which helped us."

The play of Jaaber, along with fellow sophomores Zoller and Danley, who finished with 15 points and eight boards, helped Penn to a 33-25 lead at halftime.

But in the second half, it was the Quakers' senior leader who took center stage.

Begley hit three-pointers on three straight possessions, and a game that was once 35-26 became 44-26.

By the time Begley hit his fifth trifecta of the game, the score was 59-31, and the only drama left at the Palestra was over whether or not Flint would get ejected.

With around seven minutes to go, Flint grabbed a cup of water and regained his composure. The same cannot be said of his star players, Sean Brooks and Phil Goss.

"We didn't play with any toughness," Flint said. "Guys got down on themselves, we didn't do the things we needed to do, and we lost by 30 points."

Brooks and Goss seemed frustrated throughout the second half and together shot just 7-for-25 from the field, scoring 22 points combined.

But Penn's confidence increased as the game went on. It culminated in back-to-back threes by freshman Michael Kach and junior Friedrich Ebede, which closed out the scoring at 81-50.

NOTES: President Amy Gutmann attended her second straight home game. Unlike in the previous game, Gutmann sat with the students, spending the entire game with notorious heckler Jon Lubin.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.