M. Hoops | Green light, Red light

BOSTON - After two straight blowout victories, it finally looked like the Quakers were beginning to find their groove.

Then, they went to Boston.

Thanks to a first-half offensive outburst, Harvard stopped Penn 89-79 Saturday night.

Coming in, the Quakers were still very much a factor in the Ivy League race. But a 17-point halftime deficit made nearly all thoughts of a championship disappear. Cornell, now at 10-0 after defeating Yale and Brown this weekend, has a stranglehold on the title.

Captain Brian Grandieri, who finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, said he felt the team was "not out of it," and that he was disappointed "there was no sense of urgency."

In stretches, the Quakers looked overwhelmed defensively while their opponents made it look easy. The Crimson consistently found ways to get the ball inside and convert easy baskets; 12 of their first-half 16 field goals were inside the paint.

"We just didn't come out and play hard on defense mentally," Justin Reilly said.

Harvard forwards Evan Harris and Brad Unger dominated inside during the first half, combining for 32 points and 11 boards. It didn't help Penn that Unger was stepping back and knocking down long jumpers as well.

The Crimson's 11-0 run during the half's final six minutes buried the Quakers. Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said the run had his team feeling good going into the locker room, but also said that he reminded his players that Penn is capable of making runs.

"This is one of the two premier programs in our conference," he said. "They're going to fight and claw in that second half and so we need to start the second half the way we ended the first half."

Penn did in fact make a late run, but Jeremy Lin made sure the Quakers would never get back into it, scoring 14 of his 21 points in the second half.

"You can see how he can knife through there and get to the basket and make plays," Amaker said of Lin. "When he's attacking like he was this whole weekend he's a tough guy to defend."

Penn didn't have much of an answer on offense, especially in the first half when Bernardini, the team's leading scorer, had to sit because of foul trouble. The freshman hit a three on the Quakers' opening possession of the game, but he didn't score again until 12:13 in the second.

The Red and Blue nearly made it a game with a 17-7 run, but for much of the second half they were out of sync offensively.

"We usually have a span like that once a game where people get frustrated and we're not getting clean open shots, people start going one-on-one," Reilly said. "Against Dartmouth, you could probably do that . but against a good team like Harvard, you have to run offense."

Another Bernardini three with 3:47 remaining capped off Penn's late run, cutting the lead down to single digits.

On the next possession, though, Harvard ran the shot clock all the way down and Andrew Pusar converted on a tough baby hook to bring the lead back to double digits. With lights-out foul shooting down the stretch, the Crimson made sure it stayed that way.

Harvard's victory marks the first time the program has completed a weekend sweep of Penn and Princeton since 1987.

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