Uphill climb after Palestra split

When Brown came into the Palestra on Friday, 3,642 people witnessed something they hadn't seen in a long time: an Ivy loss for the Quakers in their home gym.

The Bears escaped with a 66-61 win, withstanding a furious Penn comeback despite not scoring a field goal in the game's final eight minutes.

The loss snapped the Red and Blue's 24-game home winning streak in Ancient Eight competition - a three-and-a-half-year string of domination.

To put that run into perspective, Brian Grandieri and his teammates were not yet on campus when Princeton knocked off the Quakers in overtime, 76-70, on March 9, 2004 - the last time an Ivy foe strode out of West Philadelphia with a victory. Nor was head coach Glen Miller, who made the jump from Brown to coach the Quakers last year.

Even current Bears coach Craig Robinson, who starred at Princeton in the early 1980s, had never tasted anything but defeat inside the Palestra's hallowed walls. When his Tigers did knock off the Quakers in Philly, it was at the Spectrum.

"This is the first time I've ever won here," the second-year coach said. "To win this game, at this place, against this team - I don't care if people think these guys are down, this is Penn. So I'm really excited about the way we played."

If this game had been structured like a four-quartered NBA affair, Robinson would have been able to offer that unequivocal praise about two of those periods: the first and third. Brown (14-8, 6-2) dominated the first 10 minutes of each half, outscoring the home team 47-27 during those stretches. That Penn (9-15, 4-3 Ivy) spent the rest of the game on the comeback trail, outscoring the Bears 34-19 during the remaining minutes, was little consolation.

"They set the tone early," said Grandieri, who paced the Quakers with 20 points. "You can only come back so many times, and we did, so I guess we can pat ourselves on the back for a half a second. But it was not enough."

All-Ivy senior Damon Huffman keyed Brown's surge out of the gate, scoring 10 points - on two three-pointers, a mid-range jumper and a layup off a steal - to stake the Bears to a 12-2 lead and force Miller to preempt the first media timeout with one of his own. Huffman finished with 19 points and five boards.

After trailing by as many as 14 with 8:18 to go in the half, Penn clamped down on the defensive end and managed to cut the lead to just one at the break. Junior Kevin Egee proved instrumental during that stretch, scoring 13 of his 15 points during the first half and energizing the Quakers on both ends.

"He's playing with more confidence," Miller said of Egee's second strong performance in a row.

Egee and the Quakers were unable to carry that momentum through halftime, as Brown once again pounced out of the locker room. The Bears hit their first 10 shots of the half, mostly on easy layups, the products of quick cuts from their motion offense. The lead once again ballooned to as many as 13.

But down nine with 1:16 to go, Penn had enough for one last push. Grandieri hit a jumper and a three-pointer, and Harrison Gaines hit a three of his own to cut the deficit. But in the end, Brown hit just enough foul shots to hand Penn its third Ivy defeat.

Following the game, Grandieri had a simple message for his young team: "I said I've never lost here, even the year I didn't play. It was going to happen eventually. I said, 'let's go out and start another [streak].'"

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