Sports Update | M. Hoops places third in Florida

Desperate for a win, the Penn basketball team soothed its wounds with a 78-67 victory over Campbell on Tuesday night. It was just the second of the season for the Quakers; their other came against Monmouth back on Nov. 22nd.

"When you go out and work hard everyday in practice and you're trying to compete, it's a relief and you feel good about that," Miller said. "I think we took a step forward."

By taking down the Fighting Camels, the Quakers finished third in the UCF Holiday Classic tournament.

In front of a sparse crowd at the UCF Arena, Penn had the opportunity to put the game away early. The Quakers were ahead by 13 points midway through the first half after a 5 minute and 13 second Campbell scoring drought. But the Camels whittled the Penn lead to as small as six and the halftime score read 36-29 in favor of the Quakers.

Just like in Monday night's game against host UCF, the Red and Blue came out slow after the break. Campbell went on a 9-2 run and trailed by only two points with just over 17 and a half minutes left to go in the contest.

Campbell's Jonathan Rodriguez had an opportunity to tie the game as he drove to the hoop, but was called for a charge.

Unlike in previous outings, Penn was able to maintain its composure and take control of the game again. One part of that was keeping Campbell's best scorer, Rodriguez, in check.

"Penn was effective defending him by just being physical," Camels coach Robbie Laing said. "He struggles sometimes when he plays against bigger stronger guys like he did in the situation tonight."

Laing said he realized the game was over with six or seven minutes remaining and decided to rest Rodriguez for conference play. The junior forward finished with a game-high 18 points.

Penn senior Cameron Lewis exploded in the second half, adding six points over a two-minute stretch. He capped off his night-in which we went a perfect 6-for-6 from the field-with a dunk as the game clock ticked down.

"You look at their stats, they've got pretty even distribution," Laing said. "I wasn't expecting - gosh, can't even remember the kid's name . . . Lewis to come down with 14 [points] and seven [rebounds]."

A once 26-point Penn lead narrowed to 11 in the closing minutes.

"The wheels were falling off at the end and we would have liked to finish them off through to the end and even made the lead bigger, but you take any win," freshman Rob Belcore, who made his second straight start, said. Belcore added seven assists and committed no turnovers in 29 minutes of play.

Five Penn players finished double digits on the night. Eggleston again led the team in scoring with 16 points and was selected to the all-tournament team.

In the nightcap, host UCF defeated Chicago State, 89-75, to take its UCF Holiday Classic Title.

For the Quakers, getting that 'W' might have been a good enough prize.

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