Todres | Teamwork leads to turnaround

PRINCETON, N.J.

Not all victories are created equal.

There are moral victories in losing efforts and momentum-building victories in recent winning efforts.

There are victories in games you should have won and victories in rivalry games that are always up for grabs.

And every now and then, there are victories that should boost the confidence of an entire program.

File last night's victory at Princeton in the last category.

All season long, and even last season, Penn coach Glen Miller and his team have had to battle adversity - more adversity than this program has seen in quite some time. Between a rash of injuries, overwhelming youth and inexperience and dwindling fan support and patience, the Quakers have had their share of bad luck. And to be perfectly blunt, they've had their share of inexplicably bad outings as well.

That doesn't mean the players and coaches haven't tried their hardest to turn this thing around, and it doesn't mean they haven't made great strides throughout the course of the season.

Penn turned in an impressive opener at North Carolina, and then it regressed. The Quakers rebounded strongly after winter break in the second half against La Salle and in a hard-fought game against St. Joe's. Then they slipped again.

These promising outings still resulted in losses, and fans' concerns over the state of the program grew louder. The bottom line is that Penn just hasn't had much to show for its efforts.

Until now.

First, the Quakers went on the road last weekend and earned themselves a sweep, returning to a respectable .500 league winning percentage. Then, they marched into enemy territory and played their most gutsy 45 minutes of the season in a Penn-Princeton classic against a Tigers team that had already knocked off the defending league champions.

And it's not just that the Quakers won - it's how they won. They won as a team, and every time they dug themselves into a hole, they managed to dig themselves right out of it.

Tyler Bernardini was ice cold in the second half last night, forcing jumpers, layups and passes left and right. He just didn't have it. Harrison Gaines, who has stepped up lately as an offensive leader, didn't have it either. Jack Eggleston continued his offensive struggles, too. When Penn's most prolific scorers have been off this season, the team simply hasn't stood a chance.

But last night, the Quakers found a way to win. Down 29-18 with under six minutes to go in the half, Penn didn't fold; it clawed its way back into the game, with a Kevin Egee buzzer-beating 3-pointer drawing the team to within two points heading into the half. Those were his only points of the game, but they were big ones.

When Conor Turley was ejected midway through the second half, the Quakers faltered briefly, but then they regained their composure and continued to outhustle the Tigers to loose balls and rebounds, get defensive stops and sink pivotal free throws.

All of this came from three seniors and a bunch of underclassmen in their biggest rivalry game on the road against a much-rejuvenated rival.

"It was a big win," Miller said.

That's a big understatement. After all the chaos and turmoil, Penn now has a winning record in the Ivy League. All of the wins have come on the road. They'll suffer more setbacks before the season is all said and done. But as Miller mentioned to me casually at practice last week, sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward.

They took several steps forward last night. Now it's time for the Quakers to bring it home.

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