M. Hoops | Bulldogs' big men dominate in the paint

See a photo slideshow from this weekend's games here.

It wasn't hard to guess what Yale's approach was going to be when it came to the Palestra Friday. A team with a host of competent big men and without much of a perimeter game, the Bulldogs were going to go inside all night.

But few could have predicted just how thoroughly they would batter Penn down low - Yale outrebounded the Quakers by seven, outscored them in the paint by six and sent the Red and Blue home with its fifth consecutive Ivy loss at home, coming out on top, 87-79.

"They pound the ball inside," Penn coach Glen Miller said. "They know their strengths."

Forward Ross Morin, who was plagued with foul trouble when these two teams met two weeks ago in New Haven, Conn., dominated in the post, pouring in 20 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs didn't hesitate to feed Morin and frontcourt mate Travis Pinick - who scored 15 points - down low. Their ability to score from the block gave some open looks to guard Alex Zampier, who scored 19.

The Quakers saw a 13-point first-half lead dwindle to one at the break, and the life seemed to be sucked out of them after halftime.

"We have to have the discipline to maintain that lead," said senior forward Cam Lewis, who scored 12 points and hauled in six rebounds. "We let them take all the momentum away from us . and we're feeling terrible."

In the end, however, the game came down to a battle at the free-throw line. There were 55 fouls called in the game, and every possession seemed to end up at the charity stripe.

Neither team was competent from the line, with Yale shooting just 20-for-36, and the Quakers knocking down just 17 of 32.

"You have to hit your free throws," Miller said. "I mean, geez."

Lewis made just four of his 12 attempts, encapsulating an all-around frustrating performance for the Quakers.

"I just kind of choked," he said. "Late in the game I just have to do a better job."

Lewis is better known for his ability as a defender but without many viable options behind him to stop Yale's big men, Miller was forced to leave him in the game and could only watch as foul shot after foul shot rimmed out.

While both squads were woeful from the line, the shots were certainly falling from the field. Yale and Penn combined to shoot 56.1 percent for the game, but this spoke more to both team's defensive inefficacies than their hot scoring touches.

"Defensively, both teams lacked a great effort tonight," Yale coach James Jones said. "I thought the difference in the game was we kind of raised the level of our defense in the second half ."

When the officials began calling foul after foul, the Quakers weren't able to respond. Their only consistent source of offense for the night was sophomore guard Harrison Gaines, who scored a career-high 24 points.

But the snail's pace that persisted in the second half killed any hopes of a Penn comeback.

"That kills the momentum," Gaines said. "We want to speed it up, get on the run."

But for all of their futility in so many facets, the Quakers simply couldn't get anything going once they were in a hole. Perhaps Gaines summed it up best:

"It sucks when you're down."

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