Fanaroff | No crutch to count on in clutch

Down 63-60 with just under three minutes to go in Friday’s contest with Navy, the Quakers had the ball with the opportunity to tie the game or at least cut the score to one. Point guard Zack Rosen passed the ball behind Conor Turley, and Navy’s Jordan Sugars took the ball the length of the court for an easy layup.

Four minutes earlier, the Quakers had a similar chance, and Rob Belcore missed a three that would have tied the game at 54.

The most disheartening part of both these missed opportunities?

They followed 7-2 and 5-0 runs, respectively, to pull the Red and Blue within one possession. But the theme of the game — and in large part the season — was their inability to take control of the game when the margin gets close.

“That’s the story so far,” Rosen said. “I don’t know. Even in the Delaware game down the stretch and the Drexel game it seemed like also down the stretch, it seemed like we give up a little run or we can’t get over the hump.”

In fact, in all four of the team’s winnable games — excluding the Villanova blowout— Penn trailed by only two possessions at some point in the final eight minutes. But the inability to capitalize on the small deficit has resulted in the 0-5 start.

Obviously, then, to get into the win column coach Glen Miller and the Quakers must address why this is so. And it seems like one of the root causes is their lacking a primary scorer who can take over a game when it is up for grabs.

It doesn’t help that junior Tyler Bernardini — Penn’s leading scorer last year — has been derailed by injuries all season.

“We’re asking some guys that are our secondary scorers to step up and be primary scorers,” Miller said, “and we’re struggling to score points.”

But Miller said that Friday’s game was winnable even without Bernardini. Then others must not have contributed as much as they could have.

Rosen has shown an ability to score in Bernadini’s absence, averaging over 18 points per game in his last three contests. He came up huge in the second half against the Midshipmen, making his last five three-point attempts. But he is also the point guard, and the dual roles are a lot to put on a player. Miller noted that the team is “asking a lot out of Zack.”

Perhaps senior Darren Smith could take over the role. As a freshman, he shot close to 40 percent from the field, including nearly 50 percent from three-point range. But after missing the last two seasons due to injury, Smith is shooting just .271 overall, including .242 from three-point range.

So unless someone other than Rosen can step up — or Bernardini can make a miraculously quick recovery — Penn will continue to get close and wind up just shy of victory. If they can start counting on a scorer to take the reins when times get tough, however, this team has the potential to make their rough start a distant memory.

NEIL FANAROFF is a senior economics major from Potomac, Md., and is former Design Editor of The Daily Pennsylvanian. He can be contacted at dpsports@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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