Tigers never get within 14 points after intermission

Saturday's near loss to league-last Harvard had some people questioning whether men's basketball deserved its status at the top of the Ivy League.

Tonight's contest gave everyone further reasons for doubt.

The Tigers (11-7 overall, 4-1 Ivy League) could not find their rhythm against Penn (10-8 overall, 3-2 Ivy League) when they hosted the Quakers last night at Jadwin. Princeton's miscues, coupled with an unstoppable Quaker offense, spelled a 67-52 Penn win.

Neither team could capture the momentum in the first few minutes of the first half. Junior center Judson Wallace picked up the Tigers' first five points of the night, starting with an inside bucket over the head of Quaker Adam Chubb. Penn answered immediately with a three-point play. After a Mark Zoller layup, Wallace put up a three-point play of his own to tie the score at five at the end of four minutes.

After the early tie, the vocal Tiger crowd had little to cheer about for the rest of the half. Quaker Jeff Schiffner drained the first of his three first-half (five total) three-pointers to put the Quakers up, 8-5. Off a crisp inside pass from Wallace, junior forward Andre Logan cut the Penn lead down to one with a clean bucket — Princeton's last field goal for three minutes. Three Tiger turnovers in a row allowed the Quakers to take control in the middle of the first stanza.

After a three from senior guard Ed Persia brought Princeton to within two, 14-12, Penn pulled away on a 17-6 run to put the Quakers up, 31-18, thanks in large part to their downtown antics. Every time the Tigers hit an open shot or got inside for an easy layup, Penn had an answer. Though Princeton got a layup from freshman guard Max Schaeffer and a three-pointer from junior guard Will Venable before the end of the half, a Schiffner three and two Mark Zoller field goals negated any attempt the Tigers made at clawing back into the game.

Penn's three-point field goal percentage of 71.4 outdid even its impressive 62.5 field goal percentage in the first half, while the Tigers shot 50 percent from the field over the same period. At the end of that half alone, Schiffner had tied his average points per game with 16.

"They shot the ball extremely well, but part of [their offensive success] was just us not playing good defense," Wallace said.

Turnovers proved just as crucial as the hot Quaker shooting in the first half. Princeton had as many turnovers as field goals in the first stanza, 10 giveaways to Penn's two. The second stanza started off on an equally sour note for the Tigers, as Zoller put up the first four points of the half. Then a Greenman three and a Wallace layup off a diving steal from junior guard Will Venable closed the gap to 15, 44-29.

Once again, however, every time Princeton sunk a clean shot, Penn had an answer. An immediate trifecta and jumper from Begley silenced the Princeton crowd and stifled the Tigers' hopes that they might mount a comeback.

Another impressive Quaker show from behind the arc sunk Princeton's hopes further in the second half.

"Schiffner's threes were critical to putting some space between us and Princeton," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "That was a real momentum-stopper for Princeton."

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Up 55-41, Penn went on yet another run — this time an 11-3 sprint. With the score at 63-41, the Tigers could only hope for a miracle.

Logan took over to score Princeton's next seven points on a three-pointer, layup and dunk. Those seven, combined with layups from Schafer and Venable, ended the game with an 11-4 Tiger run. For Princeton, however, it was too little too late. The final count of 67-52 ended the Tigers' hopes of an undefeated league record.

"At this point, we can still control the race," Princeton coach John Thompson '88 said.

The Tigers can regain that control with wins in their games this weekend at Cornell and Columbia.