O-N-Y-E-K-W-E spells doom for men's basketball

Most so called experts were giving the Tigers no shot at beating Penn at the Palestra. Not in front of more than 8,000 screaming fans and certainly not against a team with the most powerful frontcourt in the league along with deadly assassins from beyond the arc.

The Tigers were able to handle the crowd and they did a reasonable job of covering Penn's outside shooters. Lastly, the Tigers were able to contain one half of Penn's dominant frontcourt, Koko Archibong.

In the end, it was senior forward Ugonna Onyekwe who proved to be the deciding factor in the game.

"We had too much Ugonna," head coach John Thompson '88 said.

He was dominant on both ends of the floor, scoring a game high 22 points and also harassed Princeton's leading scorer, junior forward Spencer Gloger into a dismal 3-14 shooting performance and 12 points, all in the second half.

Onyekwe started on fire and never slowed down. He opened the game with a thunderous dunk on Penn's first possession. He then added two jumpers as he scored the Quakers first six points.

More important than his offensive presence was the job he did defensively. While Thompson had Wallace guarding Onyekwe, Penn's coach Fran Dunphy wanted his dominant big man on Gloger.

Onyekwe followed Gloger all around the court, never allowing him to catch and shoot when coming off of screens. It was the first time all season that Gloger failed to score in the first half of a game.

In addition to his scoring, Onyekwe was the main reason that Penn's perimeter threats were as effective as they were. He was wreaking havoc on the inside, and Thompson was forced to provide help to Wallace and junior forward Konrad Wysocki. He doubled down on Onyekwe in an effort to slow him down.

When the double team arrived or when the Tiger defense sagged, Onyekwe made the quick pass back to the perimeter. Two or three passes later, Penn almost always had a good look at a three. With outside shooters that include Jeff Schiffner and Tim Begley, the Tigers were in for a long night. Overall, the Quakers hit 7-16 from beyond the arc.

"He [Onyekwe] is a big body and he is very athletic," Wysocki said. In the second half, Onyekwe seemed to get even stronger. He had a free throw and a layup as Penn built a 33-23 lead with 16:42 left to play.

After the Tigers went on a 14-3 run to take a 37-36 lead, Dunphy had had enough. He called his team together and told them to get the ball inside.

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The results were immediate. The Tigers defense could not effectively double down, and Onyekwe ate up the Tigers big men.

He had another layup with just under 10 minutes left in the game to give Penn a 38-37 lead. They would never trail again.

With the Quakers up 46-40, and looking to put the game out of reach with just over six minutes left, Onyekwe helped to do just that. He hit one of two free throws and then pulled off a move that showed why he was the Ivy League Player of the Year last year.

He got the ball in the low post and made an unguardable up-and-under move. He added the exclamation point on the move in the form of a monster two-handed ham that brought the packed Palestra crowd to its feet.

Onyekwe's final line read 22 points on nine of 17 shooting and a game high 12 rebounds.

What did not show up on the stat sheet were all the intangibles. One was drawing a double team and kicking out to open shooters.

In addition, Onyekwe disrupted many of the Tiger's open looks at the basket.

"We got what we were looking for," Thompson said. "We missed about 10 layups."

Onyekwe's help defense is what caused most of those misses.

What made his performance even more impressive is that he did this without any help from his running mate, Archibong, who finished with no points in 17 minutes before fouling out with 5:05 left in the game.

When the Quakers come to Jadwin on March 11 for the last game of the regular season, thankfully they will no longer have to contend with 8,000 screaming Penn fans. Unfortunately, Onyekwe will be making the drive up Route 1.