With only pride at stake, men's hoops falls to Penn

Regardless of what their records may be, the Penn-Princeton game that closes the season is always the big deal. The intensity on the floor showed that the players understand pride is still very much on the line, but it took the spectators a little longer to figure it out.

"Both teams wanted it so bad and both teams played their hearts out," Penn guard Jeff Schiffner said.

With Penn's 74-67 victory last night at Jadwin Gym, Princeton (16-11 overall, 10-4 Ivy League) will potentially be missing the postseason for the first time in seven years. It seems unlikely that the Tigers will gain a spot in the 40-team NIT bracket.

"The NIT is no big achievement," junior guard Ed Persia said. "[It is the] best of the rest."

However, even Persia admitted that he and the rest of the team would like to get the bid because they are not ready to put an end to the season.

In addition, with Penn (22-5, 14-0) sweeping Princeton, this was the first time every Ivy series ended in a sweep.

The game went back and forth for much of the night, and neither team was able to gain any momentum.

Princeton's game plan defensively was to face-up on all of Penn's three point shooters and not let them get off any uncontested shots.

"Ugonna [Onyekwe] is not going to beat you singlehandly," junior guard Ed Persia said. "We let some of their guys get some threes and that was the difference in the game."

The plan worked to an extent in the first half as Princeton limited Penn's inside game and pushed their big men, Onyekwe and Koko Archibong to the outside. However, the duo was nailing their shots as the Quakers shot 67.5 percent for the game. In the second half, Penn went inside to the big men on every possession, and the result was almost either a foul or a basket — something the Tigers did not expect.

"Their game plan was to throw it into the big men in the second half," head coach John Thompson '88 said. "Because of the quality of their shooters it is difficult to stunt, double or help inside."

Onyekwe was once again Penn's leading scorer with 20 points while also adding six rebounds. He scored 22 in the teams' first game, Feb. 11 at the Palestra.

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However, Penn's most valuable player may have been David Klatsky. He hit only two shots on the night and finished with six points, but his two shots were the biggest of the game.

At the end of the first half, Persia hit two free throws to give Princeton a 26-25 lead with 3.8 seconds left to go. Penn inbounded to Klatsky who streaked up the floor and knocked down a three with no time remaining in the half to put the Quakers ahead going into break.

His second shot was the most bizarre play of the game. Klatsky brought the ball up the floor and near half court sent a lob to Adam Chubb who was running down the center of the floor. The pass was terrible but it turned into a great shot. Klatsky's line drive pass barely made it over the rim but somehow hit the back iron and fell through. The shot broke a 49-49 tie.

On offense, the Tigers produced points effectively, with Wallace and Persia leading the way with 22 and 21 points respectively. Princeton moved the ball well and avoided any extended droughts, which have plagued them this season.

However, they simply could not overcome Penn's remarkable shooting performance and are now at the mercy of the NIT selection committee to see if they live another day.

"I'm hoping that we have a couple of days left in us," Wallace said.