A Penn-etration Opened Up Threes

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Penn point guard Andrew Toole was the one who was supposed to be injured, but it was Harvard’s perimeter defenders who were rolling their ankles Saturday.

Toole, who missed Penn’s game Friday against Dartmouth with a sprained ankle sustained last week against La Salle, decided he felt fine to play Saturday after experiencing no pain during warm-ups.

His quickness off the dribble turned out to be a menace. While the Quakers’ uncanny accuracy from the three-point arc was deadly, it was really the fruit of the Penn guards’ earlier forays into the lane. In Toole’s case, only two of his nine field goals came from long range. The rest came on layups and easy runners when he put the ball on the floor and beat his defender.

“Toole’s one of the better guys in the league in being able to really knock you off balance with the dribble,” said Harvard coach Frank Sullivan. “I think we had a tough time adjusting to that. We talked a little about it and we’ll certainly talk a lot more about it when we go home.”

The constant threat opened up Penn’s offense and, combined with good ball reversal, kept Harvard guessing defensively. Sullivan said that his team faced an uphill battle trying to defend the shot, the dribble and the pass against Penn’s three-person backcourt.

“They probably have more answers on the perimeter than any team in the Ivy League,” Sullivan said. “Their ability to pass the ball inside out, make the extra pass, and even beat you on the dribble with the spot-up guy, really leaves you as a defensive player with your head spinning a little bit. You’re just running upstream in terms of getting good solid closeouts to them. Our perimeter defense has been decent for most of the year but I don’t think it was as effective tonight in terms of slowing them down.”

No Answers on Offense

Asked about Harvard’s lack of offensive execution Saturday, a disgusted Elliott Prasse-Freeman didn’t sugar-coat the issue.

“We were running around like idiots out there,” he said.

After Penn jumped ahead by as much as 23-10 in the first half, the Crimson was pressed to catch up in a hurry. The sense of urgency only produced more poor shots and mistakes with the ball. The Crimson shot just 34 percent and committed 12 turnovers in the first half.

“They had their scouting report down,” Prasse-Freeman said of Penn’s defense. “They understood our plays as well as we did.”

As he did against Princeton a night earlier, Sullivan shuffled through different rotations in the first half. None particularly worked. One first-half lineup had Prasse-Freeman at the point, joined by sophomore guards Kevin Rogus and Jason Norman with Brian Cusworth and Sam Winter up front. That lineup produced two turnovers and two airballs in four consecutive possessions.

An even more unconventional permutation, which substituted Harvey for Prasse-Freeman at the one and sophomore Graham Beatty for Winter, didn’t generated much else. Harvard shot 34 percent in the first half and just 1-for-6 on threes.

The unusual lineups marked an almost six-minute span in the first half when captain Brady Merchant was on the bench. After a good shooting night at Princeton, Merchant never settled into a rhythm Saturday. He finished just 3-for-10 from the field and without a single rebound. Meanwhile, at 6’6, Penn guard Jeff Schiffner posed problems for Harvey, who shot just 3-for-14.

“It’s a hard job to hound him,” Dunphy said of Harvey. “I think he’s a terrific player, very good scorer and a constant mover out there. Those are hard guys to defend. But I think Schiff is a pretty good athlete and the size seemingly helps us as well.”

Around the Rim

Sullivan attributed both the Crimson’s turnover problems and foul troubles this weekend to the extended 20-day layoff the team took for exams…

Norman played 12 minutes on Saturday. He had four turnovers in that time but also had two fast-break dunks in less than 90 seconds in the first half. The second one was an electrifying slam over two Penn forwards. The play made Norman the target of an obscenity-based chant from the Penn student section for the rest of the night…

Freshman guard Michael Beal was whistled for a deadball technical foul at the 9:39 mark of the second half following a scrum under the hoop after a Sam Winter basket.

With its sweep of Cornell and Columbia this weekend, Brown now stands at a league-best 4-0 in Ivy play. The Crimson play at the Bears this Friday and run the risk of being effectively eliminated from the league race with a loss.

—Staff writer Brian E. Fallon can be reached at bfallon@fas.harvard.edu.