NOTEBOOK: Poor Shooting From Rosen Helps Men's Basketball Top Quakers

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—Zack Rosen got the shots he wanted Friday evening—he just couldn’t get them to fall.

Now in his third year as a team captain, Penn’s first-team all-Ivy stalwart has turned in a remarkable senior season so far.

He currently sits in the top three in the league in scoring, assists, and minutes per game and was named one of 20 finalists for the prestigious Bob Cousy Award last month.

But in his final chance to knock off No. 21/25 Harvard in the storied Palestra, the unquestioned heart and soul of the Quakers came up just short, as Penn fell to Harvard, 56-50.

With 23.7 seconds to play in the game, Rosen drained a deep three-pointer to bring Penn within three and keep things interesting, but the rest of his baskets had come few and far between.

Leading his team with 16 points, Rosen shot 6 of 21 from the floor, marking the most field goals he has attempted in a game this season.

“Usually, I’m a `we’ guy. We win. We lose,” said Rosen, who relied on his quickness and an effective use of screens to get open looks at the basket. “[Friday] I felt like I was totally to blame. I didn’t hit the shots that I hit in my sleep, the shots I take day after day.”

In the most recent matchup between the Ancient Eight foes last March, then-sophomore guard Brandyn Curry held Rosen to 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting.

This year, Harvard coach Tommy Amaker again relied on the persistent Curry along with freshman guard Corbin Miller to keep up with the Ivy Player of the Year favorite, but their task was made a great deal easier by Rosen’s off night.

“He’s impossible to stop,” Amaker said of the Quaker star. “I think he missed some shots he’s normally going to make.”

A number of his shots looked on target but rimmed out—a phenomenon that afflicted his teammates early on as well, as the Quakers missed several makeable shots.

And so a four-point first-half showing did not dissuade Rosen from keeping the ball even more in the second.

He certainly did not receive much help from his teammates in the backcourt, as Tyler Bernardini struggled against the defense of Harvard sophomore Laurent Rivard, finishing with two points.

And Penn’s most efficient guard, sophomore Miles Cartwright, was forced to come out late in the second half with a leg injury after picking up 12 points.

MILLER TIME

Although he had his hands full chasing Rosen around all night, Miller caused Penn coach Jerome Allen his fair share of headaches too.

His 17 points on 5-of-10 field goal shooting tied him with Casey for a team high in points and represented his highest output of the season.

Bouncing back from a zero-for-seven (all three-pointers) showing against Cornell last weekend, Miller hit a three-pointer to end a 7-0 run by the Quakers early in the second half.

Minutes later, he scored seven points in a row on three straight jumpers to put the Crimson ahead, 46-37, with six-and-a-half minutes to go.

“He’s beyond his years,” Amaker said. “He’s got a very credible sense of balance about who he is. He doesn’t get rattled.”

After his playing time fluctuated during non-conference play, Miller has seen double-digit minutes in five of six games since missing three contests with a thumb injury but had not scored more than five points since pouring in 13 at Dartmouth on Jan. 21.

His offensive explosion was well-timed, as sophomore sharpshooter Laurent Rivard missed all five of the three-pointers he took Friday, and co-captain Oliver McNally was off his three shots from beyond the arc.

Besides Cartwright, in fact, Miller was the only reliable deep threat for either team. Despite having a number of open looks, the teams combined to shoot 9 of 41 (21.9 percent) from three.

SIZE MATTERS

Faced with a guard-oriented team, the Crimson looked to have an advantage in the frontcourt, with its combination of Wright, Casey, and freshman Steve Moundou-Missi matched up against the Quakers’ Henry Brooks, Fran Dougherty, and Mike Howlett.

While Casey picked up 15 points and Steve Moundou-Missi came off the bench to turn in nine points and eight rebounds, the host big men managed to stand their ground. Dougherty had a team-high seven rebounds and four points off the bench, and Penn equaled the Crimson in points in the paint, 16-16.

“They just work really hard,” Wright said. “They were being very physical.... Give credit to them.”

Wright struggled to finish at the rim and posted just one field goal for the first time in over a year, drawing some words of wisdom from Amaker.

“Coach talked to me and said, ‘We need you, and it’s not all about scoring.’ I know that, but it’s just a little frustrating to see that layup crawl out of the rim,” said Wright, who did pick up a game-high 13 rebounds.

—Staff writer Dennis J. Zheng can be reached at dzheng12@college.harvard.edu.