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Princeton succumbs to Penn 62-38

February 13 — Princeton must have lost its winning touch somewhere on the trip from Brown to Yale last weekend.

After falling to Yale to snap a seven-game win streak, the Tigers returned to Jadwin Gym on Tuesday with hopes of starting a new streak against arch rival Penn.

But Princeton’s shots would not fall, and the Quakers dominated in every facet of the game from the outset to cruise to a 62-38 win.

A 20-0 Quaker run in the first half opened up a 24-3 lead that Princeton would never cut to less than 13 points. By the half, the score was 37-15, and it must have reminded some of the 6,854 fans on hand of 1999, when the Quakers led 29-3 in the first half and 40-13 in the second before Princeton rallied for a 50-49 victory at the Palestra.

But this time Penn did not fold, and the Tigers never found their shooting touch, finishing the game 14-51 (27.5 percent) on their shots from the field, including 6-23 (26 percent) from three-point range. Princeton made just 6 of their first 24 shots in the opening 20 minutes.

Will Venable ’05 came off the bench to lead Princeton with 11 points. But Penn had a three-headed scoring monster made up of Koko Archibong, Ugonna Onyekwe, and Andrew Toole that accounted for 51 of the Quakers’ 62 points.

Each scored 17 points as Toole hit from the outside, including four 3-pointers, and Onyekwe and Archibong filled up the middle and connected on mid-range jumpers as the Tigers failed to come up with an answer to the trio on either end of the court.

As a team, Penn hit 21 of 45 shots, including 7 of 18 from 3-point range.

"That’s a terrific team, and they showed it tonight," said Princeton head coach John Thompson ’88 after the game. "They have the ability to score many different ways."

Thompson also acknowledged what appeared to be plain old bad luck for the Tigers as shot after shot rolled in and out of the rim.

At one point in the first half, while Princeton was trying to mount a comeback, a reverse lay-up from Venable spun around the hoop once and then sat on the rim for what seemed an eternity before falling harmlessly into the waiting hands of a Quaker.

"It seemed like there was a lid on the basket," said Thompson. "We got the shots we wanted. They just didn’t go in."

As the large and loud Penn contingent on hand for the rivalry started making themselves a presence with taunting chants in the second half, Princeton never cut the lead under 18 points.

Both Thompson and Princeton fans were upset with the officiating, which appeared to favor Penn. Thompson's assistants at one point had to coax him back to the bench and he had words with one of the the referees in the secnond half.

It looks like Thompson and the fans did have something to gripe about. Princeton went to the free throw line only four times compared to Penn's 22. The Tigers were called for 20 personal fouls, while the Quakers finished with 13.

Princeton hosts Dartmouth and Harvard this weekend and then Yale and Brown next weekend before finishing its season with games at Cornell, Columbia, and Penn.

By Argelio Dumenigo

You can reach Argelio at dumenigo@princeton.edu