Lackluster effort leads to Penn loss

NEW YORK - After tying an Ivy League record by playing three consecutive overtime games, Penn probably did not want to match the NCAA record with a fourth straight game going beyond 40 minutes.

But the Quakers might have taken that over the loss they were dealt in regulation Saturday at Columbia.

Lions guard Noruwa Agho scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the second half to help the Lions (13-9, 4-4 league) down Penn, 75-62, at Levien Gym.

"We didn't come to play overall as a group," Quakers coach Jerome Allen said. "We didn't do a good job at both ends. [The Lions] got whatever they wanted."

Jack Eggleston led Penn (9-12, 3-4) with 16 points. Zack Rosen and freshman Cameron Gunter scored 12 each.

Allen singled out Gunter, a Ridley High product, for praise after the game.

"I thought he did a phenomenal job," the coach said. "He took charges, he blocked shots, he helped on defense, he scored on the block. He played with a sense of poise about himself that I wish, in general, we had as a team."

After the teams played to a 35-35 tie in the first half, Columbia went on a 14-2 run in the first 4 minutes, 38 seconds of the second half. Penn rallied to get within 55-52 with 6:37 remaining, but the Lions uncorked a 9-0 run after that to put the game away.

Penn's streak of overtime games matched the Ancient Eight record set by Harvard in 1989. Had last night's game gone past regulation, it would have matched a national record tied by three teams: Jacksonville in 1982, Illinois State in 1985, and Dayton in 1988.

The league loss was the fourth in a row for the Quakers. One sign that they were running out of gas could be found under their basket, where the Lions pulled down 13 offensive rebounds.

Columbia scored 14 second-chance points and a total of 38 points in the paint, all of which helped to quiet the many New York-based Penn fans in the crowd of 2,711.

"They come here thinking they are going to win, yelling at us in our own gym," said Lions center Mark Cisco, who got five of his seven rebounds at the offensive end. "There's nothing better than quieting them down."

For Gunter and his fellow Penn freshmen, this was the first Saturday road game in the Ivy League's notorious back-to-back weekend scheduling format. Although Gunter had his best game as a Quaker, starting guard Miles Cartwright scored only seven points on 2-of-4 shooting.

"You just have to take care of the little things, the details that Coach [Allen] always preaches to us," Gunter said. "On these tough weekends, these tough Saturdays, it comes down to who wants it more."