By ADAM BOOTH
Philahoops Staff
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EASTON, Pa. – Lafayette may have been winless on the year, but the Leopards are a much more dangerous team than their record indicates. The Quakers had their hands full taking on a desperate Lafayette team on road two days after Thanksgiving.
That desperation paid off as the Quakers fell, 79-76 on Saturday.
Seth Hinrichs was the man Penn had to worry about in this game. The forward came in averaging 21 a game for the Leopards.
After being held relatively in check in the first half game he and his team made a Penn nine-point lead evaporate. The Leopards proceeded to hit clutch shot after shot to put the Quakers away.
“The ball stopped moving when it got in players hands. Everyone wanted to make that play,” said Penn head coach Jerome Allen.
Hinrichs picked up his career-high 28 points in the contest on 10-19 shooting. He also pulled down 6 rebounds.
He is the second star player to have a great night against the Quakers (2-4). Niagara’s Antoine Mason scored 31 at the Palestra this past Tuesday.
“We just need somebody who wants to defend and help this team win,” Allen said. “It’s not just one guy. We want a team with a defensive DNA.”
“We have to lockdown on the defensive end,” Penn senior Fran Dougherty exclaimed. “We just got to have better focus.”
Penn didn’t have an answer for the Leopards’ outside shooting as Lafayette went 12-for-29 (41.4 percent) from 3-point range.
“There were breakdowns all over,” said Penn guard Miles Jackson-Cartwright “Lafayette did a great job of being patient and waiting for us to make mistakes.”
Penn’s Tony Hicks scored 16 points. (Laurie Dougherty/Philahoops)
There were some highlights for the Quakers in this game. The biggest one is the return in production from a catalyst in this offense.
Dougherty is back. The senior has been in a bit of a feel-out period the first five games of the season. Dougherty admits he has been a bit out of it.
“It was a long time between meaningful games for me,” Dougherty told Philahoops earlier this week. “I haven’t had a lot of time to play with Tony (Hicks) or Darien (Nelson-Henry) since they got a lot of their minutes after I got hurt.”
“We’re not worried about Fran,” said Jackson-Cartwright “We know he can score in bunches when we need them.”
However, Allen isn’t just satisfied with just offensive production.
“I think his scoring ability has nothing to do with the outcome of this game,” Allen said. “I’d rather him have 6 than 26 and we still win.”
Dougherty had 14 points in the first half in route to 26 on the afternoon. His best game of the season did little for the senior.
“It’s not really about that,” said Dougherty “I am here to help my team to win. As we have seen in the past five games, it can be anyone any given night. It doesn’t have to be a certain guy every night.”
Coming off his best college performance, Hicks quietly scored 16 points. Jackson-Cartwright had 9 points of his own.
Hicks did miss the game-tying 3-point shot with seconds left on the clock. He had a pretty decent look at the basket. Hicks is coming off a 33-point showing against Niagara.
In the first half Penn established a great inside game scoring a larger chunk of their 38 points in the paint. Dougherty had 12 of his points inside, going 6-7 in the paint.
However, in the second half, the Quakers seemed out of it on both ends of the floor in the paint.
“We didn’t really have the mentality to defend today,” said Dougherty “They imposed their will on us in the second half.”
Penn lost to a gutsy Leopards squad who were thirsty for their first win of the year. Allen’s team made it hard, but couldn’t do quite enough down the stretch to hold of the home team on Saturday.
-Up next: Penn travels up the Main Line for its second Big 5 contest of the year, facing Villanova at 8 p.m. at the Pavilion.
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-Adam Booth covers Penn for Philahoops. Follow him on Twitter @ThatsAdamBooth
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