It all was coming down on Penn - until Tim Krug rushed in on Campbell from behind and got a piece of the basketball, and maybe even a piece of Campbell, too. The ball skipped out of bounds, hitting a Harvard player first, and the clock showed no time left. Penn somehow escaped with a 66-65 victory.
"We were fortunate to win," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "No question. We missed a lot of shots. We missed a lot of open shots. . . . A couple of years ago, I would have gone in the locker room and been ranting and raving."
He didn't do that, Dunphy said, because it is a long season and a game like that was bound to come along. And some credit had to be handed to Harvard. The Crimson showed no fear. They hit jumpers from all over the landscape and out- rebounded Penn and played fiery defense and hung on.
"We were just sitting back waiting for them to fold," said Penn captain Barry Pierce. "They didn't. They were in our face the whole game."
The Quakers (19-2 overall, 9-0 Ivy League) now come off the road for a three-game homestand. Games against Yale and Brown next weekend, followed on March 2 by a visit from Princeton. If Penn and Princeton both win their games next weekend, the Quakers could clinch the Ivy title against the Tigers. They would have a three-game lead with just two left.
But all that sounded pretty theoretical for most of the game last night. Especially when Rankin ran down a loose ball and banked in a turnaround three off the glass with 6:33 remaining, tying the game, 58-58.
"It's going down to the wire," Dunphy said he thought to himself.
