Facing a young but talented and competitive Bears squad, the Quakers trailed Yale by two and a half games and Princeton by one in the league standings before last night. Penn overcame an uneven start to take an 82-63 victory before a crowd of 5,175.
At Princeton, the Tigers (8-2) won, 59-46, to draw within a half-game of first-place Yale (9-2). With its win, Penn improved to 20-6 overall and 7-3 in the Ivy League. Brown fell to 15-9, 6-5.
Tonight, the Quakers host Yale while Brown visits Princeton. After Penn and Princeton go on the road next weekend for games against Columbia and Cornell, the Ivy League regular season will end March 5 when the Tigers invade the Palestra.
After tonight, Yale will complete its regular-season schedule at home against Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend.
"That's out of our control," said Penn swingman Jeff Schiffner, who scored 12 points. "We're focused on what we can control."
"Our guys know the importance of every game from here on out," Penn coach Fran Dunphy said. "I've said it before: We have no margin for error."
Last night's win was the fifth straight for the Quakers. In their three previous outings - against Princeton, Harvard and Dartmouth - the Quakers won by an average of 30 points.
"We've won 20 games, and that doesn't happen by just being out there going through the motions," Dunphy said.
"But this last stretch of games we've been in, we've played as well as we can."
Dunphy notched his 226th career victory, and moved within one of tying the school record set by Lou Jourdet in 1943.
Last night, Penn had a 12-point lead at intermission. The Quakers wasted no time breaking the game open early in the second half.
They led, 48-33, with just over 12 minutes left, and with 7 minutes, 21 seconds to go, Penn had a 59-42 advantage. The lead grew steadily.
Forward Ugonna Onyekwe, who led Penn with a game-high 24 points, had left some observers shaking their heads in awe at his performance, which also included nine rebounds.
