City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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EASTON, Pa. -- What a difference a return home can make.

Four days ago, Lafayette suffered through one of the more humiliating defeats in recent program history, a 52-point whomping at the hands of Princeton that was the team’s third road loss in a five-day span. Everything about it was ugly, from the 57-24 halftime score to getting out-rebounded 50-26 to allowing an opponent to shoot 55 percent from the floor.

“Someone told me a long time ago, I forgot the coaches’ name, he said never schedule an away game the day before Thanksgiving,” Leopards coach Fran O’Hanlon said, and now he knows why: “We had visions of turkey dancing in our heads. I was thinking of turkey about halfway through that game.”

It was a game that Lafayette senior Bryce Scott described as “embarrassing,” with junior guard Nick Lindner adding it “left a sour taste in our mouths.”

With their turkey fix fulfilled and a few days to rest up, Lafayette had a chance for some Ivy League redemption, welcoming Penn to the Kirby Sports Center--and they earned it, picking up a 92-86 win over the Quakers that represented quite a turnaround from earlier in the week.

A team that had been getting beaten on the glass by an average of 18 rebounds per game was able to stay even in the rebounding department. Instead of allowing an opponent to make over half its shots, it was the Leopards who did so, going 36-of-69 (52.2 percent) from the floor, despite an uncharacteristically rough night from 3-point range (7-of-25, 28 percent).

“We had two really good practices so after that we were extremely ready to get back on the court and just redeem ourselves,” said Lindner, who tied with Scott for a team-high 22 points, adding four assists in 30 minutes.

It’s a bounce-back that Penn coach head Steve Donahue knew was coming, especially considering his team did the same thing last week: after losing by 37 on the road to Washington last Saturday, the Quakers responded with their biggest Big 5 win in over a decade on Wednesday, downing La Salle.

“The second I looked at the Princeton-Lafayette score, I was worried,” Donahue said. “Because I know they’re a good team...we don’t have a pedigree of success yet to understand how difficult this game is going to be. We’ll get there.”

As with many teams, there’s been a significant difference in the way that Lafayette has played at Kirby as opposed to away from it. On the road, the Leopards are 0-4, though aside from the Princeton loss there hasn’t been a bad one on the resume: at George Washington (85-76), at NJIT (80-66) and at La Salle (83-75).

Now they’re 2-0 at home, with a crazy, come-from-behind, 87-86 overtime win over Saint Peter’s back on Nov. 15 as their only previous victory of the season. It’s a similar split to Penn, who’s 3-0 at the Palestra but 1-2 on the road.

“How Penn plays at home, we play at home,” O’Hanlon said, “and you’ve got to be able to do it on the road, get up for the road and that’s kind of college basketball.”

Lindner and Scott were two of five Lafayette players in double figures: sophomore forward Matt Klinewski and junior guard Monty Boykins had 15 each, and freshman forward Paulius Zalys had 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

The biggest key for Lafayette’s victory on Sunday was in the rebounding column; it was the first time all season the program hadn’t been out-rebounded, and only once (NJIT) had that deficit even been within 10 rebounds.

Klinewski led the way with nine rebounds, with Zalys and senior center Nate Musters (six rebounds) battling down low like they haven’t regularly done this year.

“If we can at least somewhat offset the other team’s rebounding efforts then we have a chance, because we have some good players on our team,” O’Hanlon said. “But it comes down to loose balls and rebounding, and we battled them today.”

Both teams get to play at home in their next outings; Lafayette hosts St. Francis Brooklyn (1-4) on Dec. 2 at 7 PM, while Penn hosts Navy at exactly the same time.