NEW YORK — Penn bounced back from its loss to Cornell in pretty much the best way possible: by delivering an absolute beatdown of an overmatched opponent. The Quakers hammered Columbia, 84-55, on the back of a 65.2% shooting night from three-point range.
The bulk of that outside shooting came from junior guard Jordan Dingle. The overwhelming favorite for Ivy Player of the Year hit seven of his nine attempts from distance, raising his season three-point shooting percentage from 32% to 35.8% in the process.
Despite committing 17 turnovers, Penn’s offense was able to bury the Lions thanks to a series of opportunistic offensive outbursts. The Quakers generated runs of 15-0, 16-2 and 14-2 over the course of the evening.
Penn also delivered a season-best performance on the defensive end, holding Columbia to just .77 points per possession, according to KenPom.
It all added up to an easy, relatively stress-free win — and plenty of happy Quakeaways, to boot:
1. Jordan Dingle continues to raise the bar for himself.
What else is there to say about Dingle’s ability to get buckets at this point? There is no one better in the Ivy League at creating their own shot.
This writer has noted before that Dingle can be a streaky three-point shooter. He entered Saturday having hit just two three-pointers on his last 16 attempts spread across three games.
But on Saturday, he was feeling it. Dingle hit several threes on pull-ups and was thinking “shoot” pretty much every time Columbia gave him an inch of space.
Penn has not had a player score 40 points in a game since Hassan Duncombe dropped 44 on Navy in December 1989.
The only reason Dingle did not score 40 on Saturday is because coach Steve Donahue let him rest for the final eight minutes of the second half.
2. Jonah Charles has rediscovered his shot.
Charles, a three-point shooting specialist, struggled at the start of the season. He did not pull his three-point shooting percentage across Division I opponents above 30% until Friday night’s contest against Cornell.
On Saturday, Charles finished a perfect 4-for-4 from beyond the arc and seemed to always be in the right place for catch-and-shoot opportunities. Penn scored an absurd 273 points per 100 possessions during the 23 minutes Charles was on the floor, per KenPom.
He is now shooting threes against Division I opponents at a 35.5% clip, giving the Quakers four players shooting from long range above 35%.
Charles has recently emerged as a credible defender as well. He has done more than enough to justify a role as Penn’s sixth man or occasional starter.
3. Next Saturday will be an inflection point for Penn’s season.
In an odd way, the Ivy League may have done Penn a favor by front-loading its conference play schedule with road games.
Saturday was Penn’s third of four straight road games to start the Ancient Eight slate. The Quakers will be favored to beat Dartmouth next Saturday, though trips to Leede Arena have not treated them kindly in recent seasons past.
If Penn takes care of business against the Big Green — similar to Saturday — then all of a sudden, the schedule opens up into a window of tremendous opportunity. With a little help from Yale against Cornell on Friday, a win over Dartmouth would set Penn up with a home showdown against Princeton for first place in the league standings.
After that, Penn can lean on a season-ending stretch of six home games in its final eight matchups to get a bit of a structural advantage for a push to secure an Ivy Madness spot (or regular season title).