Penn men’s basketball is going to have a long, long bus ride home from Hanover, N.H.
The Quakers threw away a 13-point second half lead and made a series of critical errors in crunch time en route to a 75-71 loss to Dartmouth at Leede Arena.
The defeat at Dartmouth (6-12, 2-2 Ivy) was painfully reminiscent of Penn’s collapses against Saint Joseph’s and La Salle in Big 5 play. In all three contests, Penn (9-9, 2-2) threw away games against inferior opponents it should have easily defeated.
Saturday’s turning point came with about 99 seconds remaining and Penn holding the ball up one, 71-70. Steve Donahue had called timeout to get junior guard Clark Slajchert back in the game for an offense-defense substitution.
Almost immediately after the ball was inbounded, Slajchert used his shoulder to create a little separation from Dartmouth sophomore guard Ryan Cornish, then hoisted a contested three-pointer after just five seconds had come off the shot clock. The ball caught front iron with no Quakers having a prayer at corralling an offensive rebound.
The shot was one Slajchert could hit, but it was far from the best look Penn could have gotten on that possession given the time and score. The Quakers surrendered a game-winning floater from Big Green junior forward Dusan Neskovic 20 seconds after the miss.
But Slajchert wasn’t alone in suboptimal decision-making among the Red and Blue Saturday afternoon:
1. The Quakers were hurt by unforced errors from their best players down the stretch.
All season long, junior guard Jordan Dingle has been Penn’s stalwart. The man has carried the Quakers to several wins this season.
Dingle holds himself to a standard similar to his basketball idol, Kobe Bryant. During last Saturday’s game at Columbia, probably the most efficient game he’ll have all season, Dingle was visibly upset with himself on his way to the huddle during a media timeout for missing a single free throw.
All of that is why I am sure he is sick about the uncharacteristic mental error he made Saturday. With 4:31 to go, the Quakers had the ball up four, 65-61, after getting a much-needed stop. They had an opportunity to give themselves a six-plus-point lead for the first time since there were 12 minutes to go in the game.
Yet as Dingle walked the ball up the floor against some token Dartmouth pressure, he lollipopped a cross-court pass to Slajchert which Cornish easily intercepted. Cornish hit two free throws to pull Dartmouth within two points of the Quakers after Slajchert picked up his fourth foul trying to prevent an easy layup.
Penn relies on Dingle and Slajchert to be its stoppers in difficult situations. They’ve come through before and they will again this season. But that doesn’t make Saturday hurt any less.
2. Nick Spinoso took a big step forward.
Had Penn managed to hold on, Spinoso would have been the game’s big story. The sophomore from Port Washington, N.Y. scored a career-high 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting from the field.
Spinoso has received plenty of plaudits this year for his passing ability. (He finished the game with three assists.) Saturday, he did his best work in the post. Spinoso’s footwork was impressive as he schooled Dartmouth’s frontcourt time and again.
He also deserves credit for his post positioning and play-reading skills. Dingle finished with six assists thanks to Spinoso freeing himself up for several easy dunks and layups.
Critically, Spinoso hit six of his nine attempts from the free throw line. He entered Saturday shooting 33.3% from the stripe in games against Division I opponents.
Spinoso deserves particular credit for his mental toughness at the line. He missed the front end of a one-and-one with 5:48 to go, but Dartmouth committed a lane violation to give the 6-foot-9 forward a second chance. Spinoso capitalized, easily hitting the front and back ends of the one-and-one.
3. Monday feels like a must-win now.
It’s a little bit early in the season for scoreboard watching, but the Quakers got a little bit of help after Brown upset Princeton, 72-70. Penn still sits just one game back of the Tigers, who share the Ivy League lead with Cornell.
The Quakers get a shot at home against their archrival Monday, which oddsmakers will likely set as a near-coin flip.
But even if Penn is favored, that likely won’t make nervous Quakers fans worry any less, considering that they have not beaten Princeton in nearly five calendar years.
If the Quakers drop that contest, they’ll then need to go on the road and find a way to beat a Yale team desperate to save its season after starting 1-3 in league play. Penn hasn’t beaten Yale on the road since 2017 and has taken several gut-punch losses to the Bulldogs at John J. Lee Amphitheater in the process.
Lose both of those games, and the prospect of missing Ivy Madness becomes a very real possibility.