Penn’s Friday night contest against Columbia at the Palestra likely won’t be featured much in the team’s end-of-season highlight reel, but the Quakers got the job done with a 74-65 win that was a bit closer than the final score indicated.
Though the Lions (6-17, 1-7 Ivy) never led past the 17:43 mark of the first half, they managed to close a deficit that swelled to as much as 18 points to five at multiple instances late in the second half.
But Columbia could get no farther. Junior guard Jordan Dingle twice quelled Lions rallies, once through an and-one to push Penn’s lead from 60-54 to 63-54 with 3:41 to play, and a second time through a three-pointer from the left wing to turn a 65-60 advantage into 68-60 with 2:20 to play.
With six games left to play in the Ivy season, Penn (12-11, 4-4) has a clear — though far from automatic — path to Ivy Madness, one of a small handful of Quakeaways from the Red and Blue’s third consecutive win.
1. Penn’s offense underperformed … but still looked good.
Yes, that sounds like a contradictory statement. But hear me out.
Though the Quakers finished 4-for-15 from deep on Friday, they got plenty of wide-open looks for three-pointers from good shooters such as Dingle, fellow junior Max Martz and sophomore George Smith. Variance was just not on their side.
Despite 17 turnovers, Penn still finished Friday scoring 1.1 points per possession, according to KenPom, well above the breakeven mark of one point per possession.
The Red and Blue looked at their best against Columbia pounding the ball inside, especially on post touches by sophomore forward Nick Spinoso, who scored six points in the first half but faded into a background role in the second half after he got into foul trouble.
Spinoso drew at least three fouls from Columbia players in the first half alone. The Lions simply could not handle him in the early going.
2. Lucas Monroe had his fingerprints all over the game.
Monroe, a senior forward from Abington, Pa., finished with just five points, but the Quakers very well may have lost if not for his presence.
In a two-minute stretch before the first media timeout, Monroe generated a steal and dunk through a full-court press, blocked two shots, and then fired a full-court outlet pass to junior guard Clark Slajchert after the second block for an easy layup.
Monroe also deserves credit for hitting three out of four free throw attempts to help silence Columbia’s comeback attempt.
At this point in his career, Monroe is not going to suddenly develop into an offensive weapon for Penn. But he can rebound, get the ball up the floor and defend. That makes him an asset, no matter what.
3. At this point, there are no excuses if Penn cannot qualify for Ivy Madness.
Penn is officially off the mat and now sits in a three-way tie for the fourth and final slot in Ivy Madness with Brown and Dartmouth. Penn is down in the head-to-head with Dartmouth but up in the head-to-head with Brown and Harvard, which sits a game back in seventh place.
If the Quakers can beat Brown and Dartmouth at home and go up to Cambridge, Mass. next Saturday and deliver a knockout blow to Harvard, they will likely qualify for the Ivy tournament, even if they lose to Cornell Saturday night and to Yale and Princeton down the stretch.
The head-to-head tiebreaker wins would keep Brown and Harvard at bay, while a home win over Dartmouth would help blunt the effect of the Quakers’ devastating road collapse against the Big Green a few weeks back.
But if the Quakers qualify for Ivy Madness at 7-7 without a single win over the three teams that would likely finish over them in the standings (Cornell, Princeton and Yale), it will be difficult to take them seriously as a contender to make the NCAA Tournament.
A win tonight against Cornell — Vegas favors Penn by one point — would go a long way towards legitimizing the Quakers’ postseason push.