Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 70-61 loss to Harvard

PHILADELPHIA — Penn picked a bad day to come out flat.

The Quakers dug themselves a 21-point deficit in the first half against Harvard thanks to stretches of stagnant offense and white-hot shooting from the Crimson. It proved to be too much to overcome in a 70-61 loss, despite a valiant comeback effort in the second half.

The loss isn’t fatal to Penn’s Ivy Madness hopes, but it ratchets up the pressure on the Quakers ahead of upcoming road games against Columbia and Brown. They’ll need to win one — if not both — of those games to feel good about their chances of reaching New York City.

There aren’t too many happy Quakeaways from Saturday. Penn (9-9, 1-2 Ivy) no-showed for 20 minutes against Harvard (10-6, 1-2) in front of a relatively full Palestra — including a packed student section. It wasn’t the type of product that will encourage those students to be repeat customers.

The Red and Blue have lots of questions to wrestle with ahead of next Saturday’s trip to Levien Gymnasium, starting with …

Why can’t this team consistently play defense the way it did in the second half Saturday?

Penn held Harvard to eight made field goals and 34.8% shooting in the second half, which led to just 24 points. The Quakers forced 12 turnovers, including one thrilling sequence midway through the frame in which they stole two consecutive inbounds passes to cut a 13-point deficit to just nine.

Usually, you’d expect to win with an effort like that.

But the home team played confused, sloppy defense for 20 minutes in the first half. It let Harvard shoot 50% from both three and the field. There was a point when the Crimson were shooting nearly 70% from the field.

Penn needs to find a way to impose its will on opponents the way it did to Harvard. The Quakers very nearly made the Crimson fold.

If not, they run the risk of getting run out of the gym by elite Ivy opponents.

When can Clark Slajchert come back?

It was an encouraging sign to see the Quakers’ leading scorer getting some shots up in warmups despite being in street clothes as he recovers from an ankle injury suffered on December 30 at Houston.

Penn’s offense finally cracked on Saturday from the strain of finding ways to score without Slajchert available. The senior guard is the only player on Penn’s roster capable of consistently breaking down opponents off the dribble to create his own shot.

For a while, the Quakers survived on the strength of their three-point shooting, their biggest offensive plus factor. On Saturday, Penn showed just how ugly things can get when shots from distance aren’t falling.

The Quakers shot 6-for-29 from deep and wound up scoring 0.9 points per possession, according to KenPom.

What was especially worrying was hearing Penn coaches yell “CUT” during the first half from this writer’s seats behind the Quakers’ bench and not seeing anyone do much of anything. Penn now ranks 161st in Division I in offensive efficiency, per KenPom, a stunning fall considering how close they were to the top 100 just a few weeks ago.

How does Steve Donahue keep finding hustle players?

Reese McMullen has got a lot of play in these writeups recently, and for good reason. On Saturday, McMullen earned major props for talking up his teammates during second-half warmups when Penn’s body language looked rough … and then following it up with a strong effort on the defensive end of the floor.

McMullen did a terrific job on Harvard’s star freshman, Malik Mack, holding him to a 2-for-8 shooting performance from the field in the second half. McMullen generated several deflections in the second half and even appeared to dislocate his shoulder at one point in a diving attempt to knock the ball away from Mack. Incredibly, McMullen returned to the game.

Eddie Holland III also deserves special mention. The junior has seen his role diminish after beginning the season as a starter, and sat for the entire first half on Saturday. Holland got extended time in the second half and scored eight points on four shots. He played a key role in the press that flummoxed Harvard and got the Quakers back in the game.

For as much criticism has been thrown at Donahue’s recruiting efforts in recent years, he has consistently found young men who play hard for each other.