For a second consecutive weekend, an undermanned Penn team — again without leading scorer Ethan Roberts — pushed a double-digit Vegas favorite on the road to the absolute limit before submitting.
This time, they’ll have fewer regrets.
The Quakers (6-6) built six-point leads in the second half twice against George Mason (12-1), a contender to win the Atlantic 10 conference. But a 10-0 Patriots run midway through the second half and bad luck on the defensive glass at the worst possible time sent Penn to an 83-79 defeat.
After TJ Power hit an open corner three to trim the George Mason lead to two points with 41 seconds to play, the Quakers got the critical stop they needed to get the ball back with a chance to win the game after Lucas Lueth rejected a wild attempt by the Patriots’ Jahari Long. However, the rebound popped to George Mason, which converted a layup amid a scramble for the ball.
Penn scrapped and clawed in this one against the Patriots, who were favored by 15.5 points heading into Sunday. Unlike last Saturday’s collapse against Rutgers, Penn didn’t give this one away. George Mason went out and took it.
What did Penn fans learn from an encouraging effort?
AJ Levine had an encouraging evening.
Levine took some criticism in this space last week after he was held off the scoresheet and his needless foul opened the door for Rutgers’ comeback.
On Sunday, Levine showed why he’s been given the keys to the team in the first place. The sophomore point guard scored 11 points on 11 shots, which was his first double-digit scoring effort of the season. Levine forced the Patriots to respect him as a scoring threat, which in turn opened up opportunities for his teammates.
Levine finished with five assists and, critically, zero turnovers. On the aforementioned TJ Power corner three, Levine set that shot up by making a brilliant bounce pass while falling backwards in the lane.
For all of his issues, Levine has established himself as a top-end distributor. His assist rate ranks 57th in the country, according to KenPom.
Rim protection was a serious issue.
Penn’s stat sheets have been defined by extremes this year. The Quakers are an amazing three-point shooting team but poor at interior scoring. They can defend without fouling really well, but are struggling to turn over their opponents.
Sunday was another example. The Quakers blocked seven George Mason shots, but the single biggest factor in their defeat was an inability to protect the paint. The Patriots shot an absurd 33-for-45 inside the arc, which more than made up for their 1-for-15 shooting from deep.
The first half was basically a layup line for George Mason, though things improved for Penn somewhat when Lueth got in the game. He wound up with two rejections and played 22 minutes off the bench after getting just eight minutes of run against Rutgers.
Lueth’s offensive development throughout Ivy play will be critical, as he has the defensive skills to be a legitimate difference-maker.
The bar for this team has been raised.
As of Monday, Penn has jumped 30 slots in KenPom over the course of its past two games and now sits at 218th.
Even without Roberts, who is the team’s best ball-handler and penetrator, the Quakers scored 1.15 points per possession on Sunday.
You can chalk up some of that to another incandescent performance from sharpshooter Michael Zanoni, who put up 23 points on 14 shots, including a buzzer-beating three to end the first half off Brad Stevens’ famed “winner” set play.
When Roberts returns, it’s easy to see the framework for a really good offensive attack. The Quakers can put three good-to-elite shooters on the floor in Zanoni, Roberts and Power and then surround them with a good distributor in Levine and two efficient big men, Augustus Gerhart and Dalton Scantlebury.
That should be good enough for an Ivy Madness berth.
I feel like this is the type of game that gives AJ enough of a leash to hang the Quakers in an early, critical Ivy game.
Although Penn is definitely the better team right now, they look pretty similar to Princeton, with whom they will clash as Ivy play opens a week from today.
Both teams are weak inside but deadly from behind the arc. And both teams are missing their best player due to injury. Both programs have suffered major losses from their rosters in recent seasons.
The matchup on Saturday holds special importance because these two venerable rivals are knotted at 126-126 in all-time, head-to-head contests. The Tigers have won the last 13 in the series. Penn could really make a statement by going to Jadwin on Saturday and snapping the streak to announce their return to relevance as an Ivy contender.
Princeton has lost 8 in a row and will enter the game as a rare home underdog. Yet despite their many woes, I think the Tigers are trending in the right direction. If Davis plays, I think Princeton will pull the upset and take a lead in the all-time series for the first time in decades. Either way, the Saturday clash should be epic.