Penn closed out the nonconference portion of its schedule strong, using a 17-0 run early in the second half to power its way past NJIT for an 80-61 win.
The Quakers (7-6) entered Wednesday as 14.5 point favorites, but certainly didn’t look the part in the early stages after a litany of injuries forced coach Fran McCaffery to tap players normally stuck on the bench. It took a buzzer-beating three from sophomore point guard AJ Levine to get Penn into the halftime locker room with a narrow two-point lead.
McCaffery ratcheted down the substitutions in the second half and Levine put together arguably his best half in a Penn uniform. During that aforementioned 17-0 run, Levine put up a personal 8-0 scoring burst and added two steals and two assists, to boot. The Highlanders (5-10) never trailed by single digits again the rest of the afternoon.
What did Penn fans learn from a happy start to their New Year’s Eve celebration?
Levine has reached a different level these past few games.
It’s hard to understate just how well Levine played in the second half on Wednesday. He was willing to shoot both inside and outside and defended well both on and off the ball.
The point guard closed the day with six steals, which Penn Athletics said was the most any Quakers player had recorded in a game since Mark Zoller in 2007.
KenPom rewarded Levine with game MVP honors after he finished with an offensive rating of 113 points per 100 possessions.
The only blemishes on Levine’s record were six turnovers and a technical foul he racked up following a brief skirmish after he was fouled hard midway through the second half.
Michael Zanoni has more than adequately replaced Sam Brown.
Zanoni was effectively promoted to the starting two-guard role after Brown chose to transfer to Davidson.
Brown is starting and put up 23 points last night in a double-overtime loss to Duquesne but has otherwise struggled in his debut season in the Atlantic 10; all of his shooting splits are at career-lows.
Penn would be a better team if Brown had chosen to stick around, but Zanoni is putting up career-best numbers in his stead. On Wednesday, Zanoni scored 23 points and drained five three-pointers for the second consecutive game.
Zanoni is flourishing in McCaffery’s uptempo system. His KenPom offensive rating of 130.1 points per 100 possessions ranks in the top 150 nationally and the senior is shooting 42.6% from deep against Division I opponents.
The Quakers need to get healthy fast.
Penn remained without the services of leading scorer Ethan Roberts and backup point guard Dylan Williams on Wednesday.
Added to the list of walking wounded who were unavailable were two key depth pieces: primary backup big Dalton Scantlebury and sixth man Cam Thrower. Losing both of those players forced McCaffery to give early minutes to Niklas Polonowski and Johnnie Walter, which did not go particularly well.
With the Ivy opener against Princeton looming on Monday, the Quakers will need to have as close to a full rotation as possible to have a fighting chance against the Tigers. Princeton may have had a rough nonconference campaign, but that hasn’t stopped Penn’s biggest rival from getting the best of the Quakers … again and again and again.
McCaffrey has done a phenomenal if not unexpected job restoring credibility on 30th Street. Henderson is the first to acknowledge that history in this rivalry means little. With respect to Ian the Quakers have more than a fighting chance. This is the only time in my memory that the Tigers are the lowest rated Ken Pom Ivy team on January 1. Should be quite a battle to finish behind the Bulldogs
If we don’t have Ethan and co. for Princeton, this is basically two years ago all over again.
Anyway, AJ being good is definitely not going to boomerang around and hurt us when he makes crucial errors in Ivy play.