PRINCETON, N.J. — The faces on the court and the sideline were new, but in the end, the result for Penn was the same in its Ivy League opener: a crushing loss to Princeton.
Penn has only beaten its biggest rivals five times since Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. It’s a streak of futility that has now spanned four different head coaching regimes.
The Quakers (7-7, 0-1 Ivy), over the past few years, have developed a habit of finding new and unique ways to lose to Princeton (5-11, 1-0). They’ve squandered big leads, been blown out of the water and lost heartbreakers in the final seconds. Monday night had a little bit of everything.
Penn built a 14-point lead in the first half, saw it all wash away thanks to a stretch of atrocious defense and then mounted a furious rally to get one last shot to win the game. The Tigers could only exhale after point guard AJ Levine’s contested three at the buzzer hit back iron, which sealed a 78-76 win.
What did Quakers fans learn from another excruciating trip to Jadwin Gymnasium?
Any talk of a point guard controversy has officially been put to bed.
Levine crumpled to the floor after his game-winning shot attempt was just barely long, but the Quakers wouldn’t have even had a chance late in the game without the sophomore’s efforts.
On Monday, Levine scored in double figures in his third consecutive contest, putting up 15 points on nine shots. He scored seven of those points in the 13-0 run the Quakers put up after the game’s final media timeout to turn what looked to be a sure Tigers triumph into a thriller.
The last of those came with roughly 45 seconds left in the contest, as Levine hit a turnaround jumper while absorbing contact from Princeton’s Landon Clark for a critical and-one that cut the Tigers’ lead to one possession.
Levine looks like he is playing with much more confidence on the offensive end of the floor. Coach Fran McCaffery has given Levine a very short leash at times, but the point guard looks like he is developing into a real asset.
Penn’s collapse began in the frontcourt.
During the halftime break, I told the Big 5 Podcast’s Jake Copestick that the Quakers would win by double digits if they could just play a clean game in the second half.
The exact opposite happened, as both junior forward Augustus Gerhart and senior wing Michael Zanoni picked up their third fouls before two minutes had elapsed in the second half.
Both players remained in the game despite their foul trouble, and it was not a coincidence that Princeton then began to have success driving the basketball.
In fact, the Tigers wound up scoring on an absurd 18 consecutive possessions — a streak which also encompassed the end of the first half. That stretch ultimately proved to be the difference between victory and defeat for Penn.
Gerhart in particular had a rough game. He never really provided any rim protection and was a complete nonfactor on the offensive end of the floor. The low point came when the Quakers trailed by just one point and Gerhart had a chance to back down Princeton sophomore point guard Jack Stanton, who wound up leading all scorers with 23 points. Stanton had three fouls at the time.
Despite having seven inches and 64 pounds on Stanton, Gerhart left an easy hook shot short, then got called for a charge after he collected the offensive rebound. That was the end of his night.
A weaker team would have folded.
I write that subhed with confidence because Penn fans have seen several Steve Donahue-coached teams pack it in when faced with similar adversity against the exact same opponent in the exact same arena
There is something to be said about how the Quakers upped their defensive intensity and pressed effectively as they scratched and clawed their way back into the game.
It certainly helped to have Ethan Roberts back in the fray, too. The senior wing put up 19 points and logged a KenPom offensive rating of 140 points per 100 possessions in his first game back after a month’s layoff due to injury.
Unfortunately for Penn, the end result still has the team in an early tiebreaker deficit against another competitor for a playoff spot. The Quakers can’t afford to lose Saturday at home against Brown and fall to 0-2 in Ivy play.