Dalton Scantlebury

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s home sweep of Columbia and Cornell

by

Penn has a clear path to an Ivy Madness berth after pulling off one of its best Palestra homestands in years.

The Quakers (13-10, 6-4 Ivy) have a tight grip on third place in the League standings after using a late surge to rally past Columbia on Friday, 76-67, and following that effort up with an 82-76 triumph over Cornell in a game that was played within a possession for much of the evening.

Penn, by virtue of its head-to-head sweep over Cornell (12-11, 5-5), is effectively two games ahead of the Big Red with four to play. If the Quakers just go .500 in their remaining contests, they’ll be two steps away from their first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2018.

It’s a position that few outside observers expected Penn to be in, given its opening KenPom ranking of 275 and consensus seventh-place pick in the Ivy preseason poll.

But now? The Quakers look like an ascending team in its first year under Fran McCaffery, who has taken a team which consists almost entirely of players he did not recruit and turned it into one of the most improved teams in the country.

How much so? We’ll get into that now, starting with how …

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win at Cornell

by

NEW YORK CITY — There were sublime stretches of play, infuriating periods of disjointedness and everything in between. In the end, it added up to Penn men’s basketball getting the split it needed to stay in contention for Ivy Madness during its only true road back-to-back of the season.

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s loss at Harvard

by

Penn men’s basketball fell just a few inches short of holding onto a share of first place in the Ivy League standings Monday after it took a tough road loss to Harvard, 64-63.

The Quakers (9-8, 2-2 Ivy) rallied back after giving up an 11-0 run that spanned the end of the first half and the beginning of the second to take multiple leads.

The Crimson (10-8, 3-1) seized back momentum after their star sophomore, Robert Hinton, delivered a highlight-reel, and-one dunk over Quakers big man Augustus Gerhart with 5:31 to play. Penn rallied back to tie the game twice after Hinton’s one-handed flush thanks to the efforts of sophomore point guard AJ Levine, but surrendered baskets at the rim to Harvard on five straight possessions in the game’s final three minutes.

Despite that interior defensive collapse, the Quakers had two long-shot chances to tie or win the game in the final two seconds. But Levine was unable to intentionally miss a free throw with 1.9 seconds left and Penn down two. Harvard missed the front end of a one-and-one after Levine’s unintentional make, but TJ Power’s desperation heave came up short.

There’s nothing wrong with splitting two games on a tough road trip, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Penn let a big opportunity slip through its fingers.

What did fans learn from a tough afternoon?

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball downing Dartmouth

by

Penn men’s basketball picked up a critical victory in its first extended road trip of Ivy League play on Saturday, taking advantage of a spectacular second half to down Dartmouth, the last unbeaten team in the league standings, 84-74.

The Quakers (9-7, 2-1 Ivy) overcame a string of early self-imposed issues thanks to dominant halves from their two best players. Ethan Roberts carried the team in the first half while TJ Power was confined to the bench with foul trouble; Power scored nine points in the 12-0 run early in the second stanza which gave the Quakers the lead for the rest of the afternoon.

Power lived up to his last name during that decisive run. He started it off by dribbling into a wide-open three, then gave the Quakers the lead with a spinning drive on Dartmouth (8-8, 2-1) wing Jayden Williams. No one the Big Green threw at Power could handle the 6-foot-9 junior.

Suddenly, the Ivy season looks wide-open for the Quakers, who are now in a five-way tie for the league lead. Monday’s matchup with fellow 2-1 team Harvard looms as a massive opportunity.

What did Penn fans learn from a happy start to the long weekend?

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s win over NJIT

by

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?

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s loss at George Mason

by

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?

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 70-69 loss at Rutgers

by

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Penn’s first game against Rutgers in 50 years should have been a statement win.

It wound up becoming a collapse right up there with the worst losses of the Steve Donahue era.

Plagued by a toxic combination of fouls, turnovers, mental mistakes and poor free throw shooting, the Quakers frittered away the 66-59 lead they held with 2:24 to play against the Scarlet Knights at Jersey Mike’s Arena Saturday night.

The coup de grâce in a 70-69 loss came when junior forward TJ Power missed two free throws with eight seconds left that would have effectively iced the game. After the second miss, Rutgers (6-6) guard Tariq Francis capped off a career-high 34-point evening by draining a pull-up game-winning three-pointer with 0.9 seconds to play over a good contest from freshman guard Jay Jones.

For Penn (6-5), the only saving grace about the loss is that it occurred in nonconference play and means nothing for the team’s Ivy and postseason ambitions. It’s better for this young team to learn a harsh lesson like this now when it can still be used as a learning experience.

So, about that learning experience. What did fans learn on Saturday night?

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball eking out win over Lafayette

by

Penn men’s basketball took a circuitous — and fortuitous — path to victory in its first game without Ethan Roberts.

The Quakers (6-4) started hot against Lafayette, building an early 16-point lead. But then the offense stagnated, the Leopards began to hit shots and Penn needed a favorable whistle (or lack thereof) and one last stop to escape with a 74-72 win at the Palestra Monday evening.

The Leopards (3-8) were deprived of a chance to get the game’s final shot while trailing only by one point after the referees incorrectly ruled that a mid-range jumper from forward TJ Power hit the rim. Instead of being hit with a shot clock violation, the Quakers were able to corral the offensive rebound thanks to a winning play from forward Lucas Lueth.

Cam Thrower was fouled with 4.7 seconds on the clock and split a pair of free throws; Lafayette’s Mark Butler was able to get off a desperation attempt at a game-tying layup just before the buzzer sounded, but a good contest from forward Augustus Gerhart helped force the shot offline.

The Quakers may have gotten a little lucky, but you never apologize for winning. Penn fans will have plenty to contemplate about the state of the team heading into its finals break, starting with how …

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s Cathedral Classic loss to Hofstra

by

Playing its third game in a three-day span, Penn men’s basketball simply ran out of gas against one of the better teams it will face this season.

Penn shot a grisly 32% from the field in a 77-60 home loss to Hofstra that rounded out the fourth edition of the Cathedral Classic.

Penn (5-3) managed to hold a two-point halftime lead against the Pride (5-3) that disappeared within the first minute of the second frame. Hofstra drained some shots and generated a modicum of offensive flow, while the Red and Blue struggled to play with pace and generate open looks.

Any chance the Quakers had at a comeback died shortly after the under-eight media timeout. Sophomore forward Lucas Lueth missed a free throw that would have pulled Penn within nine of Hofstra. Though senior wing Ethan Roberts corralled the offensive rebound, the Quakers couldn’t get a shot off and committed a shot clock violation.

At the other end of the floor, Penn got an initial stop, but Hofstra’s German Plotnikov drained a killer three after an offensive rebound. What could have been a four-point possession wound up as a three-point swing in the opposite direction.

The Quakers will surely be watching Monday night’s contest between Temple and Villanova to find out their opponent in the Big 5 title game next Saturday. Until then, they’ll be thinking about how …

Read more

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball pulling out Cathedral Classic win over La Salle

by

PHILADELPHIA — The earliest chapters of Penn’s season are still being written, but it’s going to be pretty hard to top what the Quakers put on the page Saturday at the Palestra.

Led by a 29-point effort from junior forward TJ Power, Penn erased a 15-point deficit in the second half and withstood a frenetic final few seconds in a 73-71 triumph over Big 5 rival La Salle.

The Quakers (5-2, 3-0 Big 5) used a string of threes and fadeaway jumpers from Power to draw close to the Explorers (3-5, 0-3), then finally drew ahead for good after Power one-touched a pass on a runout to an open Ethan Roberts for a corner three with 3:56 to go.

La Salle got a decent look at a game-tying shot in the dying moments of the game, but freshman big Dalton Scantlebury contested a baseline jumper from the Explorers’ Josiah Harris and Power got in the mix on the glass to ensure La Salle had no chance at a buzzer-beating putback.

Penn is now a win over Hofstra away from a clean sweep of its own in-house multi-team event, the Cathedral Classic. Saturday’s win followed a somewhat similar script to the Quakers’ Friday triumph over Merrimack, mostly through how …

Read more