Penn’s first trip out of the friendly confines of the Palestra ended in disappointment after the Quakers couldn’t quite complete a valiant second-half comeback against Saint Joseph’s in a 69-61 loss at Hagan Arena.
Despite cutting a 19-point Hawks lead to just two points at three instances late in the second half, Penn (2-1, 0-1 Big 5) never had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead, thanks to a series of bad breaks and mistakes that were reminiscent of last season’s Ivy Madness loss to Princeton.
The backbreaking sequence came with just under four minutes left to play and the Quakers trailing just 61-59. Saint Joseph’s Kacper Klaczek bricked the front end of a one-and-one, but Penn surrendered an offensive rebound and layup to Rasheer Fleming to extend the Hawks’ lead to four.
On Penn’s next possession, normally-reliable free throw shooter Clark Slajchert missed the front end of a one-and-one. Nick Spinoso corralled the offensive board and looked like he had a clear shot at a layup, but got rejected by Klaczek.
There would be other miscues later on, including a blown fast break opportunity with two minutes to go that could have cut the Hawks’ back lead down to one possession, but that sequence hurt Penn the most.
The loss will give Penn fans plenty to mull over, like how …