Michael Zanoni

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s sweep of Dartmouth and Harvard

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PHILADELPHIA — Merry clinchmas, Quakers fans.

Penn ended its three-year Ivy Madness drought with a weekend sweep at the Palestra of Dartmouth and Harvard. The Quakers (15-11, 8-5 Ivy) are locked into the three seed and a rubber match with Harvard (16-11, 9-4) in two weeks.

Unsurprisingly, the road to that aforementioned sweep was anything but linear. The Quakers needed to erase halftime deficits against both Dartmouth (11-15, 5-8) and the Crimson. On Friday, junior forward TJ Power pretty much singlehandedly carried the team over the line against the Big Green, dropping a career-high 38 points as the Quakers notched a closer-than-it-looked 80-71 win.

One night later, Penn played an excellent half of complementary offensive and defensive basketball to flip a 31-21 Crimson halftime lead into a 64-61 triumph.

Of course, any game against Harvard these days has to come with some late drama. The Crimson had a wide-open shot from deep to tie the game at the buzzer for elite shooter Tey Barbour after senior guard Cam Thrower slipped and fell while attempting to either foul or guard the Harvard guard.

Any Penn fan who’s been around long enough to remember the “Bryce Aiken game” in 2019 had to expect Barbour’s shot was going down. But maybe — just maybe — Barbour’s shot clanging off the rim is a sign that things have truly turned around for this program.

What else could Penn fans hold onto from one last successful homestand?

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Penn men’s basketball second-half takeover downs Dartmouth

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Dartmouth and Penn men’s basketball tip off at the Palestra on Feb. 27, 2026. (Ray Curren / Ivy Hoops Online)

PHILADELPHIA – There isn’t exactly a large sample size of Ivy League transfers from Duke (or Virginia for that matter), so when TJ Power signed with Penn last spring, the bar was set pretty high.

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How Yale men’s basketball edged Penn sans Nick Townsend

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No Nick Townsend. No problem.

Yale men’s basketball had sophomore forward Isaac Celiscar and senior forward Casey Simmons, and that duo powered Yale to a 74-70 win over surging Penn at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday afternoon.

With the win, Yale (21-4, 9-2 Ivy) clinched a bid to the Ivy League Tournament.

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

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Penn men’s basketball let a chance to effectively clinch an Ivy Madness spot slip through its fingers on Saturday at Yale, as a stretch of poor offense flipped a halftime lead into a deficit the Quakers could not overcome in a 74-70 loss.

The Quakers (13-11, 6-5 Ivy) took a 40-35 lead into the halftime locker room on the back of strong shooting performances from TJ Power and Michael Zanoni. But the Quakers went scoreless for the first minutes of the second frame as the league-leading Bulldogs (21-4, 9-2) went on an extended 10-0 run.

Penn got a couple of looks at open threes for the lead late in the second half that would not go down. Yale went on to effectively end the game after Bulldogs wing Isaac Celiscar hit a tough stepback midrange jumper over the outstretched arm of Power to take a 70-66 lead with 16 seconds to play.

The Quakers entered Saturday as sizable underdogs and outperformed their expectations (Yale closed as a 9.5 point favorite) and still sit in third place in the Ivy League standings. A successful homestand next weekend will secure Penn’s first trip to the conference tournament in three years.

What did Penn fans learn from a tough afternoon?

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

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PHILADELPHIA — The streak is dead.

After 14 consecutive losses to its most hated rivals, Penn finally — finally — took out hated Princeton at the Palestra on Saturday by the thinnest of margins, 61-60. The Quakers (11-10, 4-4 Ivy) now sit atop a four-team morass in third place in the Ivy League and hold their destiny in their own hands.

It should have surprised no one that Penn needed to extend to its absolute limit to finally take out the Tigers (8-15, 4-4). The Quakers led by as many as 12 points in the second half on the back of some intense defense, but an extended offensive outage let Princeton climb back into the game.

The afternoon came down to a one-on-one defensive stand by Quakers sophomore point guard AJ Levine against the Tigers’ best player, Dalen Davis. Levine poked the ball away from Davis at the top of the key as the game clock wound below 10 seconds, then forced Davis into a difficult contested midrange jumper which caught front iron and bounced harmlessly away.

Levine was mobbed by his teammates as he flexed to the crowd, a moment of catharsis after eight years of frustration of heartbreak.

What did Quakers fans learn from an exhilarating day?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s home loss to Yale

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PHILADELPHIA — That Penn lost to Yale in its first matchup against the overwhelming Ivy League favorite should not have come as a shock to anyone.

But it’s the way the Quakers fell at home that should leave a frustrating taste in fans’ mouths.

Penn (9-9, 2-3 Ivy) played well below what it was capable of in a 77-60 loss to the Bulldogs (15-3, 4-1). The Quakers missed plenty of shots they normally hit and put up a season-worst 0.9 points per possession. On the other end of the floor, Yale scored 42 points in the paint, which more than made up for Penn’s admirable efforts to force turnovers and limit the damage from the Bulldogs’ elite outside shooting attack.

The Quakers held several leads throughout the first half but gave up an extended 12-2 run heading into the break which gave Yale a relatively comfortable 10-point edge. Penn had several chances to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to one possession early in the second half but never put any serious game pressure on Yale.

Penn’s defeat was expected, but it now puts a tremendous amount of pressure on next week’s road back-to-back against Columbia and Cornell. Both of these teams are right alongside the Quakers in a six-car pileup that separates second and seventh in the league standings by a single game.

A sweep would be devastating to Penn’s hopes of making Ivy Madness in its first year under Fran McCaffery.

What did fans learn from an underwhelming afternoon?

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

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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?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball downing Dartmouth

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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?

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

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Penn avoided the dreaded 0-2 start to Ivy play thanks to a pair of sterling performances from its senior leaders.

Wings Ethan Roberts and Michael Zanoni scored 28 and 20, respectively, in an 81-73 win over Brown at the Palestra. No other Quakers player scored more than nine. The win had the added benefit of snapping a four-game losing streak to the Bears (6-9, 0-2 Ivy).

Penn (8-7, 1-1) scored an efficient 1.2 points per possession against a good defensive team. The Quakers badly needed it, given their own defensive struggles. The Red and Blue managed to get to the halftime locker room tied despite an awful start, then seized control of the game with a 13-6 run out of the break.

Zanoni gave Penn a lead it would not surrender with an open three by the right sideline off a nice feed out of the lane by Roberts 50 seconds into the second half. Roberts later capped off the run with a wide-open three from the left wing thanks to a good screen from big man Augustus Gerhart with 16:17 to go in the half.

What did Penn fans learn from a solid win?

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

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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?

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