Quakeaways

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 95-71 loss at Princeton

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For the second straight year, one of the worst seasons in Penn basketball history came to an end with a humiliation at the hands of Princeton.

 

The Quakers came out sluggish and were never seriously competitive with the Tigers in a 95-71 drubbing at Jadwin Gymnasium. Penn (8-19, 4-10 Ivy) has now finished seventh in the Ivy League for a second straight season, while Princeton (19-10, 8-6) clinched a trip to the Ivy League Tournament with the easy win.

 

Penn has now lost 13 consecutive games to Princeton. The all-time series is tied at 126-126, the first time the all-time ledger has been even since the Roosevelt administration … the Theodore Roosevelt administration, that is.

 

For one last kick in the behind, the Tigers’ Xaivian Lee racked up a 23-point triple-double.

 

If you’re a masochist, read on.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 92-87 win at Columbia

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NEW YORK CITY — In an otherwise lost season, Sam Brown delivered an evening of pure joy for Penn on Saturday night.

 

The sophomore guard accomplished something no Penn player had since Hassan Duncombe in December 1989: score at least 40 points in a game. Brown’s virtuoso 42-point showing carried the Quakers to a 92-87 win over Columbia.

 

It didn’t mean much in the standings, save for assuring that Penn (8-18, 4-9 Ivy) would avoid finishing last place in the Ivy League. That spot is now reserved for the Lions (12-14, 1-12), whose season has nosedived after a promising nonconference campaign. It seems likely that both teams will have new coaches next season.

 

Penn never trailed on Saturday, but there were more than a few perilous moments. Things got especially dicey when Columbia star Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa intercepted an inbounds pass from Nick Spinoso and drained a three to cut Penn’s lead to 86-85 with 30 seconds to play. 

 

But Brown calmly converted all six of his free throw attempts to assure the Lions would get no closer.

 

Brown was the biggest story of Saturday night. What made his evening so special?

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Quakeaway from Penn men’s basketball’s 90-62 loss at Cornell

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In a season marked by one low after another, Penn took what may have been its biggest body blow yet in a humiliating 90-62 defeat to Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y.

Even that final score is generous to the Quakers (7-18, 3-9 Ivy). Penn went into the halftime locker room down 63-27 after allowing the Big Red (15-10, 7-5) to drain 15 three-pointers in the first half.

By night’s end, nine different Cornell players had made a three-point basket, tying an NCAA Division 1 record.

There’s only one meaningful takeaway from Friday night’s disaster:

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 79-78 overtime loss to Harvard

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Penn’s flickering postseason aspirations were officially snuffed out on Saturday night after the Quakers endured another heartbreaking loss, this time in overtime to Harvard at the Palestra, 79-78.

The Quakers (7-17, 3-8 Ivy) managed to lose despite having free-throw shooters heading to the line with a three-point lead twice in the final 11 seconds of regulation. But both junior wing Ethan Roberts and senior wing George Smith missed their one-and-one front ends.

Harvard (10-14, 5-6) forced overtime after Penn guard Sam Brown deflected a Crimson home run pass into the arms of senior guard Evan Nelson, who drained a contested three over Brown’s outstretched arms with a second to play.

The Crimson took the lead for good when freshman Robert Hinton converted two free throws with 26 seconds to play in overtime. Penn missed three game-winning shot attempts in the final 12 seconds of OT, with senior big man Nick Spinoso missing a desperation hook shot off the front rim just before the buzzer sounded.

Here’s what we learned from another devastating defeat:

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 88-75 win over Dartmouth

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In a season that’s been filled with painful finishes, Penn delivered a moment of unabashed joy at the Palestra on Friday night against Dartmouth.

The Quakers used a 15-0 run in the second half to power past the Big Green, 88-75. It didn’t matter one bit to Penn (7-16, 3-7 Ivy) that Dartmouth (12-11, 6-4) entered the game in second place in the Ivy League or already had a win in hand over the Quakers. Penn delivered one of its most aesthetically pleasing performances of the season.

That aforementioned 15-0 run shattered what was a 53-53 game with just inside 14 minutes to play. Sophomore Sam Brown — the game’s biggest story — scored what proved to be the game-winning basket when he drained a mid-range jumper in the middle of the lane over the Big Green’s Ryan Cornish, then added a layup and an assist.

Senior George Smith drained the dagger with an open three from the left wing.

It’s all happy Quakeaways, starting with how …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 82-72 loss at Brown

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Any realistic hope Penn had of reaching Ivy Madness died on Saturday night after the Red and Blue staggered through a road loss to Brown, 82-72, on the second night of a back-to-back.

Though Penn (6-16, 2-7 Ivy) was competitive throughout the evening and cut the deficit to as little as one point in the second half, the Quakers never led. A stepback three from Brown (12-10, 4-5 Ivy) superstar Kino Lilly Jr. pushed the Bears’ lead back to four with 10 minutes to go and Penn never seriously threatened after.

Brown is now effectively three games ahead of Penn thanks to its head-to-head sweep of the Red and Blue.

Instead of focusing on the minutiae of the game itself, this Saturday’s Quakeaways will serve as a progress report on the long-term questions I asked a few weeks ago:

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 93-78 win over Columbia

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Penn is back in the mix for Ivy Madness after a second consecutive strong shooting performance.

The Quakers rained in 18 threes on 35 attempts in a 93-78 home dismissal of Columbia. Penn (6-11, 2-2 Ivy) is now tied with Dartmouth for fourth place in the league standings, while the Lions (11-6, 0-4) are pretty much toast after a stellar nonconference campaign.

Saturday afternoon’s hero was Sam Brown, who dropped in a career-high 30 points on 12 shots. He became the first Penn player to hit at least eight threes in a game since Jordan Dingle’s 2022 demolition of Harvard in the first Penn game at the Palestra open to fans since COVID hit.

The Quakers won on Saturday thanks to an excellent stretch of complementary basketball early in the second half. They held Columbia without a field goal for 7:38 on the defensive end, while five different Penn players hit threes on the offensive side of the floor. Penn used the dominant stretch to extend a four-point lead into a 19-point advantage inside of 10 minutes to play.

It’s all good vibes again, thanks to how …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 86-66 loss at Penn State

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Playing on the road as a 25-plus-point Vegas underdog without your best player is typically a recipe for disaster. Penn learned that the hard way roughly this time last year against Houston when star guard Clark Slajchert suffered a season-ruining ankle sprain in an 81-42 beatdown.

By those standards, the Quakers’ Sunday trip to the Bryce Jordan Center to face Penn State was a (relative) success. Despite being without the services of junior wing Ethan Roberts, Penn went toe-to-toe with the Nittany Lions for roughly 25 minutes in an 86-66 defeat.

The Quakers (4-9) went to the locker room down just 34-31 at halftime and were within two points of Penn State (11-2) after senior big man Nick Spinoso bounced in a three-pointer from the left wing to make it a 38-36 game with 17:40 to go in the game. The Nittany Lions responded with an extended 13-3 run to push their advantage to double digits and built a bigger lead from there.

Penn State big man Yanic Konan Niederhauser scored five points in the game-deciding run. He finished with a 19-point, 15-rebound double-double.

What could Penn fans take away from a respectable showing against an NCAA Tournament contender?

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 66-47 loss at VCU

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Jon Rothstein typically describes trips to VCU’s Siegel Center as “life-changing.”

It may not have been a particularly life-changing evening for Penn on Monday, but it went a little bit better than expected. The Quakers competed defensively for long stretches in a 66-47 loss to the Atlantic 10 favorite Rams, which could give them a little bit of momentum moving forward.

Penn (3-7) came all the way back from a disastrous start to tie the game at 21 with 7:17 to go in the first half after a nice steal from freshman guard AJ Levine (more on him later) led directly to a transition three from junior wing Ethan Roberts. The Quakers had fallen into a 14-2 hole right off the bat and went nearly 6:30 without a basket after Nick Spinoso scored on Penn’s first possession.

The Rams (8-2) restored order with an extended 18-2 run that spanned the final four minutes of the first half and first three minutes of the second. In a disturbing replay of the game’s beginning, Penn went 6:37 of game action without a bucket.

Penn’s effort level was there on Monday, but so were a lot of the same issues that have plagued this team all season, leading to some depressingly familiar Quakeaways:

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 68-53 loss to Elon

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There really isn’t too much to say in a micro sense about Penn’s 68-53 home loss to Elon on Sunday, which rounded out a 1-2 weekend at the Cathedral Classic Invitational.

The Quakers (3-5) shot 29.7% from the field and even worse from deep, hitting eight of 37 three-point attempts (21.6%). Penn never led, taking an immediate 8-0 punch to the mouth from the Phoenix (5-3) that forced coach Steve Donahue into a timeout less than 90 seconds into the contest.

It was all downhill from there.

Instead of focusing on Sunday’s contest, these Quakeaways will focus more on macro-level observations about Penn at large. Believe it or not, Saturday’s upcoming game against Drexel will be the one-third point of the Quakers’ season.

So, where does Penn stand?

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