The Palestra

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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In loss to No. 25 Princeton, a strong showing for Penn women’s basketball

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After all those nonconference games, it was time to find out what was real.

Princeton was real. Well, we knew that before the Princeton women’s game Saturday at Penn: The Tigers were 12-1, the only loss — a close one — coming against a mighty Maryland team. And now the Tigers are nationally ranked themselves, the ultimate imprimatur of the sport.

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A star is born: Olivia Hutcherson leads No. 25 Princeton women’s basketball past Penn to open Ivy play

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The Princeton women’s basketball team started the new year and Ivy League season right where they left off in 2025: coming from behind in the fourth quarter to scratch out victories on the road.

The Tigers’ newest victim was an old rival, the Penn Quakers, whom the Tigers outlasted, 74-68, at the Palestra on Saturday afternoon.

Penn suffered its 15th straight setback to Princeton, but if there is any such thing as a silver lining in losing, the Quakers can find one in this game. After outplaying Princeton for nearly three quarters of the game, the Quakers showed they are a legitimate contender in the Ancient Eight this season.

Here are three Tigers takeaways from No. 25 Princeton’s 11th consecutive win on the season:

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

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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 …

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

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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 …

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

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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 …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s big Big 5 win over Saint Joseph’s

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PHILADELPHIA — With 15:51 to play last night, Penn held a 48-46 lead at the Palestra on Saint Joseph’s and former coach Steve Donahue. The Quakers entered Monday as a six-point underdog, but the small lead clearly wasn’t enough for Penn coach Fran McCaffery — or anyone on the bench, for that manner.

One benefit of my seats behind the scorer’s table is that I can pick up bits and pieces of what’s said on the Penn bench or in the huddle. You can see players get coached up as they come off the floor, or hear an assistant demanding someone on the court cut or help.

I didn’t pick up a ton of what McCaffery was saying during that timeout, but one sentence aimed at the Hawks came through perfectly clear.

“They ****ing can’t defend!”

A few minutes later, Penn proved its new coach right. A 5-0 Penn run — capped by a wing three from Ethan Roberts in transition — would force Saint Joseph’s into a timeout and help lift the Quakers to a thrilling 83-74 win.

Penn (2-2, 1-0 Big 5) was physically overwhelmed by Saint Joseph’s (2-2, 1-1) on the same floor last year, the first big red flag in a season that got Donahue fired. Not so on Monday. The Quakers put up 1.11 points per possession and played at times brilliant offense against an ostensibly superior opponent.

Where do they go from here?

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Penn women’s basketball notches season-opening win over King’s

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The outcome of the Penn women’s first basketball game of the season was decided the moment it was scheduled: The Red and Blue would overwhelm King’s College, a Division III team from Wilkes-Barre, and showcase their new and returning players in a low-pressure tip-off. King’s, meanwhile, would face big-school challenges that could boost its play for the coming season — and get a kick out of playing in front of family at the Palestra. (Every woman on the King’s roster is from Pennsylvania or New Jersey, many from the Philly area.)

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball season-opening win over Rowan

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Penn men’s basketball opened the Fran McCaffery era with all guns blazing Friday night, setting the team single-game scoring record in a 119-72 pasting of Division III opponent Rowan at the Palestra.

The Quakers (1-0) did what they were expected to do against a lower-division team: physically dominate the game on both ends of the floor. As teams like Boise State and Western Michigan have already shown in this young college basketball season, that’s not always a given.

Penn finished with a plus-30 rebounding margin and had 49 free throw opportunities. One of the few blemishes for the home team was that it could only convert 33 of those shots (67.3%) from the charity stripe.

There are much bigger tests to come on the road (American, Providence) in the next few days, but here are just a few of the happy Quakeaways from an easy win:

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Q&A with Penn men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery, part two

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Fran McCaffery speaks at his introductory press conference at the Palestra on April 7, 2025. (Penn Sports Network)
With the NCAA men’s basketball season tipping off Monday and Penn’s season opener coming a few days later, Ivy Hoops Online caught up with new Quakers head coach Fran McCaffery for an extensive Q&A about his coaching philosophy, players and the state of the sport. 
Both questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length. Check out part one of the conversation here. 

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