Darnell Foreman leads the lackluster Quakers in defeat to Princeton

In the most highly-anticipated game of the year, Penn men’s basketball fell to archrival Princeton, 64-49, to keep the Quakers languishing at the bottom of the Ivy League. In his postgame press conference Tuesday night, coach Steve Donahue lamented that his players really didn’t play that badly — they just aren’t good enough at their current level.

With that in mind, here are our player ratings from Penn’s loss to Princeton at the Palestra:

STARTERS

Darnell Foreman, G — 7.5/10

The junior guard was the best player for the Red and Blue, but it wasn’t an incredibly high bar to reach. Foreman was really the only one on his team who consistently strove to take the game by the scruff of its neck and make something out of it. The Camden, N.J. native scored 11 points and registered four assists, both team-highs.

Jackson Donahue, G — 5/10

There has been a small amount of regression for Donahue from his freshman season to this one, and it showed against Princeton. He ran hard, but couldn’t quite seem to find himself open enough to ever get good looks. The sophomore shooter only put up five shots, including just two from deep — both of which he missed. He hasn’t been the go-to guy for the Quakers recently, and he wasn’t on Tuesday.

Matt MacDonald, G — 3/10

Played less than half the time that any other starter did, and didn’t even put up a shot. His only mentions on the stat sheet were a foul, a turnover, an assist and a pair of rebounds.

Matt Howard, G — 5/10

The senior set an example with his hard work, but there was no end product. For some reason, Howard was anonymous in the first game against Princeton this season, too — maybe the Tigers had him figured out in their film sessions. Didn’t score on the night, which was an anomaly.

AJ Brodeur, F — 6/10

Penn’s “only hope” had a decent night, but he wasn’t the commanding presence fans were looking to see. Brodeur scored 10 points and brought down six boards, but also had four turnovers. It seems like every team’s first priority in the Ivy League is to shut him down, and Princeton managed to do that well enough.

BENCH

Max Rothschild — 6/10

Rothschild plays with a proactivity that this team sorely needs. He didn’t try to do too much, though, as his decision-making was prudent enough to know when he was beat. Scored six points, registered a team-high four assists and put in 22 good minutes for the Quakers.

Sam Jones — 6/10

When the rest of the team struggled from three, Penn’s purest shooter came on and helped his teammates out, scoring 10 points on the night including a four-point play in the first half. Couldn’t get hot enough to counter the league-leading Tigers, however.

Ryan Betley — 5/10

The rookie had a smaller impact than he hoped for, only scoring four points in 16 minutes. Didn’t play particularly poorly, but just didn’t find himself in a proactive enough mood to make a difference.

Several other Quakers took to the court against Princeton, but no one played enough minutes to merit a rating. The majority of the bit-part players came onto the floor with just under two minutes left in the game, once the result was already decided.