Penn men's basketball bucks the Broncs in overtime

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. — Overtime has not been kind to the Penn men’s basketball team in the last year, but Thursday night at Rider, the tide finally turned.

After the Broncs’ Jeff Jones missed a potential game-winner and sent the game to an extra session — the Quakers’ second trip in as many games — Penn dominated and won, 78-72.

ELI COHEN: Rosen takes over in the clutch

By the final minutes of the contest, Penn’s frontcourt was decimated by foul trouble. Sophomore Fran Dougherty fouled out with 3:40 left in regulation, and senior Mike Howlett picked up his fifth foul just 32 seconds into overtime.

Only freshman Henry Brooks, who had logged just two minutes in his debut against Temple, remained as a presence in the paint, and he delivered for the Quakers. In his first real collegiate action since tearing his ACL last spring, he scored four points and grabbed a pivotal offensive rebound to keep the game in check for the Red and Blue.

Penn coach Jerome Allen called it a classic case of “being ready when your name is called.”

“He was huge for us down the stretch,” Allen said. “The offensive rebound that he got and laid it back up [gave] us some space.”

While Brooks stepped up in the waning minutes, it was sophomore guard Miles Cartwright who kept Penn competitive all night. With senior point guard Zack Rosen not taking any shots in the first half, Cartwright, Dougherty and forward Tyler Bernardini took care of the scoring load. The trio accounted for 22 of Penn’s 24 first-half points.

“They have no problem playing for someone else and playing off of one another,” Allen said of the distribution of points between Rosen, Cartwright and Bernardini.

In the second half and overtime period, however, Cartwright exploded for 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field. He finished with a career-high 27 points.

For the second-consecutive game, the Quakers got off to a strong start, opening the game on a 9-1 run. Penn’s defense — led by senior Rob Belcore, who had four steals on the night — stifled Rider for much of the first half.

“We really got off to a slow start,” Broncs coach Tommy Dempsey said.

With just over four minutes remaining in the first half, Penn was up, 22-16. But Rosen had to ride the bench with two fouls, and Rider’s offense began to click during a 12-2 run. The Broncs went into the locker room up, 28-24.

The Quakers came out swinging in the second half, though, and put together an 11-3 run to take the lead. Once again, they found themselves in trouble with eight minutes remaining.

But Rosen and Cartwright teamed up down the stretch to tie the game with just 37 seconds left in regulation.

Rosen scored all of his 19 points after halftime, as he and Cartwright combined for 39 of Penn’s 54 points in the second half and overtime.

That proved to be just what the Quakers needed to break out of their overtime funk.

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