Coach Glen Miller said that, at Penn, "it's first place or last place." But with two straight wins to close the season, the Quakers at least avoided their first losing Ivy campaign in 17 years.
After losing a heartbreaker to Cornell, Penn defeated both Columbia and Princeton to finish with an 8-6 league record, good enough to stand alone in third place.
One night before Cornell completed its perfect Ivy season two Saturdays ago in Princeton, the Red and Blue gave the Big Red all they could handle. Penn came up just short with a 94-92 loss.
The Quakers had the Ancient Eight champions on the ropes when they led 69-60 at the 12-minute mark of the second half. Tyler Bernardini and Brian Grandieri paced Penn, combining for 36 points throughout that time.
But the Quakers wouldn't score again until there were four minutes remaining.
"It had nothing to do with Cornell's defense," Miller said. "It had everything to do with our mental mistakes in that seven or eight-minute period. We were in control of the game, but we just kept coming up empty."
Ivy League Player of the Year Louis Dale led the Big Red with 24 points. Ryan Wittman and Adam Gore once again hurt Penn from long distance, combining for eight three-pointers.
Cornell's three stars took over in the late stages and helped build a 10-point lead with 34 seconds to go. Though the game appeared over, the Quakers embarked on a ferocious comeback. Bernardini's three-pointer with four seconds left cut the deficit to one.
Wittman then made one of two free throws and Penn had to go the length of the court to tie or win the game. Bernardini caught the inbound pass just past midcourt and turned to put up a desperation heave but was unable to get the shot away.
The Ivy League Rookie of the Year, when asked about the play a night later, said that he was definitely hit but that it was a tough call for the referee to make in that situation.
The game against Columbia would also come down to a last-second shot from Bernardini, but this time it ended in the Quakers' favor.
With 13 seconds to go and the game tied, Miller set up a dribble-handoff play to give Bernardini the final shot. His initial jumper came up way short, but Grandieri dove on the floor for the rebound and kept it alive.
"I pretty much tackled the kid in front of me, and I knew it would be a difficult foul for the ref to call," Grandieri said of the play.
The ball bounced back to Bernardini and he converted his second try just before the buzzer to give Penn a 69-67 win on Senior Night.
"The first one didn't go down, but luckily enough I think the basketball gods reconciled with me from last night," Bernardini said.
John Baumann and Ben Nwachukwu dominated the first half, combining for 22 of the Lions' 32 points. Andreas Schreiber, on the other hand, struggled all game, but came up big down the stretch, knocking down all four of his free throws and drawing a big charge call.
Though the Quakers had trouble containing Columbia's big men, they did a much better job limiting guards Niko Scott and K.J. Matsui, who both went off in the teams' first meeting.
"The first game, we were slow in doubling and we were slow in rotating so they threw the ball out and knocked down some three-point shots," Miller said of Columbia's guards. "Today we didn't double . so that's probably why we did a better job defending the three."
The Quakers rode the momentum from their last-second win into Jadwin Gym last Tuesday, capping off their season with a 60-47 win over Princeton.
The game was closer than the final score suggests, with Penn's lead hovering around five for much of the second half. The Tigers kept it close in the first frame by out-shooting Penn from the free-throw line, 18-3, and not allowing Penn to sink any three-pointers.
The Quakers would eventually pull away. Bernardini - who was held scoreless in the first half - hit a three to give Penn a 10-point advantage with just over five minutes to go and the Quakers hit most of their free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
"I'm very pleased with the win for the three seniors," Miller said about Grandieri, Joe Gill and Michael Kach. "To me it was important that we came out with a winning season in the Ivy League to cap off [Grandieri's] career, and I couldn't be happier for them."
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