Penn basketball looks to fend off surging Navy team

After Penn men’s basketball’s first loss of the season on the road against Washington, the Quakers responded emphatically, playing arguably their best game yet in an 80-64 victory over Big 5 foe La Salle.

Today, following a 92-86 upset at the hands of Lafayette, the Red and Blue will have another chance for a strong rebound. Penn will welcome Navy to the Palestra, looking to repeat last week’s performance and keep its home record unblemished.

“I think our energy level was so great for La Salle after the disappointing loss at Washington,” coach Steve Donahue said. “Conversely, at Lafayette, they beat us to the punch. We learned a tough lesson because we didn’t understand how ready you have to be, so hopefully we grow from it.”

For Penn (4-2), one bright spot from the weekend was the re-emergence of senior guard Jamal Lewis, who missed the entire 2014-15 season due to a staph infection and has gradually returned to peak condition since.

Lewis posted a season-high 18 minutes in the loss and scored 10 points, securing his first double-digit scoring performance since February 2013 and providing optimism that he will be able to fill the departed Tony Hicks’ role as the lone upperclassman leader of an extremely young backcourt.

“It’s great to have someone who’s been through as much as he’s been through,” Donahue said. “I think he’s in game shape now, and I would assume he’s going to play more minutes as we move along.”

While Penn is coming off of a disappointing setback, Navy (6-2) will enter today’s matchup with strong momentum. The Midshipmen took first place in the inaugural Spartan Showcase tournament at UNC-Greensboro last weekend, giving the program its first six-game win streak since 2008.

Fifth-year coach Ed DeChellis has brought a Navy program that went 3-26 in his first season back to respectability, as the team has increased its win total in each of his four seasons and is on pace to comfortably continue that streak this year.

“It’s such a difficult coaching job at the military academies,” Donahue said. “Ed was a great coach at Penn State [where he won the 2009 Big Ten Coach of the Year], and he has built this program back up. He’s a hard-nosed coach, no B.S., and the kids play hard and unselfishly.”

Penn’s Sunday defeat was an offensive shootout, but today’s matchup with the red-hot Midshipmen will likely be far from it. Navy has only allowed 58.9 points per game thus far – its lowest mark since College Basketball Reference began recording such data in 1995, and the 14th-best out of 351 Division I teams.

“We have to be efficient breaking the press and we have to push the ball in transition before their defense can set,” Donahue said. “When we’re in the half-court, we have to cut hard and move the ball, keep attacking but keep sharing. We can’t relax in terms of moving the ball half-speed.”

One key figure in Penn’s offensive attack will be sophomore guard Antonio Woods, who led a frantic comeback effort at Lafayette by scoring 11 points in the game’s final 75 seconds.

Like the team, which is shooting 28.5 percent from three-point range, Woods has struggled from beyond the arc, converting 5-for-27 so far. But Sunday’s closing effort has the squad confident that it can get back on track.

“My teammates and coaches tell me to keep playing regardless of whether shots fall or not, so that’s what I try to do,” Woods said. “The shots we took on Sunday were mostly good shots, and they just didn’t fall. All we can do is keep shooting and they’re eventually going to go in.”

Inside the paint, a key battle of senior centers will unfold between Penn’s Darien Nelson-Henry and Navy’s Will Kelly, who ranks 17th in the nation with 2.8 blocks per game. Following a double-double in last season’s 57-46 win at Navy, Nelson-Henry will face a stiff test in the 6-foot-9 Kelly.

Ultimately, in a battle of evenly matched teams — Navy is only 20 spots ahead of Penn in the Pomeroy rankings — the Red and Blue’s home-court advantage may provide just enough separation.

“You always have that advantage when you’re used to the court and used to the atmosphere,” Woods said. “I’ve always believed that you have to protect your home court, and I really think we’re going to be back on our game on Wednesday.”

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