Despite late rally, Penn basketball falls to Princeton in season finale, 72-71

Princeton basketball was eliminated from a conference championship after Yale racked up its 13th league win on Saturday.

Penn — with the institution of an Ivy League tournament still at least a year away — was eliminated from any form of postseason play altogether.

And still, when the two played, everything was on the line.

Following a women’s Ivy League championship showdown for the ages, the longtime rivals provided another classic in their 224th all-time meeting on the men’s side.

Although the Red and Blue roared back from a 17-point second-half deficit, a pair of last-minute, game-winning opportunities fell short, and Princeton escaped with a 72-71 victory to sweep the Quakers for the second straight year.

“As I said to the team earlier, I was really proud of how they played tonight,” coach Steve Donahue said. “Typically if your team doesn’t win, it’s because they don’t follow your plan — whether that’s with disciplinary problems, weight room issues, missed assignments — but with this group that’s not the case. All season long they’ve followed the plan, and that just wasn’t good enough most nights.”

Behind a quick six points from leading scorer Darien Nelson-Henry, Penn (11-17, 5-9 Ivy) jumped out to an 8-5 lead, but the Tigers would soon assert themselves by dominating in transition during a 19-2 run.

The Quakers briefly cut the deficit to five behind an offensive boost from junior Matt Howard and a strong defensive effort from freshman Tyler Hamilton, but seemingly every spurt from Penn would be answered by a three-ball from the Tigers (22-6, 12-2), who shot 9-for-17 from downtown en route to a 53-36 lead with under 11 minutes remaining.

But at that point, with seemingly nothing left to fight for, the Quakers put the league on notice for next year.

The rally started with a pair of buckets from freshman Max Rothschild, catalyzing an 11-5 run to cut the deficit to 11 points.

From that point on, Hamilton began to take over, with assists on two consecutive three-pointers before a steal and emphatic slam dunk trimmed the score to 63-57.

Making his first-ever start, Hamilton set career-highs with 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a remarkable four charges taken, as the freshman class combined to score 30 of Penn’s 46 second-half points in the frantic comeback effort.

“My 13-year-old daughter, Katie, came to our game at Harvard [on Saturday] and said I should probably play Tyler Hamilton more, and clearly she knows the game,” Steve Donahue said. “Over this last week, just watching the spring in his step, and his energy, his confidence and his focus, he’s got a chance to be a really good player.”

The floodgates were opened from there, with Jake Silpe contributing four quick points before Rothschild found Jackson Donahue from long range to bring Penn to within two. Hamilton then finished two consecutive highlight-reel reverse layups, making the score 72-70 with under a minute to go.

“We did it with four freshmen, and Princeton to me is as good as any team in this league,” Steve Donahue said. “As we were coming back, as close as it may look on the scoreboard, that last step is huge, and that’s what I explained to the guys. ... When we play teams like Princeton really well, it’s inspiring.”

After Penn came with a clutch defensive stop, Hamilton penetrated again and drew a foul with an opportunity to tie the game, but missed one of two free throws with 12 seconds remaining to keep Princeton up by one.

Princeton sophomore Amir Bell missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving the Red and Blue another chance to win the game.

But on the ensuing possession, Donahue drove inside off of a Darnell Foreman feed and attempted to feed the ball to Nelson-Henry before Princeton junior Spencer Weisz deflected the ball away, allowing the Tigers to avoid a historical collapse and finish the season undefeated at home.

“I thought Jackson had a chance to finish, but he also had a nice drop off – both teams did what they were supposed to do,” Steve Donahue said. “Princeton is a good defensive team, and I didn’t want to go against a set defense. ... It was really a teaching moment.”

Despite the heartbreaking result, the 35-19 game-ending run should provide optimism for a team that will return seven of its top eight scorers from this season ­— not to mention Fairleigh Dickinson transfer Matt McDonald, who averaged 9.0 points per game as a sophomore at FDU in 2014-15.

And even though the standings show Penn in the bottom half of the Ancient Eight for the fourth consecutive year, the building blocks appear to be in place for the program to return to contender status soon.

“There are so many things behind the scenes that I think the team has done an incredible job with. The guys have come to practice and worked incredibly hard, held each other accountable, gotten in the weight room, used tutors, and represented the university by playing hard basketball,” Steve Donahue said. “But unfortunately in life, the last step is huge, and in our sport, that’s the scoreboard.

“With what they’ve done over the year, I was as proud of them as I’ve been of any team I’ve ever coached,” he concluded. “And we’re going to be dedicating these six months to doing everything we can to get Penn back to that championship level.”

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