Penn men's basketball deadlocked with Brown through one half of final Ivy game

This one’s going to come down to the very end.

After one half of play at the Palestra, Penn men’s basketball is tied with Brown, 27-27, in the de facto Ivy League tournament play-in game. The game was back and forth the whole way, with seven different lead changes and three ties.

All around, the game was sloppy, chippy, and full of mistakes. The teams combined to commit 18 turnovers, 13 by Brown, in large part due to the swarming efforts of both defenses. Brown’s defense in particular hounded the Quakers whenever they came close to the basket, with multiple players rushing to the ball.

For the Quakers, it was senior guard Jake Silpe who led the way with 13 points, including two three-pointers. Only two other players scored for the Red and Blue — junior guard Devon Goodman has eight points while junior forward AJ Brodeur has six. As a whole, Penn struggled from the field in the first half, shooting just 33 percent from the field and a paltry 21 percent from behind the arc.

The Quakers jumped out to an early six point lead behind Brodeur’s six points, but a nearly four minute scoring drought allowed the Bears to go on an 8-0 run to take the lead. A corner three from Silpe off of a no-look feed from senior forward Max Rothschild stopped the bleeding.

Rothschild found Silpe again a few possessions later on a backdoor cut for an easy layup, and senior guard Jackson Donahue connected with Silpe on another cut to the basket the next possession to give Penn a four-point lead.

After another mini-scoring drought by the Quakers, a Goodman three and Silpe fastbreak layup caused Brown to call a timeout down five with five and a half to play. Out of the break, Brown went on a six point run to reclaim the lead. And after the teams traded buckets, including a three from Goodman, the game was tied.

Just 20 minutes remain, and it’ll be down to the wire all the way.

Read the full recap here.