The Quakers bucked the Broncs en route to tying their largest margin of victory of the season.
Penn (4-7) took on Rider (4-8) in what turned out to be one of the Red and Blue’s more positive performances of the year on both sides of the ball. On the back of a dominant showing from senior forward/center Nick Spinoso — scoring 22 points on above 78% shooting — Penn’s offense had its most efficient offensive outing of the season.
“I think we can be a good offensive basketball team,” coach Steve Donahue said. “We just haven’t made shots.”
With only one win in the last eight games coming into this matchup, coach Steve Donahue has continued to cycle through different lineups to see what works around his core three: Spinoso, sophomore guard Sam Brown, and junior guard/forward Ethan Roberts.
“I’m just tryna figure out still who our seven, eight, nine guys who are gonna be in the rotation,” Donahue said.
Forgoing the inclusion of a typical point guard in the starting lineup, Donahue put in freshman forward Bradyn Foster and junior guard/forward Michael Zanoni to start the match — the former notching his first playing minutes of the year.
The Quakers kept offensive momentum with a mixture of Roberts and Spinoso distributing. While the Red and Blue scored at efficient rates, it was their swarming defense that kept them ahead — holding Rider to just two of 13 attempts from three in the first half. The Quakers stuck with their more switchable defensive players to maintain quick defensive rotations in a stout performance.
An emphatic four-point play late in the second frame — coming from a made three-pointer and free throw by Roberts — led to a Rider timeout with less than five minutes to go in the half. Despite the stoppage in play, the Broncs failed to find any answers as the Quakers maintained a strong lead for the rest of the half.
Penn shot 51.5% from the field and 40% from three, much higher than its average first-half shooting percentage of 37.6% and three-point percentage of 27.3%, en route to holding a 41-29 halftime lead.
In the third frame, Penn seemed to be in danger of losing its grip on the match. The Quakers’ press defense and slow rotations let up two Rider three-pointers and some buckets down low — cutting the once-comfortable lead to eight.
With Penn looking for an answer on offense, who else besides Roberts and Spinoso to take over?
As he had done over and over in the first half, Spinoso bullied Rider’s center down low for an easy bucket, and he followed that up by dishing out a cross-court dime from the post to an open three-point shooter in sophomore guard/forward Niklas Polonowski. Capping off the run, a Spinoso screen assist let Roberts drive and cross for an easy right-handed lay — bringing the Quakers’ lead back to 15.
During this run, Polonowski’s three three-pointers in under four minutes grew the lead and drew defenders further beyond the three-point line – leading to Rider forgetting to mark Spinoso in transition, who threw down a huge slam to force a Rider timeout with the score standing at 61-44.
“So good,” Polonowski said of how he felt about the team’s offensive performance. “I feel like we’ve been struggling within games, but we find it all the time in practice.”
The Broncs climbed back into the match as a plethora of missed Quaker layups turned into gold for Rider, which shortened the lead on the back of four transition threes. Needing a hero once again, Spinoso put down the mantle of distributor and went right back to bully ball to keep Penn afloat. Four of the final six Penn scoring possessions were Spinoso layups, resulting in the Quakers ending the game with a comfortable 13-point lead.
“Each year getting better and better with his passing, scoring, toughness, he’s become a better defender,” Donahue said. “The leadership, and those things, are really remarkable.”
Penn men’s basketball will play one more game before Christmas on Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. at George Mason, streamed live on ESPN+.
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