It may be chilly outside, but Penn men's basketball came in hot in its clash against Harvard in Boston.
With a final score of 82-67, Penn (5-11, Ivy 1-2) defeated Harvard (6-10, 1-2) for its first Ivy League win of the season after nail-biting matchups against Dartmouth and Cornell, respectively. This outing was the team's second-best shooting performance of the season thus far, with the Quakers nailing 29 out of 57 shots.
After a quiet start, junior guard/forward Ethan Roberts made some momentum for the Quakers when he converted a four-point play to tie the game at 11 apiece just over five minutes into the matchup. He was the only player on either team to end the first half in double figures.
Through the first half, Harvard still could not get a feel for the basket, wavering just under 38% from the field compared to Penn’s 45.5%. Then came the first Crimson highlight of the afternoon: Harvard forward Thomas Batties II managed to block Roberts twice in the same possession.
But the Quakers didn’t let Crimson have all the fun. Penn seized an opportunity as four offensive rebounds on the same possession allowed junior guard Dylan Williams to hit a triple. His next bucket would come less than a minute later when his layup sparked Harvard coach Tommy Amaker to call a timeout with just under three minutes remaining in the first half.
In the final five minutes of the first half, Penn went on a nine-point run before the intensity in Lavietes Pavilion skyrocketed. Sophomore guard Sam Brown fouled Harvard guard Robert Hinton, with Brown converting a three-point play with less than two seconds remaining. Coach Steve Donahue called a timeout and drew up a play for Brown who “called bank” on a half-court shot that sent the Quakers into the locker room up by nine points.
“[Half-court shots are] something we literally work on before every game,” Donahue said. “[Senior center/forward] Nick [Spinoso]'s a great passer — took one dribble and got within 35 feet. Sam [Brown]'s pretty good at it, [but] it's still obviously a hard shot, right? But they executed and gave themselves a chance.”
Brown opened the second half for the Quakers with a deep three-pointer and layup, giving Penn their largest lead with a quick five-point run.
Penn’s offensive barrage fizzled entirely as the Quakers went over five minutes without scoring, with the Crimson scoring nine points in that time frame to cut the lead to just two points. Spinoso got to the line to end the drought but went 0-for-2 from the charity stripe — extending the Harvard run.
“The guys reacted like they should. They weren't going to let it happen again,” Donahue said.
Spinoso did end up putting a stop to the Harvard defensive attack with a layup shortly after — scoring Penn’s first basket in almost six minutes. A three-point shot from senior guard George Smith would give the Quakers a 56-51 lead going into a media timeout.
Then came the “EBO” show.
Back-to-back possessions ended in three-point jumpers from Roberts — the second coming off of a beautiful jump-pass from Smith. Roberts would finish the afternoon with 21 points.
“I just did my part,” Roberts said. “I let the game come to me and just focus[ed] on doing what I had to at the moment. … My shots [were] falling, and it felt good — so that's all I could really ask for.”
Freshman guard AJ Levine also wanted in on the action, following with three points of his own to open the Penn lead to 11 with just over four minutes left of play.
A pull-up jumper for Batties II from downtown put Harvard back in the game with two-and-a-half minutes to go. Donahue was quick to call a timeout as the lead was now down to just six points.
Out of the timeout, a beautiful pick-and-roll created the opportunity for Roberts to dish the ball inside to Spinoso for an easy layup. A defensive stop and a three-pointer from Roberts solidified the victory for the Red and Blue.
Penn men's basketball returns to the Palestra on Jan. 25 to face off against Columbia at 2 p.m.
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