Game 18- Harvard: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

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Last night's game against Harvard was absolutely an instant classic. It's pretty difficult to summarize all the ups and downs, but here goes:

The Good: I could go with anything from Zack Rosen's clutch play down the stretch to the incredibly electric atmosphere in the Palestra, but I've got to make this one about the whole Penn team's true grit in the comeback and overtimes. They were down 18 with 15:43 left, but they weren't out. They did what they needed to do, clamping down on 'D' and repeatedly hitting huge shots - from three-pointers near the end of regulation to Rosen's first-OT buzzer-beater. The Quakers' amazing effort made this game one of the most exciting sporting events I've ever attended and easily made it the signature game of the season so far, despite the loss. Jerome Allen has said time and again that he doesn't believe in moral victories, but last night even he couldn't deny that his players "showed great character."

The Bad: To be frank, the only real bad I can see in this game was the fact that Penn lost. Sure I could point to their 41.7% shooting (or the 34.8% from three), but it's hard to harp on that when they still managed to push the game to double-overtime. After all the heart and energy the Quakers poured on the Palestra hardwood, the disappointing loss was incredibly hard to swallow for players and fans alike. As Rosen said, "A loss is a loss. What we wanted out of the game was a win, and what we got out of the game was a loss. So I think on the whole, we did not get what we wanted."

The Ugly: This one is probably the easiest to call, because the officiating was consistently questionable. First there was the one-and-one for Christian Webster that became two shots for Brandyn Curry. Then there was the near foul call against Penn on Curry's last-second tip-in attempt in regulation, which would have given him two shots to win the game. And finally there was the jump ball call late in the second overtime that cost Penn a crucial possession. Nobody would blame the game on the refs, of course, and the bad calls seemed to go both ways (just as Penn fans protested the possibility of game-ending free throws in regulation, Crimson fans could question whether Rosen's buzzer beater in the first overtime was released in time). So maybe it didn't impact the final result, but the officiating certainly was the ugliest part of this Ivy League classic.