City of Basketball Love

Aron Minkoff (@AronMinkoff)
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The Penn Quakers overcame an exceptionally poor first half shooting display and rallied in the second half and defeated the Central Connecticut Blue Devils 77-61.

At First...
Penn struggled mightily to find its 3-point shot, shooting 3-15 in the first half from that range. The Quakers who essentially live and die by the 3-point shot, could not get into their rhythm, with their poor shooting from behind the arc being the culprit.

Turning Point...
Whatever Steve Donahue said at half time must have really connected with the Penn players, as they came out firing in the second half, connecting on a couple of early shots to really set the tone for the half. The Quakers shot 3-for-5 from behind the 3-point line in the first five minutes of the second half and really took control of the game.

Once Penn started to hit their shots, CCSU could not find an answer to the Penn system that included a 15-2 run after trailing 36-34 in the second half.

Shining Stars...
For a second consecutive game, sophomore Sam Jones led Penn in scoring. Jones who recorded 21 points in the Quakers opening victory over Robert Morris, tallied 23 points on Sunday. Jones was absolutely on fire in the second half, really taking charge of the Penn offense as they erupted to the 16-point victory.

Noteworthy Numbers...
Through two games, the Quakers have shot a combined 19-52 (.365) from behind the 3-point line. This just will not get the job done as they get into the meat of their schedule. The offense has the potential to flow nicely and the Quakers were getting open shots, they just were not connecting in the early going.

Up Next...
Penn (2-0) at Delaware State (0-1) (Nov. 17, Dover, De.)
Central Connecticut State (0-2) at Boston College (1-0) (Nov. 19, Chestnut Hill, Mass.)