City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For one game, at least, Penn showed how good Steve Donahue’s offense can look when the shots are dropping.

The first-year head coach loves to utilize the 3-point shot but has a roster that’s not too terrific in that regard, as the Quakers entered their game against Binghamton on Saturday afternoon making just 27.7 percent of their long-range attempts, a number that put them 343rd out of 351 Division I programs.

But against the Bearcats, Penn was able to drop a dozen triples in one of their best shooting performances of the season, helping them to an easy 80-45 win to kick off the new year on the right foot.

“I thought it was a great defensive effort in particular, and our defense has been very good for a long stretch now,” Donahue said. “If we can get our confidence consistent on the offensive end, which I think there’s been great growth in that, I think we’re a pretty good basketball team.”

The Quakers didn’t even need usual starting center and leading scorer Darien Nelson-Henry (12.9 ppg, 9.1 rpg), who came off the bench due to a violation of team rules and only scored six points and grabbed four rebounds in 13 minutes of action. In fact, the Quakers’ top three scorers--Nelson-Henry, nor sophomores Sam Jones (12.0 ppg) nor Antonio Woods (10.9 ppg)--only combined for 17 points.

Junior guard Matt Howard led the way with a 23-point performance that tied a career mark set last month against Ursinus, dropping five 3-pointers on just seven attempts as he shot 8-of-11 overall.

It’s the first win over a Division I opponent for the Quakers (6-7) since they beat La Salle on Nov. 25, which put their record at 4-1 before only a Dec. 19 win over Division III Ursinus broke up a six-game losing streak against the likes of Temple, Drexel and Villanova from Nov. 29 to Dec. 28.

And poor shooting was a common culprit: against Villanova, they were 7-of-32 (21.9 percent) from 3-point range. Against Drexel, 3-of-18 (16.7 percent). Five-of-20 (25.0 percent) against George Mason. That's a problem for a program who takes just over 43 percent of its shot attempts from beyond the arc, putting them in the top 30 in the country according to basketball stat guru Ken Pomeroy.

In fact, the 12-for-32 (37.5 percent) the Quakers made against the Bearcats was their second-best of the season after going 10-of-26 (38.5 percent) in their season opener against Robert Morris.

“I really helps with our confidence to know that we can come out here and put on a performance like that, both offensively and defensively,” Howard said. “We know what we can really do now, and it’s starting to show on the court.”

Now Penn will need to show it can shoot this way on a consistent basis, which will require players like Howard--who entered the game making only 25 percent (12-of-48) from long range--to make opposing defenders respect their ability to hurt them from beyond the arc.

Prior to the Binghamton game, only two players on Penn’s roster, Jones (35.6 percent) and freshman Jackson Donahue (32.4 percent) were above the team average. Though Jones went 1-of-5 against Binghamton, Donahue was 4-of-9 and fellow freshman Jake Silpe was 1-of-2 to spread things around.

Donahue finished with 18 points, tying a career high he set the game before against Villanova. After scoring a total of 18 points in the first 11 games of the season, he’s now got 36 in the team’s last two.

“Jackson’s brought a lot to our team the last two games,” Steve Donahue (no relation) said. “I think these guys feed off him, he makes quick decisions and he can make shots, so that loosens everybody up, that loosens the defense up physically and it gets guys like Matt even more open.”

Having Howard, Silpe (2-of-19 before Binghamton) and Woods (25.5 percent) making improvements on their season numbers over the closing months of the season would make a huge difference. This isn't a team that's suddenly going to make 40 percent of its 3-pointers--Donahue's recruiting players like Downingtown West's Ryan Betley and Northfield Mt. Hermon's A.J. Brodeur for next year will help them moving forward--but this current group should be able to do better than 30 percent.

“It makes us really tough to guard, if all of us are clicking on all cylinders like that,” Howard said. “We’re going to get a lot of drives and kick-outs and get the defense moving if they’re closing out on us hard and we’re just getting by them, getting to the rim, finding each other.”

Another option who seems to be emerging from the Penn bench is a third freshman, Tyler Hamilton. The Atlanta native only played eight total minutes in four appearances over the first 12 games, but was the first guard off the bench on Saturday, playing a career-high 16 minutes, scoring five points on 2-of-8 shooting (1-of-5 3PT) with two rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Steve Donahue has preached all season long that he’s still learning about his personnel and isn’t hesitant to change things up based on practice performance, and Hamilton’s sudden emergence plays right in line with that.

“Tyler’s done an excellent job in the month and a half where he’s come maturity wise to now,” Donahue said. “He deserves to get a shot and that’s what I do, I reward guys that come every day and practice and make plays in practice.”

The win was the program’s first by 30 points or more since a 78-47 win against Dartmouth on February 4, 2011. It came against a Binghamton squad that’s been one of the worst in the country offensively (60.7 ppg, 344th) due to season-ending injuries to two starting guards and several reserves; the Bearcats start a freshman, three sophomore and a junior and four of their six top reserves are also college rookies.