City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) &
Jeff Griffith (@jeff_griffith21)
--

The biggest reason for Penn’s improvement from last season to this one has been obvious -- the arrival of first-year forward A.J. Brodeur.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Quakers showed that their freshman crop can go a little deeper than just one man.

With fellow rookies Ryan Betley and Devon Goodman earning their first career starts, the freshman trio combined for 30 points as Penn won the “Battle of 33rd St.,” downing neighbor Drexel 75-67 in the annual battle between the West Philadelphia institutions.

Though Brodeur had been the team’s leading scorer through its first nine games, neither Betley nor Goodman -- both local products, out of Downingtown West and Germantown Academy respectively -- had seen much action. Betley missed all nine with a broken bone in his hand, while Goodman had played a total of 15 minutes spread out over six appearances.

But a few days beforehand, Donahue moved both onto the first team in practice.

“Everything I do is performance-based, who deserves it, who plays at practice,” Donahue said. “I think both of them are kids that have come along the last six weeks, two months and really established themselves consistently in practice.”

The starting nods weren’t just for decoration, either: Betley, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard, played 26 minutes, scoring eight points and grabbing seven rebounds. Goodman, a 5-10 point guard, had three points and three assists in 18 minutes of work.

“It was a great feeling,” Betley said. “There’s nothing better than playing here, representing my school, starting a basketball game.”

Betley and Goodman had a connection prior to arriving on their college campus. They spent the previous few summers playing together on the AAU circuit for Team Philly, where they were able to develop chemistry that has carried right over.

“Me and Dev are boys, I mean it’s nothing more than that,” Betley said. “We love playing together, played together on Team Philly for two years, so we’re familiar paying with each other and I think it helps out on the court, being in the backcourt together.”

Brodeur, averaging a team-best 13.9 ppg along with 6.1 rpg entering play on Wednesday, was his usual solid self against Drexel. The 6-8, 225-pound forward finished with a game-high 19 points to pace the Quakers (5-5), along with six rebounds, a block and a steal.

(Read More: Coaching bond strenghtens rivalry)

But he’s just one part of Donahue’s first true recruiting class -- last year’s freshmen were mostly recruited by former head coach Jerome Allen -- and it’s a group that the second-year head coach will need to lean on heavily as he continues to bring the Quakers back from the bottom of the Ivy League.

Getting more than one freshman in the mix right away will pay dividends later, but Donahue can use production from the two immediately.

“I like a lot of things but I don’t think we’re good enough offensively, in particular, to win this league. I want to win the league,” Donahue said. “And that’s kind of what I said to the guys before this break, we have to get better...I’m going to try some things, stick with me, let’s all do it together and see how good we can become.”

To beat Drexel (6-7), Penn got a significant boost in the second half from Darnell Foreman. The junior guard out of Pitman (N.J.) had 10 of his 12 after halftime, tying his season high in scoring.

The 6-1 guard, known more for his defensive and distribution abilities than his bucket-getting, had a key 3-pointer and layup as part of a 13-3 run that put the Quakers up 13 with just over five minutes to play.

Following the timeout, Drexel redshirt junior Miles Overton decided to make things close down the stretch. A three by him also capped off a 15-4 Drexel run that allowed the Dragons to get back into the game.

Overton, who led his team with a career-high 19 points, drilled a three-pointer to make it 69-67 with under two minutes to play, but the Quakers made six foul shots in the remainder of the half to seal the deal.

“I thought we were able to maybe defend the 3-point line a little better,” Drexel head coach Zach Spiker said in regards to what aided the comeback. “I don’t know if the looks they had were as clean as they had in the first half. Some of them were, they just missed shots, so we can’t take all the credit for adjustment, sometimes guys just miss shots. I thought we played with some energy there. A couple buckets gave us some momentum, and we were able to do it.”

Moving forward both teams are set to start conference play, with Drexel starting their CAA slate at James Madison.

Penn, one more non-conference tilt against Fairfield on December 30 before its Ivy League opener against Princeton on January 7.

And for the Quakers, their head coach sees the potential for a solid Ivy League run on the horizon.

“I don’t think we’re there, yet.” Donahue said. “But we have Princeton in 10 days. And then Yale, and Brown soon after that. I love where our defense is at, I love our toughness, I love our grittiness. I think we’re all-in.

“Now I’ve got to get better execution on the offensive end, a little more flow to our game, a little more confidence on that side of the ball,” he added. “I think we’re still -- I don’t want to steal Sam Hinkie’s line -- in the process of building this program back to where I think it could be.”