City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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In the first-ever Ivy League men’s basketball tournament semifinal, Princeton didn’t lead Penn for the entirety of regulation, but an extra five minutes brought the Tigers into the Ivy championship after an 72-64 overtime win at the Palestra.

At First…
With three freshmen in the starting lineup, Penn didn’t looked intimidated at all in its first postseason game of any type since two games in the lowly College Basketball Invitational back in 2012. The Quakers never trailed in the opening 20 minutes, getting a dozen points from rookie Ryan Betley to take a 33-30 advantage midway through, making exactly half of their shots (14-28) before intermission while forcing eight Tiger turnovers. The lead reached as many as nine on a Betley 3-pointer with 6:09 until the break before Princeton was able to narrow the gap heading into the locker rooms.

Myles Stephens opened the second half with a layup to pull Princeton within a point before Penn scored the next seven, opening up a 10-point advantage for the first time on a Betley offensive rebound and layup with just under 16 minutes remaining. Princeton started to figure out how to stop the Penn offense at that point, holding the Quakers to one basket over a six-minute span to climb back to even on an Amir Bell 3-pointer with 8:18 remaining. But Penn didn’t fold, coming up with a stop every time Princeton had a chance to go ahead while getting just enough scoring to stay even.

Turning Point…
The Quakers took a four-point advantage with 3:13 left on a pair of Betley foul shots, and the freshman had a chance to put his team up seven on the following possession, but his 3-pointer from straightaway went in-and-out. Devin Cannady proceeded to hit four FTs over the next 70 seconds to tie it at 57-57 with 1:45 to play. Penn took the lead on a Matt Howard runner with 40 seconds left, but after a defensive stop, Howard missed the front end of a 1&1, allowing Stephens to tie it up on a put-back with six seconds left and send it to overtime.

Stephens was the difference-maker in the extra session. The 6-4 sophomore guard scored on Princeton’s first two possessions of overtime, the first of which gave the Tigers their first lead of the game. Penn couldn’t score on its first five overtime possessions, and an Amir Bell layup with under two minutes left made it a seven-point game to put things out of reach.

Standout Stars…
Stephens took over in the second half and OT, finishing with 14 of his game-high 21 points after halftime; he also chipped in 10 rebounds and a pair of assists. Bell, a junior guard from East Brunswick (N.J.) has enjoyed playing against Penn in his three years of college hoops, dropping his career high (28) against the Quakers last January. This time around, he went for 16 points on 6-of-9 from the floor.

Betley, who had a total of 15 points in Penn’s first two matchups against Princeton this season, dropped 18 points this time around on 7-of-11 shooting. The Downingtown West product also collected 12 rebounds for his first collegiate double-double. Also finishing with a double-double was his classmate, all-Ivy Second Team selection A.J. Brodeur, who had 10 points and 11 rebounds.

In his final game in a Penn uniform, Howard contributed 17 points and seven rebounds.

Noteworthy Number(s)…
.278: A normally-confident 3-point shooting Princeton squad (.384 on the season) struggled from beyond the arc against Penn, going 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) in the win. The Quakers weren't much better at 8-of-26 (30.8 percent).

Up Next…
Penn (13-15): N/A
Princeton (22-6): vs. Yale/Harvard -- Sunday, March 12, 12 PM