City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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With his leading scorer and most experienced ball-handler out with an injury, Penn coach Steve Donahue has been forced to turn the ball over to an all-freshman backcourt at the start of Ivy League play. As one might expect, he’s had mixed results. 

Such was the case yet again on Saturday, when Penn had a Jekyll-and-Hyde outing in a 70-61 loss to Harvard. 

The Quakers (9-9, 1-2 Ivy) were all over the place in the first half, falling behind by 21 against the Crimson (10-6, 1-2). They battled back in the second, getting within four points with 2:35 remaining, but the gap was too much to overcome, even with a loud Palestra crowd of nearly 5,000 strong urging them on down the stretch.

It was the second bad half in a row for Penn, which led Cornell by three at half on Monday but lost by 17, getting outscored 49-29 over the closing 20 minutes against the Big Red. 

“Obviously we came out very flat in the first half,” Donahue said. “Not sure exactly why; I think this group really wants to come out and deliver and they’ve done that most of the season. But it’s a league game against a team that needed a win, and (Harvard) took it to us.”

Harvard got 18 points from sophomore forward Chisom Okpara, plus 17 from junior Louis Lesmond and 16 from sensational freshman Malik Mack, whose quickness and shot-making ability gave Penn fits all night long. 

Penn was playing for the fourth game in a row without senior guard Clark Slajchert (17.4 ppg), who sprained his ankle on Dec. 30 and hasn’t suited up since. He was spotted taking some close-range, non-jumping warm-up shots before the teams took the court, but it doesn’t sound like his return is clearly imminent. 

“I don’t really know,” Donahue said. “I think he’s getting closer, but I don’t know to say whether he’s going to be back this week or not.”

The Penn freshman duo of Tyler Perkins and Sam Brown have both had strong freshman seasons overall, the two guards in position to be Donahue’s backcourt the next three seasons. They struggled shooting the ball against Harvard, combining for 18 points on 5-of-19 shooting (1-13 3PT), though they did only combine for one turnover in 53 minutes. 

Perkins and senior forward Nick Spinoso tied for the team lead with 12 points on a night where Penn was 20-of-56 (35.7%) overall and 6-of-29 (20.7%) from 3-point range. Harvard shot 11-of-27 (40.7%) from deep, including 9-of-18 (50%) in the first half.

“These are all new experiences, for Tyler and Sam in particular,” Donahue said. “We’ve been trying to navigate that as (Slajchert’s) been out, when it’s like this and it’s a league game and someone who’s been playing as well as he has been would have been very helpful. Look at it as a chance for these guys to really learn.”

Penn, which plays its next four on the road, gets back in action on Saturday at Columbia (9-7, 0-3). 

Around the rest of the Big 5 from an eventful Saturday:

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Drexel men run win streak to seven

It’s too soon to say whether or not something truly special is brewing in University City. 

Zach Spiker has gathered all the right ingredients, has all the necessary equipment to blend them together, and the expertise to assemble them into a noteworthy product. The first taste that emerged this season might not have been the intended one, but a few tweaks to the recipe — and a little bit of maturation — seemed to have done the trick.

“I think our guys kept working, maybe worked a little more,” the Drexel men’s coach said. “We may have tweaked a couple things, maybe a few more minutes here and there, put a guy in the lineup, but you’ve got to adjust — and the guys, to their credit, I thought have handled that really well.”

Oh yes, the Drexel men are on the verge of breaking through. And if they keep it up, there could be something truly delicious down the road.

Click here for Josh Verlin’s full story from Drexel

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Saint Joseph’s men win at buzzer

After a tough losing streak to begin A-10 play, the Hawks are starting to turn things around. 

Their second win in a row, 71-69 over Duquesne, was one they had to sweat out in a nip-and-tuck game, but it went St. Joe’s way at the end.

The Hawks (12-6, 2-3) called an isolation play for Lynn Greer III out of a timeout with less than 10 seconds left. Greer III settled for a contested pull-up jumper from the left-hand side of the lane, which fell short — but Brown was in perfect position to scoop up the miss and deposit it home with 0.3 seconds left on the clock.

Christ Essandoko led the way as the freshman forward had the best game of his debut season by just about any measure. He set new season highs in points (17), minutes (32), 3-pointers made (3) and attempted (4), shots made (7) and attempted (12), rebounds (12), and more as the 7-footer showed that he’s fully past a toe injury which nagged him the first two months of the season. 

Greer III added 12 points and six rebounds, while Erik Reynolds II and Rasheer Fleming scored 11 each for head coach Billy Lange in a game that featured eight ties and eight lead changes, the last of which came in the final three minutes; St. Joe’s scored six of the game’s last eight points.

The Hawks are back in action Tuesday at Massachusetts (12-6, 3-3).

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La Salle WBB stumbles against VCU

After having a three-game win streak halted by St. Joe’s on Monday, La Salle dropped its second straight on Saturday afternoon, falling 66-50 on the road at VCU.

The Explorers (6-12, 3-4 Atlantic 10) led the Rams (16-2,5-1) by four at halftime before being doomed by a 26-9 third quarter. It was a similar story to Monday’s loss against the Hawks when La Salle’s defense kept it tight in the first half before St. Joe’s broke out after the break.

VCU’s Timaya Lewis-Eutsey led all scorers with 22 points. Graduate guard Makayla Miller had another big game for La Salle. She scored a team-high 16 points and has now reached double figures in six straight games. Junior guard Tiara Bolden added 11 points off the bench.

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Penn WBB falls to .500 in Ivy

The Quakers fell out of the top four spots in the Ivy League with a 69-56 road loss to Harvard on Saturday afternoon. Freshman guard Mataya Gayle scored 19 points and added three assists, and senior Jordan Obi chipped in a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Crimson (10-7,3-1 Ivy).

Penn (10-, 2-2) trailed 28-24 at halftime and saw Harvard built its lead to six, 50-44, heading to the fourth quarter. The Crimson built their lead to double digits by the 6:44 mark in the fourth and led by as many as 15 in the final period. 

The Quakers are now two games behind first-place Princeton (4-0) in the Ivy standings and a game behind Columbia, Harvard and Brown, which are all tied for second place at 3-1.

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Temple can’t overcome deficit against Rice

The Owls are going through it in Adam Fisher’s first season. Temple fell to 8-11 (1-5 AAC) with its fourth consecutive defeat, losing 69-66 at home to Rice on Saturday. 

Rice led by as many as 16 late in the first half, though Temple came out of the break hot to cut the gap down to a point, then took the lead with 11:43 remaining. The teams went back-and-forth over the course of the second half, Rice breaking the last tie with 2:02 remaining. 

Trailing by one with 17 seconds left out of a timeout, Temple got a good look at a 3-pointer from Steve Settle III but didn’t get it to go down. Hysier Miller led the Owls with 24 points on 9-12 shooting; Settle added 15 and Jordan Riley 12 for Temple, which hosts South Florida (10-5, 3-1) on Wednesday.