City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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Penn’s schedule was incredibly sporadic in the weeks leading up to the traditional Ivy League slate.

The Quakers played just six games in seven weeks from Dec. 10 to Jan. 28, going 2-4 in that stretch. But finally the team is settling into the Ivy’s rhythm of two games per weekend from late January until early March.

With it, coach Steve Donahue is expecting better play for his team, which is still looking for its first win in conference play. The Quakers will have two solid opportunities this weekend as they host Dartmouth (6 p.m. Friday) and Harvard (7 p.m. Saturday) at the Palestra.

“I thought the second half at Brown, I felt we were really playing, finally,” Donahue said ahead of Wednesday’s practice. “It does feel more normal now. I think you’ll see better basketball particularly this weekend because we have two games under our belt opposed to six games in 47 days.”

Penn came close to that first Ivy win in its last game, falling 89-83 at Brown last Saturday. The Quakers shot 50.8 percent from the floor against the Bears, but faltered in the final three minutes after taking an 81-80.

Donahue said Penn could have been better defensively last Saturday, but added he’s seen a lot of growth from his team. And part of that is just due to being on the court more lately.

Matt Howard was Penn’s leading scorer both against Brown and in the Quakers’ 81-58 loss at Yale the night before. Howard is Penn’s leading scorer with 12.1 points per game, but stepped up his offensive game recently.

He averaged 16 points per game in Penn’s five January games, shooting a combined 62.8 percent from the field in that stretch. The 6-foot-4 junior guard is also the team’s second-leading rebounder with 5.5 per game and he grabbed 10 in a double-double performance against St. Joseph’s on Jan. 20.

Howard’s presence has been needed by the Quakers, who lost  Antonio Woods and his 10.1 ppg in early January after he was ruled ineligible. In addition, Darien Nelson-Henry – who is second on the team with 11.5 ppg -- has been battling an ankle injury and did not play against Brown after logging only three minutes against Yale.

“I thought he played really well against St. Joe’s,” Donahue said of Howard. “I was impressed with not just his offensive game, but he was great on the boards, great defensively, making good decisions. He’s making shot now, so his body language to me is different. He’s acting like a leader. When Darien went down, Antonio is no longer here and Matt has made great strides.”

As of Wednesday, the status of Nelson-Henry for the weekend’s games was uncertain, according to Donahue. With or without him, though, Penn will have a decent shot at its first win since Jan. 2 as both Dartmouth and Harvard enter at 1-3 in the league.

Dartmouth (71.3 ppg), Penn (68.0) and Harvard (66.9) make up the three lowest scoring offenses in the conference, so the games might be decided by who can grind out a low-scoring win. If the Quakers do, it will be Donahue’s first Ivy League win since Cornell beat Yale on March 6, 2010.

Regardless, the coach is happy to be back in the league and back in its flow.

 “I actually love this part,” Donahue said. “It’s almost like a football mentality. Play on the weekend, take a deep breath on Sunday and go hard Monday. You start putting together gameplans for the weekend, so you can go out and recruit. I’m watching film at Starbucks for two hours. It’s nice because you can plan for the weekend and not worry about a game on Wednesday.”