City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
--

The Penn Quakers took their second trip to the state of Florida and, this time, came back with a win, as they defeated Central Florida by a final of 58-49 in Orlando despite a dominant performance from 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall.

At First…
UCF opened up a quick 10-5 lead in the first five minutes, behind a couple of thundering dunks from Fall, college basketball’s tallest player, but the Quakers answered with a 10-0 run to hold their biggest lead of the first half at 15-10 just over five minutes in.

Penn didn’t trail again in the first half despite having their lead cut to as few as one and even tied it at 22 with just over a minute left. After a Matt Howard three-pointer to end the half, the Quakers entered the break up 28-24.

Turning Point…
Penn came out of the break on an 8-0 run to lead 36-24 just four minutes into the second half, capped off by a Sam Jones triple. UCF continued to fight, cutting the lead to as few as three with just seven minutes to go, but the Quakers continued to keep the Golden Knights at bay.

A clutch corner three by Matt Williams cut the Penn lead to 51-47 with 2:15 to go, but Penn quickly regained control and made the necessary foul shots to salt the game away, closing the night on a 7-2 run in the final two minutes  to walk out of Orlando with the victory.

Standout Stars…
Penn used a balanced scoring effort to defeat UCF, with three different double-digit scorers, Jones with 15 and Howard with 13, as well as standout freshman A.J. Brodeur.

Fall was absolutely unstoppable on the offensive end, but other than Fall and Williams, who both scored 17, the Golden Knights didn’t have much of an offensive threat. Fall also added 17 rebounds and shot a perfect 8-of-8 from the field.

Noteworthy Numbers…
86: After taking the lead early in the first half, Penn never trailed again, as the Quakers held a lead for 86 percent of the game. Their biggest lead was 12 points, which they held with about 16 minutes left in the game.

11: Penn rode a very hot shooting night to victory, as their eleven threes accounted for more than half of their points. Five of those triples came from Jones, who shot 5-of-10 from deep.

Up Next…
Penn (4-5) vs. Drexel -- Dec. 28 @ 4:00 PM
UCF (7-2) @ George Washington -- Dec. 15 @ 7:00 PM