PHILADELPHIA – On Saturday night, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team played just the second four-overtime game in program history. The first? That took place way back on March 13, 1920, when the Quakers knocked off archrival Princeton by the score of 26-23 (you read that right). Seventeen days later, Penn defeated the University of Chicago 23-21 to earn the national championship for that year.
 
No one is necessarily making plans for San Antonio and the Final Four just yet, of course, but the visiting locker room was certainly a fun place to be after the game was over. That's because Penn won Saturday's war of attrition over Monmouth, 101-96, at the Hawks' OceanFirst Bank Center.
 
Penn, which was playing its fourth game in six days, improved to 5-3 overall and won for the fifth time in the last six games. Monmouth fell to 2-4.
 
Up Next
Penn will play Big 5 rival Villanova on Wednesday night at the Wildcats' Jake Nevin Fieldhouse. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip and it will air live on FOX Sports 2.
 
Notes
*Prior to Saturday, Penn had played just one four-overtime game (mentioned above) and just three other games that went triple overtime. The most recent of those had been January 23, 1980, a 60-56 loss to Big 5 rival Saint Joseph's.
 
*This marks the first season in program history (dating back to 1897) that Penn has played two multi-overtime games; the Quakers lost to La Salle in two overtimes on November 13.
 
*This was Penn's first overtime win since February 18, 2012; the Quakers had lost seven OT games since then.
 
*Penn scored 101 points, its first triple-digit game since a 105-73 win over Lafayette on January 16, 2006.
 
*Penn had 56 rebounds in the game, a high in the Steve Donahue coaching era.
 
*A total of 79 fouls were called in the game, and the teams combined to take 101 foul shots. Penn was just 30-of-50 at the stripe, but Monmouth was even worse (24 of 51). In the OT periods, the Quakers were 12 of 18, while the Hawks were just 8 of 19 (including misses on all six of their free throws in the final minute of the fourth OT).
 
*Sophomore Ryan Betley played 55 minutes in Saturday's game and finished with 26 points, two shy of his career high. He knocked down a pair of treys in the third overtime and had seven points in that period, and finished with six three-pointers in the game which tied his career best.
 
*Junior Antonio Woods took over point guard duties through much of the overtime periods and finished the night with 23 points which is a career high. He also had five rebounds, tying a career best.
 
*Freshman Eddie Scott ended up playing 36 minutes and finished with his first collegiate double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds). The 13 boards are the high by a Penn player this season.
 
*Junior Max Rothschild finished Saturday's game with 11 points and seven boards in 32 minutes, many of them with four fouls.
 
*Penn won despite playing the final 27 minutes without sophomore AJ Brodeur and the final 22 minutes without Darnell Foreman, as both fouled out in regulation. They entered the game as the Quakers' second and third-leading scorers.
 
How It Happened
It looked like Penn might have a fairly easy night of it in the first half, as the Quakers used a 12-1 run late in the period to break a tie game. By halftime, it was 45-31. As dominant as Penn was offensively in the first half, however, they were just that cold in the second. The lead was still 54-39 when Betley hit a three-pointer with 14:45 to play; amazingly, the Red and Blue would score just two more field goals the rest of the half, one when Woods laid it in to break a drought of 9:40 and the other when the Quakers were down 62-61 and just seconds remained. A Max Rothschild miss was tipped a few times and went through the basket, the score awarded to Scott. Monmouth missed a chance to take the lead, and Rothschild was fouled when he grabbed the board. He made one of his two free throws, and then Austin Tilghman scored at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
 
As it turned out, things were just warming up.
 
Penn had a three-point lead in the first OT period after a trey by Woods and a foul shot by Betley, but George Papas hit a three for the Hawks and then Zac Tillman scored to give MU a 71-69 lead inside a minute. Woods was fouled with 35.9 left and hit both foul shots to tie the game, and then Tilghman missed in the lane. Scott got the rebound, and rather than call a timeout Penn drove down the court as the seconds ticked away. Devon Goodman got an open look from the right wing, but his shot was off the mark as the clock expired.
 
The second extra session was highlighted by a pair of Scott dunks. The first came with just under three minutes left in the period, when he drove the lane and absolutely smashed the ball through the rim while being fouled. The second one was far more important, as it came on a putback of a missed Betley trey just ahead of the buzzer and tied the score at 78-78. Papas had a decent look for the win at the other end but missed, and it was off to the third overtime.
 
Betley had seven points in the third OT, and he sandwiched a pair of three-point baskets around a Monmouth bucket to give Penn an 88-84 lead. It stayed that way until less than 20 seconds remained, when Papas—who had scored an absolutely ridiculous reverse layup earlier in the period—hit a jumper. Monmouth immediately fouled Betley on the ensuing inbounds, and with a chance to ice the game the sophomore missed the first but made the second. That left Monmouth a chance to tie, and the Hawks took advantage as Tilghman drilled it from well beyond the arc, the ball swishing through the net with 0.6 left on the clock.
 
Monmouth used that momentum to score the first five points in the fourth OT period, then matched Rothschild's bucket with two more points with more than 3:30 left. As it turned out, those would be the Hawks' final points of the night. Woods made it 96-93 with a layup, and then Scott scored after a missed trey by Papas. Tilghman was next to miss from deep, and Woods again drove the lane converted an and-1 layup, hitting the foul shot to make the score 98-96 with just over 30 seconds left.
 
Monmouth was able to get to the line quickly, drawing a Penn foul, but Mustapha Traore missed both free throws. Amazingly, another foul was called on the Quakers during the rebound of Traore's second miss, and Ray Salnave was put on the line. He missed both of his foul shots, though, and this time Rothschild snared the board and got the ball to Woods who was fouled. Woods hit the first but missed the second, keeping Monmouth within a possession at 99-96. Tilghman got to the line, but he missed both, and Betley rebounded the second miss and was fouled. He made both. Ballgame.
 
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