CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – In a matchup of the two teams at the top of the Ivy League standings, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team fell to Harvard on Saturday, 76-67. The loss left the Quakers tied with the Crimson atop the Ivy standings, with both teams now at 7-1.
 
The loss snapped a five-game win streak for Penn, which fell to 17-7 overall, while Harvard improved to 12-11 overall.
 
Notes
*Penn lost for the first time this season when placing four players in double figures in the scoring column; previously the Quakers were 5-0 in such games.
 
*Harvard matched an opponent season low with just six turnovers (also Saint Joseph's).
 
*Sophomore Ryan Betley ended up leading Penn with 16 points, and all of them came in the final 15:52 of game action. It was Betley's 11th straight game scoring in double figures.
 
*Sophomore AJ Brodeur finished the night with 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds.
 
*Senior Darnell Foreman scored 10 points—his third-straight game scoring in double digits—and tied his season high with seven assists.
 
*Junior Max Rothschild had 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field.
 
*Senior Matt MacDonald scored his first points since December 27 against Delaware State, and also had two rebounds and the Quakers' only blocked shot on Saturday.
 
How It Happened
A pair of offensive droughts proved costly in the first half on Saturday night. The first came with Penn leading, 11-9, as the Quakers went scoreless for more than three minutes which allowed Harvard to move ahead 15-11. The Red and Blue came back to tie it at 15-15, and then a Caleb Wood and-1 three-point play made it 19-18 Crimson out of the eight-minute timeout. That would be Penn's only field goal for 6:50 of game action, and Harvard took advantage en route to a 31-24 halftime lead.
 
Harvard then scored the first four points of nine of the first 11 points in the second half, and that gave the Crimson a 40-26 advantage. Penn used an 8-2 run, capped by an AJ Brodeur and-1 three-point play, to get back within eight points, but a Chris Lewis dunk sent Harvard on a 6-0 run to get the lead back up to 14, at 48-34.
 
The lead stayed in double digits for several minutes after that, until finally Ryan Betley hit a trey with 4:05 to play to make it 67-59. Harvard's Christian Juzang answered with his own trey, but then Darnell Foreman found Brodeur for a layup and followed a Harvard turnover with a bucket of his own to make the score 70-63 with 2:32 to play.
 
Harvard's next possession looked like it was going to be empty when Lewis' jumped at the elbow appeared to be blocked. The ball went behind Lewis to Seth Towns, who collected himself and drained a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock to up the Crimson's lead to 10. Penn's next possession was empty, as Caleb Wood and Betley missed three-pointers, and the Quakers never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
 
Up Next
Penn continues this five-game Ivy League road swing next Friday and Saturday. The Quakers are at Columbia on Friday at 7 p.m., and then at Cornell on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Both games will be the back ends of doubleheaders with the Penn women.