PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team moved to the top of the Ivy League standings on Saturday night with a 74-71 win over Harvard at The Palestra. With the win, the Quakers improved to 11-1 in Ivy play while the Crimson fell to 10-2.
 
Both Penn and Harvard have already clinched bids into the Ivy League Tournament, which will take place March 10-11 at The Palestra. Before that, the teams still have two regular-season games left in conference action, as Penn travels to Yale—which became the third team into the Tournament field with a win at Columbia on Saturday night—and Brown next Friday and Saturday while Harvard hosts Cornell and then Columbia.
 
Penn also clinched a 7-0 record at home against Ivy League competition this season, the Quakers' 24th undefeated home campaign against the Ancient Eight but their first since 2006-07.
 
Notes
*The win was head coach Steve Donahue's 100th Ivy League win (78 at Cornell, 22 at Penn); he is just the seventh coach in Ivy history to reach 100 conference wins, and he is the first to do it across two different schools. Ironically, the person he beat on Saturday, Tommy Amaker, was the most recent coach to reach 100 Ivy wins prior to Coach Donahue; he has 104 at Harvard.

*For the seventh-straight time in the Penn-Harvard series, dating back to the 2014-15 season, the home team won.
 
*Penn has won four in a row, nine of its last ten, 12 of 14, 16 of 19, and is 21-5 since dropping its first two games this season.
 
*Penn finished the regular season with an 11-3 record overall in The Palestra, and improved to 11-2 when wearing its blue uniforms this year.
 
*Penn is now 14-0 this season when making as many or more foul shots than its opponent (Penn 15, Harvard 11), and 15-0 when taking as many or more free throws (Penn 22, Harvard 14)
 
*Penn is 3-0 this season in games decided by three points, and 6-1 in games decided by five points or less.
 
*Penn is 19-1 this season when shooting a better field-goal percentage than its opponent (Penn 51.0, Harvard 47.2).
 
*Penn is 19-2 when leading or tied at the half this season, and 39-6 in such games in the Steve Donahue coaching era.
 
*For the second-straight night, and the seventh time this season, Penn took more three-point field goals (26) than two-point field goals (25).
 
*For the eighth time this season, Penn had a single-digit turnover total (8); it was the fewest committed by the Quakers since they had just six against Toledo on December 29.
 
*Sophomore AJ Brodeur had his third double-double this season, and the sixth of his career, with 17 points (14 of them in the second half) and 12 rebounds (one shy of his career high). Penn is undefeated when Brodeur has a double-double in his career.
 
*Brodeur also had four steals, a career high, and dished off four assists without a turnover.
 
*Brodeur had another stellar night on two-point shots, going 7-of-10. In Ivy play this season, Brodeur is 73-of-136 (53.7 percent).
 
*One day after going scoreless but grabbing a career-high 11 rebounds, senior Darnell Foreman scored 14 points without snaring a board. He also had five assists.
 
*Sophomore Ryan Betley, who relinquished his normal starting role in deference to Senior Night, came off the bench and scored 13 first-half points en route to 16 for the night.
 
*Senior Caleb Wood scored 10 points, his fourth-straight game in double digits and his 13th such game this season.
 
*Junior Antonio Woods scored four points and grabbed eight rebounds, one board shy of his career best.
 
*Sophomore Devon Goodman had eight points on Saturday, giving him 44 points in the last four games after he scored a combined 35 in Penn's first 24 contests.
 
How It Happened
It was a game, and an atmosphere, fitting of the two teams that have simply blown away the rest of the field and were playing for the top spot in the Ivy League standings.
 
In front of a raucous crowd of 6,586 Penn and Harvard played a game that saw 10 ties and 20 lead changes—10 in each half—and no leads larger than seven on either side. If you were looking for an Ivy Tourney primer, this was it.
 
Prior to the game, Penn honored its five outgoing seniors. Four of them then started the game—Dan Dwyer could not dress, for obvious reasons—and Sam Jones immediately made his presence felt with the opening basket of the game, a three-pointer. From there, Harvard went on an 11-3 run, but Ryan Betley hit a trio of treys in less than four minutes to keep the Quakers hanging around. The Crimson had a five-point lead late in the half, but a pair of Darnell Foreman layups and a Devon Goodman lay-in pushed the Quakers back in front, 31-30. It was 35-35 at the half.
 
The second half? More of the same. Harvard scored seven of the first eight points in the period to go up 42-36 (the Crimson's largest lead all night), but Penn roared back to tie it at 42-42. From the 16:42 mark, when Foreman hit a layup to tie it, the teams went nearly 12 minutes without a lead of more than three points—and that happened once, when Harvard's Danilo Djuricic broke a 44-44 tie with a three-pointer that AJ Brodeur quickly followed with a jumper.
 
Down, 58-57, Penn used a 6-0 run and took a lead it wouldn't relinquish. Brodeur started it with a layup, made a steal, added two foul shots, and then another Crimson turnover led to a pair of free throws that Foreman converted. That made the score 63-58. Seth Towns (game-high 22 points) got two of them back with a jumper with 4:25 to play, and then the teams went 95 dramatic seconds without a point as the tension mounted. Brodeur finally ended the skid with a pair of hook shots on consecutive looks to push the Quakers up to their biggest lead of the night, 67-60, with 2:13 left. The Palestra was in delirium at that point
 
Harvard kept it interesting. Towns made it 67-62 with 1:41 to play, then hit a trey with 50 seconds left to make it a one-possession game at 67-65. However, Caleb Wood brought the house down when he took a gorgeous feed from Foreman and knocked down a dagger trey with 29 seconds left. Harvard missed a three and Antonio Woods rebounded. He was fouled and hit one of his foul shots for a 71-65 lead.
 
Harvard traded a pair of three-pointers around two Betley free throws, and then Betley hit one of two with less than three seconds remaining. However, Harvard could only muster a desperation heave that was not close as the clock expired.
 
Up Next
Penn will close out the regular season on the road next Friday and Saturday, starting at Yale on Friday at 7 p.m. and concluding with Brown on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Bulldogs clinched a spot in the Ivy League Tournament on Saturday night, while the Bears are one of four teams still mathematically alive for the fourth and final spot heading into the final weekend.
 

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