CONWAY, S.C. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team got off to a slow start in Friday's consolation game with Davidson and chased the rest of the day, ultimately falling short 72-60. With the loss, the Quakers (2-4) will play in the Myrtle Beach Invitational seventh-place game against Old Dominion on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
 
Notes
*Penn fell to 5-7 all-time in its series with Davidson and is now 0-2 against Atlantic 10 programs this year, the other loss coming last Friday at George Mason.
 
*For just the second time this year, Penn outrebounded its opponent (30-29).
 
*Sophomore Jordan Dingle once again led Penn in scoring, with 13 points including a team-high three three-pointers. He also had three assists.
 
*Senior Jelani Williams had his second double-figure scoring game of the season, getting 10 points. He also had three steals.
 
How It Happened
There are any number of reasons why Penn started slow on Friday. It's been a hectic ten days, with this being the sixth game in that time (with five of them away from home). It was the second game in 24 hours, with Thursday's game going double overtime. Heck, it could have been the fact that the Quakers sat there and watched as the team they lost to in 2OT yesterday, Utah State, beat the snot out of New Mexico State in Friday's noon game—NMSU had beaten Penn's Friday opponent, Davidson, by 11 the day before.
 
Whatever it was, Davidson got up early. Got up a lot. The Wildcats needed a little more than four minutes to score the game's first 11 points. That forced Penn head coach Steve Donahue to burn his first-half timeout before the first media timeout even came along, and at that point he changed all five guys on the floor.
 
The group got Penn on the board, but even then the Quakers were left wanting as George Smith was fouled while taking a three-pointer but made just one of the three foul shots. Davidson responded with five points over two possessions, the lead bulging to 16-1.
 
The Quakers cut into the lead at that point, Lucas Monroe and Nick Spinoso putting the next four points on the board, and from there the team whittled away at the margin. Dingle hit a pair of treys that started a 16-4 run that turned an 18-5 deficit into a one-point game, a Smith triple putting Penn within a possession.
 
Davidson answered, getting seven points over three straight possessions to expand the lead again, but Penn held the 'Cats scoreless for nearly five minutes while coming all the way back to tie things up at 29-29 when Williams stole the ball up top and went in for an uncontested dunk. The Wildcats got a three-pointer late in the period, though, and went into the locker room up 32-29.
 
Dingle opened the second-half scoring to make it 32-31, but that would be the closest Penn would get. Davidson's next three baskets came from long-distance, the third starting a 10-0 Wildcats run that expanded their lead to 48-36. Much as they tried, the Quakers could not come back this time—the closest they got the rest of the way was eight, at 52-44.