PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team concluded play at the Cathedral Classic Presented by the Sheraton University City Hotel on Sunday and won the de facto tournament championship. With a 2-0 record on the weekend, and facing a Delaware squad that also was 2-0, the Quakers rallied in the second half to defeat the Blue Hens, 86-73.
So Penn ends the Cathedral Classic with a 3-0 record while Delaware finished 2-1. In the day's first game, Colgate rolled past Hartford to finish 1-2 on the weekend while the Hawks went winless at 0-3.
Overall, the win was Penn's fourth in a row—all of them over the last six days—and the Quakers are now 5-4. Delaware fell to 3-3 with the loss.
Quaker Notemeal
*The win gave head coach
Steve Donahue 100 at Penn and 300 as a college head coach.
*Juniors
Jordan Dingle and
Clark Slajchert were named to the all-tournament team along with Delaware's Jameer Nelson, Jr.; Colgate's Tucker Richardson; and Hartford's Briggs McClain.
*Penn's 86 points were a season high (previous high 85 on November 11 at Missouri).
*Penn shot 56.9 percent from the field on Sunday, 58.6 percent over the last two days (65-111), and 54.4 percent for the weekend (92-169).
*Penn had 21 assists on 33 baskets, setting season highs in both categories for the second day in a row, and had a single-digit turnover total for the second time this season (9).
*Penn knocked down 10 three-pointers, its third straight game reaching double digits in that category; the Quakers had 33 treys on the weekend and shot 47.8 percent from the beyond the arc (33-69).
*Slajchert scored 26 points on Sunday, giving him 59 over the last two games and 70 in Cathedral Classic play.
*Slajchert has hit double figures in the scoring column in three straight games and seven of the last eight, reaching 20 points in five of them.
*Slajchert also had three steals for the second straight game, after entering the weekend with a season/career high of two.
*Dingle scored 22 points, giving him 68 in the tournament.
*He has scored at least 20 points in each of Penn's last six games; the last Penn player to accomplish that feat is Tony Price, who had eight such games in a row late in the 1978-79 season.
*Dingle also tied his season highs in rebounds (4) and assists (4).
*Sophomore
Nick Spinoso set career highs in points (18) and assists (9) and also grabbed six rebounds.
*Spinoso has 17 assists over Penn's last two games.
*Senior
Lucas Monroe scored a season-high eight points, matched his career best with five assists, and led Penn with nine rebounds.
*Junior
Max Martz had his four-game streak of double-figure scoring games snapped, as he finished with nine points.
*Delaware was led by Jameer Nelson, Jr. who finished with 30 points and five assists. Jyare Davis scored 18 points, LJ Owens added 12, and former La Salle Explorer Christian Ray led all players with 15 rebounds.
How It Happened
The game started fast, both teams red hot early on as the teams combined for 20 points before the first media timeout. Delaware cooled off after that, however, going nearly five minutes without a point and the Quakers took advantage with an 8-0 run to go up, 17-11.
Nelson and Owens spurred a Blue Hens run that put the visitors back in front, 24-23, midway through the half and the teams went back and forth the rest of the half with five more lead changes. However, Penn took a 42-39 lead to the locker room thanks to Dingle scoring the final five points in the period.
Penn quickly expanded its lead to eight to start the second half, Martz hitting a backdoor feed from Monroe and Slajchert draining a trey. That made it a 10-0 run bridging the halves and forced a Delaware timeout. The stoppage settled the Hens, who scored seven of the next 10 points in the game to get back within four at 50-46. Slajchert slowed the run with a jumper in the lane, but the Hens responded with the next four points and were within one at the first media timeout, 52-51.
Delaware picked up where it left off, Davis getting an and-1 layup and converting the free throw out of the break to put the Hens in front, 54-52. That lead eventually expanded to 59-54, making it a 20-7 run, at which point Penn came alive with 12 straight points (eventually 16-1) that was spurred by Monroe and Spinoso and pushed the Red and Blue in front by double digits, 70-60.
Delaware got no closer than eight points after that, and the Quakers sealed the deal when Martz and Dingle hit back-to-back treys (Dingle also being fouled on his make for the rare four-point play) to turn a nine-point lead into an 82-66 advantage with four minutes to play.
Up Next
Penn is back at The Palestra on Wednesday night, opening Big 5 play with Saint Joseph's. That game is the second half of a single-admission Big 5 doubleheader, as La Salle and Temple tip things off at 6 p.m.
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