PHILADELPHIA – Playing the nightcap of the first true Big 5 doubleheader at The Palestra in six years, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team led Saint Joseph's by as many as 14 points in the second half Wednesday night but lost control of the lead in the closing minutes of regulation and ended up taking an 85-80 overtime defeat.
 
The loss snaps the Quakers' four-game win streak and extends their losing streak against the Hawks to three in a row dating back to the 2019-20 season. Penn is now 5-5 on the season. Saint Joseph's improved to 3-3.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn lost for the second time this season when scoring 80 points; prior to this season, the Quakers were 29-4 in such games under head coach Steve Donahue.
 
*After hitting 33 three-point baskets at the Cathedral Classic last weekend, Penn hit nine more treys on Wednesday night; however, the Quakers shot just 33.3 from beyond the arc.
 
*Penn had 47 rebounds, a season high, and outboarded the Hawks by nine.
 
*Penn also matched its season high with 21 assists (on 27 baskets), set in its most recent game (Sunday vs. Delaware).
 
*Penn set season highs in free throws made (17) and taken (28), but on a night when the Quakers lost in overtime they shot a mere 60.7 percent at the line.
 
*Senior Lucas Monroe was a monster on Wednesday night, grabbing 16 rebounds which not only was a career high but matched the most by a Penn player in the Donahue era. (AJ Brodeur at Cornell, 2/1/19; Darien Nelson-Henry vs. Cornell, 2/13/16).
 
*Monroe also scored seven points, blocked a career-high three shots, and set a season best with two steals.
 
*Sophomore Nick Spinoso seriously flirted with a triple-double on Wednesday, scoring eight points, grabbing nine rebounds, and dishing out 11 assists.
 
*The 11 assists were the most by a Penn player in the Donahue era; the last player to record 11 assists in a game was Antonio Woods, against Cornell on March 7, 2015.
 
*Spinoso's nine boards matched his season/career high, originally set last Tuesday at Lafayette.
 
*Junior Jordan Dingle led all scorers on the night with 28 points, his seventh straight game with 20 or more points (23.2 ppg during this stretch); the last Penn player to accomplish that feat was Tony Price, who had eight such games late in 1978-79.

*Dingle's double-figure scoring streak is now at 18 games dating back to last season.
 
*Junior Clark Slajchert finished the night with 18 points and went 9-of-9 at the foul line, tied for the best performance by a Penn player in the Donahue era (Dingle went 9-of-9 last year at Brown).
 
*Slajchert is now 26-of-27 at the foul line this season—his miss came against Hartford—and he has hit 13 in a row over the last three games.
 
*Sophomore Eddie Holland III was the other Penn player to reach double figures in the scoring column, with 10. That's a season/career high for him.

*Senior Jonah Charles knocked down a pair of three-pointers for six points and dished out a career-high three assists.

*Saint Joseph's was led by Erik Reynolds II, who scored 27 points. Kacper Klaczek was a problem all night, nailing four three-pointers and finishing with 19 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Lynn Greer III had 16 points, nine rebounds, four steals and three assists.
 
How It Happened
Though Saint Joseph's earned the first basket of the night just 21 seconds in, the Quakers took an early lead two minutes into the contest off back-to-back three-pointers from Clark Slajchert and Jordan Dingle. An evenly contested next couple minutes resulted in three straight buckets, giving Penn a 12-8 edge and a 6-0 run at the first media timeout of the half.
 
Staying hot, Dingle scored the Quakers' first two baskets coming out of the timeout, upping their run to 10-0. That run ballooned to 13-0 over nearly five minutes heading into the under-12 media timeout.
 
Jonahhol Charles became the fourth different Penn player to hit a three after getting one to fall from the left wing, extending the push to 16-0 over nearly six minutes, causing the Hawks to spend a timeout.
 
Ending the Quakers' largest scoring run of the game at 21-2, SJU picked up the pace a little bit heading into the under-eight media timeout, scoring its first points in over six minutes and getting back-to-back three-pointers on a 6-0 run to cut the Penn lead to 27-16. Michael Moshkovitz hit a triple from the top of the key to snap the Hawks' 10-0 run and go back ahead by 10 with a little over five minutes remaining, ending up leading 33-22 at the under-four despite Penn missing nine of its last 11 shots.
 
A combination of a slow start and 31 percent shooting from the field through the first 20 minutes, SJU still managed to out-play Penn over the last 10:24 with a 6-0 run in the final 1:16 to trail by seven at 36-29 heading into halftime. A big story of the first stanza was indeed the rebounding, in which Penn out-registered SJU, 21-13, including 7-2 in offensive boards. Lucas Monroe had 12 of the Quakers' 21 rebounds in the half with two for Moshkovitz off the bench.
 
The Quakers kicked off the second half quickly with a 6-0 run over nearly three minutes with two straight Dingle baskets, causing Saint Joseph's to spend a timeout. After SJU sunk a trey to come back within eight points, Charles answered right back with one of his own to up the lead back to 11 right before the first media break of the frame. Dingle recorded his second three-pointer of the night to expand the Quakers' advantage to 14 points with 15:02 to go, but a 6-0 SJU run got them right back within seven, forcing Penn head coach Steve Donahue to burn one of his second half timeouts.
 
The Hawks continued to claw away at the deficit, trimming the Penn lead to as little as three points with 8:34 to go, but Dingle drilled a triple —with a foul and a trip to the line— to put the Quakers back up by six points at 60-54 at the under-eight media timeout.
 
But that's when things started to shift in another direction, as SJU used a 7-0 run to take its first lead since the very beginning of the first half at 61-60. To the Quakers' credit, they hunkered down and kept cool to re-take the lead at 66-63 after Dingle found Monroe underneath for the layup, hanging on to the three-point cushion at the final media timeout of the second half.
 
A SJU triple tied the game back up at 69-69, eventually scoring another layup to go up 73-72. A costly Spinoso turnover with 46 seconds left forced the Quakers to foul with 16 seconds on the clock, resulting in one made from the line and a two-point advantage. Dingle drilled a clutch jumper from the elbow to tie the game back at 74-74 with six seconds left with SJU missing a shot at the buzzer to send the game to OT.
 
The overtime period was laden with turnovers from the jump, but Spinoso brought the energy back with his layup off two offensive boards, jumping ahead at 78-76. The Hawks answered with a Kacper Klaczek layup followed up by a Dingle dunk to re-take the lead at 80-78 with just over a minute remaining. SJU tied the game back up, 80-80, following a driving layup and then took the lead at 81-80 after Slajchert missed a three-pointer and Monroe immediately committed the foul on Cameron Brown, who drained one of two from the charity stripe to put the Hawks ahead, 81-80.
 
After again losing the lead, Charles missed a triple with 24 seconds remaining, bringing Brown back to the foul line, missing both shots. Ed Holland III turned the ball over with 10 seconds to play, sending Erik Reynolds II to take free throws, sinking a pair to take an 83-80 lead. SJU pulled out the 85-80 win after swishing two more foul shots following another Slajchert miss from beyond-the-arc.
 
Up Next
Penn continues Big 5 play on Saturday, hosting La Salle at The Palestra. The Quakers and Explorers will tip off at 2 p.m.