PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team lost another Big 5 game in overtime on Saturday, falling to La Salle (and old friend Fran Dunphy) 84-81 at The Palestra.
Junior
Jordan Dingle, who scored 37 points in Saturday's game, sent the game to OT with a three-pointer at the buzzer. However, the Quakers fell behind by as many as six points in the extra session and never held a lead in the period. Dingle was fouled with 1.5 seconds left and had two foul shots with Penn down by four. He made the first and purposely missed the second, but the Explorers' Josh Nickelberry secured the rebound and the clock ran out.
Penn is now 5-6 overall, 0-2 in Big 5 play. La Salle improved to 4-4 overall and is 1-1 in the city series.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn played Saturday's game without its second-leading scorer, Clark
Slajchert, and
Max Lorca-Lloyd. Both were held out after suffering injuries in Wednesday's OT loss to Saint Joseph's.
*Penn hit 10 three-pointers, reaching double figures in that category for the fourth time in five games and fifth time this season.
*Dingle's 37-point game was not just a career high for him; it was the most points by a Penn player since Matt Maloney dropped 37 against American University on January 13, 1993.
*This was Dingle's first 30-point game this season but the seventh such game of his career; he is tied for fourth all-time in career 30-point games with Stan Pawlak, behind only Ernie Beck (13) and Keven McDonald (8).
*Dingle is the second Penn player to reach the 30-point mark in a game this season (Slajchert scored 33 last Saturday vs. Colgate); the last time the Quakers had two different players record 30-point games in the same season was 2017-18 (Ryan Betley, AJ Brodeur).
*Dingle has reached 20 points in eight straight games—scoring exactly 200 points in that stretch, a 25.0 ppg average—which is the longest streak by a Penn player since Tony Price also had eight such games near the end of the 1978-79 season.
*Sophomore
Nick Spinoso was the only other Penn player to score in double figures, with 11 points; he also had six rebounds and four assists.
*Junior
Max Martz scored nine points; his sixth game reaching at least that mark (including four double-figure scoring games).
*Senior
Lucas Monroe tied Spinoso for team-high honors on the boards, with six, and added four points and four assists.
*Freshman
Cam Thrower entered the game with just two appearance and four points; he played 18 minutes and had six points and three rebounds.
*Sophomore
Reese McMullen matched his season/career high with six points, going 2-of-3 on three-point shots.
*La Salle was led by a pair of unlikely sources. Jhamir Brickus entered Saturday's game averaging 4.1 points; he had 25 including a 6-of-8 performance beyond the arc. Anwar Gill entered the contest averaging 6.9 ppg; he scored 26 and added six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Fousseyni Drame added 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists, while Rokas Jocius finished with nine points and a game-high eight boards.
How It Happened
For the second time in as many Big 5 games this week, Penn jumped out to a great start but was unable to sustain the momentum. On Saturday, the Quakers broke a 3-3 tie with six straight points and eventually stretched that lead to 10, at 18-8, on a McMullen trey.
It was still 25-16 with six minutes left in the half when La Salle used a 9-2 run to get within a basket at 27-25. Penn staved off the comeback the rest of the half, however, and took a 35-32 lead into the locker room.
The hosts then scored six of the first eight points in the second half, going up 41-34, and extending it to 48-39 when Dingle nailed a triple with 15:38 left. The Explorers weren't done, though, and instead used a seven-point run to turn a 52-45 game into a tie at 52-all. Martz ended the run with a baby hook in the paint, then a pair of Dingle free throws made it 56-52. However, La Salle replied with another seven-point streak, a Brickus and-one bucket putting the Explorers in front 57-56 with 7:07 left. It was their first lead since 3-2.
La Salle held that lead for a little over three minutes, when a Dingle trey off a Monroe feed tied the game at 63-63 with 3:32 left. The Explorers came right down and Brickus drained a stepback three, only to be matched by Dingle again to get things to 66-66.
A pair of Gill foul shots put La Salle in front with 1:41 to play, then the Explorers got the ball back after Spinoso missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 1:18 left. Gill missed a three, the rebound went out of bounds off Penn, but the Quakers dug in and forced a La Salle shot-clock violation. Dingle missed his three-point attempt to give Penn the lead, and the Red and Blue immediately fouled Gill when he grabbed the rebound.
Gill made the first but missed the second; however, the rebound ended in a jump ball with the possession arrow pointing in La Salle's direction. Penn immediately fouled Brickus on the inbounds, and the Explorers guard missed the front end of his 1-and-1. Spinoso got the board and Penn had life.
The Quakers came down with the ball in Dingle's hands. He zigged, he zagged, he spun around. At the last second he stepped to his left, losing his defender, and hoisted a three-pointer that found nothing but net as the final buzzer sounded. It was on to overtime.
Gill and Spinoso traded buckets to start the extra session, then a Gill triple was followed by a pair of Dingle foul shots. The next sequence proved critical, however, La Salle scoring and then taking advantage of a Penn turnover to score another bucket. That gave the Explorers a 78-73 lead, their largest of the day. Martz got one of those points back at the charity stripe, but La Salle came up with still another basket (the Explorers were 6-of-7 from the field in OT) to extend its lead to six at 80-74 as the clock went inside two minutes.
A Martz trey missed but the rebound bounced out to Dingle behind the arc, and he coolly drained his three-point attempt. Brickus matched it at the other end, only for Dingle to hit yet another trey (his sixth of the day) to make the score 83-80 as the clock went inside a minute.
Brickus was called for a travel with 37 seconds left, giving Penn the ball with a chance to get within one or tie. After a timeout, the Quakers worked the ball around, and with the shot clock about to go off Thrower was forced to take a contested trey that front-rimmed. Gill got the rebound and was immediately fouled. He made the first but missed the second, and when Dingle drove the floor to get to the hoop he was fouled by Brickus with 1.5 seconds left. Dingle's first free throw was good, giving Penn the slightest hope, but they were dashed by Nickelberry rebounding the Dingle's purposeful miss.
Up Next
Penn continues Big 5 play on Wednesday night, making the short trip out to the Main Line to face Villanova. Tipoff with the Wildcats is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.
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