HANOVER, N.H. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team arrived in New Hampshire with an extremely short bench, and the lack of depth showed on Saturday as the Quakers chased Dartmouth all afternoon but could not catch the Big Green and fell, 84-70.
 
Playing without the Ivy League's leading scorer, Jordan Dingle, and still missing senior co-captain Jelani Williams, Penn rolled out its 12th different starting lineup on Saturday.
 
Penn fell to 12-14 overall and 9-4 in Ivy League play, thought the Quakers' flagging title hopes were bolstered by Yale's 71-65 loss at Cornell this afternoon. Dartmouth improved to 8-16 overall and kept their Ivy League Tournament hopes alive at 5-8 in Ivy play.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*When Penn lined up against Florida State in its season opener on November 10, the Quakers' starting lineup featured Jonah Charles, Jordan Dingle, Jelani Williams, Max Lorca-Lloyd and Michael Wang. From that group, only Charles suited up on Saturday, and he came off the bench.
 
*Clark Slajchert made just his second start this year and ended up playing nearly 38 minutes before fouling out. He led the Quakers with 18 points.
 
*Charles had his best scoring game in league play this season, scoring 14 points; 12 of them came in the game's final 3:27, on four three-pointers.
 
*The other double-figure scorer on Saturday? Senior Bryce Washington, who played more than 25 minutes and scored 13 points; he entered the day having played 30 minutes and scored eight points for the season.
 
*Junior Michael Moshkovitz led Penn with eight rebounds and four assists, and also scored seven points.
 
*Sophomore Max Martz had his double-figure scoring streak snapped at six games, as he finished with nine points.
 
*Junior co-captain Lucas Monroe led Penn with three steals, scored seven points, and grabbed six boards.
 
*Dartmouth was led by Aaryn Rai, who on his senior day scored a career-high 27 points and pulled down 11 rebounds. Taurus Samuels added 15 as five Big Green players reached double figures in the scoring column.
 
How It Happened
With only 11 players dressed—three of them having totaled 55 minutes of game action this season—Penn knew that it was facing an uphill battle on Saturday. That mountain got a bit higher when Nick Spinoso went down with an injury before halftime and didn't return. Add in that it was Senior Day for an extremely veteran Dartmouth lineup, and the Big Green needed a win to keep its Ivy Madness hopes alive, and you had a recipe for disaster.
 
While it wasn't quite that, it proved to be insurmountable.
 
An early 6-0 run gave Penn a 9-7 lead at the first media timeout, and the Quakers were still in front 15-14 at the second media. However, out of that break Dartmouth scored seven in a row to take a 21-15 lead, and the Big Green never relinquished the advantage.
 
It was 30-24 when a pair of Andrew Laczkowski made free throws (taken for the injured Spinoso) were followed by five straight points from Washington, two on a driving layup and the others on a three-ball. That got Penn within a point, at 32-31, but Brendan Barry (14 points) dropped a pair of treys on consecutive possessions to push the Big Green's lead to seven. It was still three at halftime, 38-35.
 
Rai opened the second-half scoring with a three—the start of what would be a 17-point half for him—but Slajchert matched it and then Moshkovitz converted to make the score 41-40. Rai and Slajchert traded buckets and it was 45-42 at the first media timeout. The Big Green reeled off eight of the next 10 points out of the break, though, and when Samuels knocked down a trey to make the score 53-44 Penn was forced to take a timeout.
 
Martz and Washington scored the game's next five points, getting Penn within 53-49, but the Quakers went scoreless over the next 4:22 of game time and Dartmouth used the drought to extend its lead to nine. Monroe stopped the skid with a free throw and that was followed by a patented Slajchert floater, but a Barry three started a run that pushed the Big Green's advantage to a double-digit margin for the first time all day at 62-52.
 
Free throws by Washington and Monroe got Penn as close as six, but the Big Green scored the game's next five points and then answered a Charles triple with seven more. The 12-3 run made the score 74-59 with 1:44 left and put this one to bed.
 
Up Next
Penn is at home next Saturday to complete the regular season, hosting archrival Princeton at 6 p.m. Prior to tipoff, the Quakers will honor their outgoing seniors in a pregame ceremony.