PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team starts the back half of the Ivy League schedule with what has traditionally been the hardest road trip of the Ancient Eight slate—the Empire State swing. The Quakers will travel to New York City on Friday to meet Columbia, then move across the state overnight for a Saturday evening tipoff with Cornell.
 
GAME 21 – PENN (8-12, 5-2 Ivy League) at COLUMBIA (4-14, 1-5)
Friday, Feb. 4, 2022 | 7 p.m.
Levien Gym | New York City
Watch Live on ESPN+ | Listen Live (QAN) | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes | Columbia Game Notes
Current Columbia Spectator Policies
 
GAME 22 – PENN at CORNELL (11-6, 3-3)
Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022 | 6 p.m.
Newman Arena | Ithaca, N.Y.
Watch Live on ESPN+ | Listen Live (QAN) | Live Stats
Cornell Game Notes
Current Cornell Spectator Policies
 
Quaker Audio Network (QAN)
Again this season, Penn fans can listen to most of Penn's men's basketball games through the Quaker Audio Network, a free Internet-based audio streaming service. Matt Leon will be on the play-by-play call for this weekend's games, with former director of operations Brad Fadem offering analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Columbia-Cornell Road Weekend
• Penn has made this swing through the Empire State 61 times previously. The Quakers have swept the trip 24 times, split it 27 times, and been swept 10 times (most recently in 2008-09).
 
• The Quakers have swept this trip three of the last four times they made it. That includes sweeps each of the last two times they started the trip on Friday in New York City and then traveled out to Ithaca for Saturday's game. In 2020 the Quakers won at Columbia, 76-67, then won the next night at Cornell, 79-73.
 
The Series with Columbia
• The Quakers own a 145-93 record over the Lions. That said, Columbia's 93 wins are second among Ivy programs against Penn; only Princeton has more, with 118.
 
• Penn had won six of eight meetings entering the 2021-22 season, but Columbia struck first this season with a 73-69 win at The Palestra on January 8.
 
• In that win, the Lions' Ike Nweke scored 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds while his frontcourt mate Patrick Harding snared a staggering 21 boards. Cameron Shockley-Okeke had 19 points for Columbia. Penn was led by Max Martz and George Smith, who had 14 points each, while Clark Slajchert scored 11.
 
• Penn swept the 2019-20 series, taking a 76-67 decision in New York City and closing out the campaign with an 85-65 romp at The Palestra.
 
The Series with Cornell
• The Quakers have a 160-75 lead over the Big Red and have dominated the series the last several years, winning four in a row and 17 of the last 19 meetings.
 
• Penn won the first meeting this season, taking a 79-65 decision at The Palestra on January 7. The teams were tied, 56-56, before the Quakers scored seven straight and the Big Red couldn't recover. Clark Slajchert led Penn with 19 points, while Jordan Dingle had 17. Michael Moshkovitz (13 points/8 rebounds) and Lucas Monroe (10 points/9 rebounds) both flirted with double-doubles.
 
• Penn swept the series in 2019-20 with a 79-73 victory in Ithaca on February 9 and a 78-64 win on the final weekend of the season at The Palestra.
 
Dingle Earns Second Straight Big 5 Weekly Honor
Sophomore guard Jordan Dingle was named the Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Week for the second straight week after his 31-point game at Harvard last Friday.
 
Penn MBB By The Numbers
0 • Games lost by Penn this season when giving up fewer than 70 points (6-0 in such games).
 
1 • Penn player who has started every game this season: fifth-year senior co-captain Jelani Williams; quite a feat, considering that when Williams started the season opener at Florida State it was his first game in 1,789 days, dating back to his senior year at Sidwell Friends when he tore an ACL prior to Christmas.
 
3 • 30-point games this season by sophomore Jordan Dingle (31 each against Utah State, Yale and Harvard); the last Penn player with three such games in the same season was Bruce Lefkowitz in 1986-87.
 
4 • Penn players who have at least one 20-point game this season: Dingle, senior Michael Wang, sophomore Clark Slajchert, and freshman George Smith.
 
6 • Consecutive double-figure scoring games by Slajchert entering the weekend (12.3 ppg), the longest current streak by a Penn player.
 
6 • Different players who have led Penn in scoring over the last eight games: Williams; junior Jonah Charles; sophomores Slajchert and Max Martz; freshman Smith; and Dingle (who led Penn in scoring in 10 of its first 12 games to start the season).
 
6.6 • Points-per-game difference between Ivy League games (9.1) and non-conference games (2.5) for junior Michael Moshkovitz.
 
6.9 • Points-per-game difference between Ivy League games (9.7) and non-conference games (2.8) for Smith; he has hit double figures four times in the last seven games, with another nine-point game in that span.
 
7 • Consecutive games in which Penn has used the same starting lineup entering the weekend, after using 12 different players as starters over the first 13 games of the season.
 
9 • Rebounds by Moshkovitz in each of Penn's last two games, a season/career high for the junior transfer.
 
10 • Penn players who have at least one double-figure scoring game this season entering the weekend.
 
12.4 • Martz's points-per-game average over the last five games; the sophomore is shooting 67.6 percent from the field during that stretch (23-34) and has hit six of his nine three-point shots over Penn's last four contests.
 
13 • Combined total of three-point baskets made by Penn over its last two games (3 at Princeton, 5 vs. Yale, 5 at Harvard); in fact, the Quakers—who had 14 at La Salle on December 11—have hit eight or fewer treys in seven straight games since facing the Explorers.
 
15 • Penn's 19-player roster features players from 12 different states, the District of Columbia, and two foreign countries (China and Israel).
 
19.3 • Dingle's overall points-per-game average entering the weekend, second among Ivy League players behind Yale's Azar Swain (19.4); Dingle has hit double figures in 16 of 19 games this season and nine points in each of the other three.
 
47 • Years since a Penn player had back-to-back 30-point games, as Dingle has done the last two weekends against Yale and Harvard (making him the first player in program history with consecutive 30-point games in Ivy play); Keven McDonald scored 35 points vs. Tennessee and 32 one day later vs. Ohio State at the 1975 Sugar Bowl Classic.
 
45 • Three-point baskets by Charles so far this season, against just five two-point baskets.
 
85.0 • Penn's free-throw percentage in each of its last two games (17-20 in both).
 
93.3 • Dingle's free-throw percentage in Ivy League play (28-30), tops among Ivy players.