NEW YORK CITY – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team used fast starts in each half to cruise past Columbia, 81-66, Friday night at the Lions' Levien Gymnasium. With the win, the Quakers avenged a loss to the Lions from a month ago and split the season series.
 
Penn has now won three in a row and four of its last five, improving to 9-12 and 6-2 in the Ivy League; Columbia fell to 4-15, 1-6 in Ivy play.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn improved to 8-0 this season when leading at the half and 7-0 when holding its opponent under 70 points.

*Penn scored 46 points in the second half on Friday, its highest-scoring half this season, and reached 80 points for just the second time this season (85 vs. Lafayette on November 16).
 
*Penn tied a season high with 19 assists (also November 21 vs. Old Dominion) and had just nine turnovers, a 2.11 assist/turnover ratio.
 
*Penn tied a season high with 34 made field goals (also November 16 vs. Lafayette) and went 29-47 on two-point shots in the game (18-26 in the second half).
 
*After being outrebounded 48-31 by Columbia in the first meeting on January 8, Penn outboarded the Lions on Friday, 47-42; the 47 boards were a team high for the season.
 
*Sophomore Andrew Laczkowski was the revelation on Friday night; playing just 13 minutes, he scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds.
 
*Sophomore Jordan Dingle led Penn in scoring for the third straight game, but after back-to-back 31-point games he was "held" to 23 on Friday night.
 
*Dingle contributed in other ways, as well, tying a season high with five assists and grabbing five rebounds.
 
*Sophomore Max Martz set a new season high in points for the second straight game on Friday, scoring 16. He also had six rebounds.
 
*Junior Michael Moshkovitz stuffed the stat sheet again on Friday with six points, 13 rebounds (a season/career high), five assists and two steals.
 
*Freshman George Smith came off the bench for the first time in eight games but played nearly 20 minutes, scored seven points and set a season/career high with four steals.
 
*Sophomore Clark Slajchert had his streak of double-figure scoring games end at six as he finished with eight points.

*Junior Jonah Charles grabbed eight rebounds on Friday, a season/career high.
 
*Columbia was led by Geronimo Rubio de la Rosa (21 points) and Cameron Shockley-Okeke (20), while Patrick Harding finished with 11 rebounds which gave him 32 in two games against the Quakers this season.
 
How It Happened
Penn may have been guilty of looking past Columbia on January 8, losing to the Lions by four at The Palestra. If there was any concern it might happen Friday night, they were quickly put to rest. The Quakers converted four of their first six field goals to build up an 11-2 lead, forcing a Columbia timeout, then hit the next two shots out of the break for a 16-4 advantage. Dingle in particular continued his hot play, scoring 11 of the 16.
 
It got to 19-4 before Columbia settled down and began to fight back. Penn stagnated on offense late in the half and Shockley-Okeke scored five in a row to get the Lions within one at 28-27. However, Penn held its hosts scoreless the rest of the period and got buckets from Dingle and Slajchert and a trey from Laczkowski for a 35-27 halftime lead.
 
The second half started much like the first, Penn bursting from the starting line. Martz hit a layup almost as soon as Penn inbounded to start the period, then Dingle knocked down a three-pointer to make the score 40-27. Columbia got a triple from Rubio de la Rosa to end the Quakers' 12-point run (a season best), but Dingle scored the game's next four points, the latter on a drive and dunk in traffic for a 44-30 lead. That forced a Lions timeout.
 
There would be no recovery this time around. Columbia never got the margin into single digits the rest of the way, getting as close as 11 just twice. Penn's lead crested at 22 (77-55 with 3:34 left) for one of the more comfortable wins the Quakers have had in the Big Apple in a long time.
 
Up Next
Penn continues this Ivy weekend road trip with a game at Cornell tomorrow night at 6 p.m. The Big Red knocked Princeton from first place in the Ivy standings on Friday night with an 88-83 win over the Tigers in Ithaca.