PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team jumped out to an early lead and never let up Saturday against Harvard, taking an 83-68 decision from the Crimson Saturday afternoon at The Palestra.
 
Penn snapped a three-game losing streak in Ivy League play and improved to 3-4 in the League. The Quakers also got to .500 overall at 11-11. Harvard is also 3-4 in league play after today, 12-9 overall.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn has now won three in a row over Harvard, its longest streak against the Crimson since sweeping the 2007 series and winning the first meeting in 2008.
 
*Penn improved to 10-0 this season when holding its opponent below 70 points, and 8-0 when hitting more three-pointers than its opponent (Penn 11, Harvard 9).
 
*Penn's 11 treys marked the third straight game the Quakers reached double figures in that category and the tenth time this season.
 
*Penn's 50 first-half points were a season high, and the Quakers' 15-point halftime lead was its biggest this season.
 
*Penn committed just nine turnovers, the fourth time in the last five games the Quakers have been in single digits in that category (after doing so just four times in their first 17 games).

*Penn had four double-figure scorers on Saturday, the first time that has happened against a Division 1 opponent this season.
 
*Junior Jordan Dingle led all scorers with 27 points, giving him 91 across his last three games against Harvard.
 
*Dingle extended his double-figure scoring streak to 29 games and has reached 20 points in 17 of his last 18 appearances.
 
*Junior Max Martz scored 16 points—giving him 33 this week—and knocked down four more three-pointers after hitting five on Monday at Hartford; 14 of his points came in the first half.
 
*Sophomore George Smith scored 14 points, a season high.
 
*Smith also set a career high with a trio of treys and matched his career best with a team-leading five assists.
 
*Sophomore Nick Spinoso reached double figures for the fourth straight game in Ivy play, with 12 points, and added six rebounds and a career-high three steals.
 
*Senior Lucas Monroe tied for game-high honors with 10 rebounds, his third time this season hitting double figures in that category.
 
*Junior Andrew Laczkowski matched his season/career high with two assists and added four rebounds.
 
*Harvard was led by Chris Ledlum, who scored 21 points. Evan Nelson scored 15 points, Idan Tretout added 12, and Sam Silverstein tied Monroe for game-high honors with 10 rebounds.
 
How It Happened
Penn got a pair of Dingle buckets early—one inside the arc, one outside—to take a 7-2 lead. The Quakers never gave it up.
 
Harvard got as close as three shortly afterward, at 13-10, but a Smith trey set the Red and Blue on a 9-0 run that pushed the margin into double digits. The Crimson got it back into single digits a few times after that, but buckets by three different players spurred an 8-0 Penn run that doubled its lead from eight to 16. It crested at 17 before settling on 15 at the half, 50-35.
 
A Spinoso bucket opened the second half and made the lead 17 again, but Harvard scored nine of the next 12 points to get within 11 at 55-44 with 15:38 left. However, Penn locked down on defense at that point, holding the Crimson to just one field goal over the next 6:46 and expanding the lead to 63-48 on a Max Lorca-Lloyd free throw. Just seconds later, the senior center took a nice wraparound feed from Smith and threw down a dunk, giving Penn its largest lead of the day at 66-48 with 8:08 still left.
 
It was still an 18-point game with less than five minutes left when Harvard made things a little dicey. The Crimson got a three-pointer from Tretout and then an old-fashioned three-point play from Ledlum, the six-point run drawing Harvard within 12 at 75-63. But Penn was patient on offense, the result being a Spinoso bucket as the clock went under three minutes. Harvard matched Spinoso's conversion with a pair of Tretout foul shots, then bettered a pair of Monroe free throws with an Evan Nelson trey. That made the score 79-68 with 1:26 left.
 
That would be it for Harvard, however, and Monroe and Martz were able to salt away the win at the charity stripe.
 
Up Next
Penn is back at home again next weekend, hosting Columbia and Cornell in a true Ivy League weekend. The Quakers and Lions will tip off at 7 p.m. on Friday, and then Penn will host the Big Red on Saturday at 6 p.m.