PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team ended the weekend on an up note, defeating Monmouth, 76-61, to close out play at the Cathedral of College Basketball Classic Sunday afternoon.
 
Penn went 2-1 on the weekend and is now 5-3 overall, while Monmouth lost for the first time this weekend and fell to 4-3.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Senior Clark Slajchert and freshman Tyler Perkins were named to the all-tournament team; they were joined by Monmouth's Xander Rice, Belmont's Cade Tyson, and Lafayette's Devin Hines.
 
*Penn committed just eight turnovers in the game; the Quakers entered the weekend averaging 16.0 turnovers per game but had just 25 across the three games (8.3).
 
*Penn had 18 assists, a season high against a Division 1 opponent; the Quakers had a 1.92 assist/turnover ratio on the weekend (48/25).
 
*Penn tied a season high with 12 three-point baskets—the Quakers also hit 12 in the opener against D3 John Jay—and shot 48 percent from beyond the arc (12-25).
 
*Penn shot exactly 50 percent from the field (30-60), the third time this season the Quakers have gone 50 percent or better.
 
*Penn's leading scorer on Sunday was freshman Sam Brown, with 16 points (14 of them coming in the first half). He also had six rebounds.
 
*Perkins ended the day with 15 points and led all players with seven rebounds. He also had two assists.
 
*Slajchert finished the day with nine points, giving him 48 for the weekend. He also had 11 rebounds and 18 assists across the three games.
 
*Junior George Smith and freshman Augustus Gerhart both had 10 points on Sunday. Smith also had two rebounds, four assists and two steals while Gerhart finished with three boards.
 
*Junior Nick Spinoso finished the day with seven points and six rebounds, and led all players with six assists.
 
*Freshman Niklas Polonowski saw some significant minutes in the first half and had five points in a row early in his stint.
 
*Monmouth got 16 points from Jaret Valencia and 12 from Jack Collins. The Quakers did an excellent job containing Rice, who had just five points and five assists on the day.
 
How It Happened
This game was tied early, 8-8, before a Rice bucket was followed by a pair of Jakari Spence baskets, one of those from distance. It was a 9-2 run and Monmouth had a 17-10 lead.
 
The Hawks' lead was 19-13 when Penn went to work. A Polonowski backdoor feed from Spinoso was the start of a 7-0 run, one that ended on a Brown and-1 hoop and harm that put Penn in front, 20-19. An Abdi Bashir bucket for the Hawks was then answered by a Brown trey, a Spinoso hook shot, and a Perkins triple. Overall, it was a 15-2 run—13 of the points coming from freshmen—and Penn's lead was 28-21.
 
The Quakers expanded their lead to 12 by halftime, 39-27, then Spinoso and Perkins opened the second-half scoring to push Penn up, 43-27. Valencia opened Monmouth's scoring on a putback dunk, but another trey by Perkins and a Brown putback made it 48-29 and forced a Hawks timeout. On the other side of the stoppage, a Smith trey got the Red and Blue's lead to 20, 51-31.
 
It was 53-33 when Monmouth finally got things going with a 19-6 run. A Collins trey got the Hawks within 11, and after a Spinoso free throw Valencia took a feed from Rice and threw it down. Penn then missed a pair of foul shots and Rice drained a triple. Suddenly, this was a seven-point game with eight minutes still to go (59-52).
 
Slajchert answered with a three of his own, then Collins and Laczkowski traded baskets to 64-54. Monmouth got within seven one more time, at 66-59, but Slajchert hit another big three and it was the start of a game-clinching 8-0 run, the senior completing his trio of treys after two Perkins foul shots. That made the score 74-59 with three minutes to play, and Monmouth had nothing left in the tank.
 
Up Next
Penn is back in action next Saturday, participating in the inaugural Big 5 Classic at the Wells Fargo Center. The Quakers' opponent and game time will not be set until the conclusion of the Saint Joseph's-Villanova game on Wednesday night on the Main Line, but game times for Saturday are 2 p.m. (fifth-place game), 4:45 p.m. (third-place game), and 7:30 p.m. (championship).
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.