PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team will play three road games during the holiday season. The first of those takes place on Saturday, when the Quakers make the short trip North to face preseason MAAC favorite Rider at the gym known as "the Broncs Zoo."
 
GAME 13 – PENN (7-5) at RIDER (3-8)
Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023 | 1 p.m.
Alumni Gymnasium | Lawrenceville, N.J.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Listen Live on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Rider Game Notes (PDF)
 
Ivy League on ESPN+
A reminder that the Ivy League is paired with ESPN and you will be able to find all Penn home games, as well as road Ivy matches and select non-conference road games, on ESPN+ again this season with the same high broadcast quality you've come to expect. ESPN+ is a subscription-based service that offers monthly and yearly packages. Click here to subscribe to ESPN+!
 
Quaker Audio Network (QAN)
Penn fans can listen to most of the 2023-24 Penn's men's basketball season through the Quaker Audio Network, a free Internet-based audio streaming service. Matt Leon will be on the play-by-play call Saturday, with Brad Fadem providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
The Series with Rider
*The Quakers and the Broncs are meeting for just the sixth time in program history.
 
*Rider holds a 4-1 lead in the series, which began with a home-and-home in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons and continued with three more games from 2011-14.
 
*The first three games in the series needed overtime, Rider winning the first two and Penn the third. Since then, the Broncs hold an 89-88 victory in Lawrenceville (from December 29, 2013) and a 73-57 romp at The Palestra (on January 18, 2014).
 
*Rider was picked to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in 2023-24, with redshirt senior guard Mervin Adams selected as the MAAC's Preseason Player of the Year by the league's head coaches.
 
Road Trip!
Saturday's game marks the first of three in a row for the Quakers...
 
*Following this quick trip to Central Jersey, the team is off for Christmas before traveling to Houston for a December 30 meeting with the Cougars, ranked third in this week's AP poll.
 
*From there, Penn flies directly to Auburn to ring in the New Year with the Tigers on January 2. Auburn's coaching staff includes former Penn player and assistant coach Ira Bowman, the 1996 Ivy League Player of the Year.
 
Weekly Honors For Brown
*Freshman guard Sam Brown was named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week on Monday, his first honor of the season and the second by a Penn player in 2023-24. (Senior guard Clark Slajchert was named Player of the Week on December 4.)
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
2 - Non-conference opponents who are ranked in this week's Associated Press (AP) Top 25: Penn's next opponent, Houston, is third while Kentucky is ninth. The Quakers' January 2 opponent, Auburn, is second among teams receiving votes (so basically 27th).
 
2 - Penn players who have collected a double-double this season: freshman Tyler Perkins (24 pts/11 rbs vs. Bucknell) and junior Nick Spinoso (11 pts/11 rbs at UMES). Spinoso flirted with a triple-double against the Explorers with 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
 
2 - Games played by Penn prior to this season at what is now the Wells Fargo Center—a number the Quakers doubled over an eight-day span after playing La Salle as part of the Big 5 Classic on December 2 and Kentucky a week later. The Quakers split a pair of games with Villanova back when it was called the First Union Center, losing 80-51 on February 6, 2001 and winning 72-58 on December 10, 2003.
 
3 - Overtime games played by Penn already this season: at UMES, against Belmont in the Cathedral of College Basketball Classic, and the Big 5 Classic against La Salle.
 
4 - 20-point games racked up by Perkins already this season; the last freshman with that many games was Jordan Dingle, who had five in 2019-20.
 
6 - Games in which freshman Sam Brown has hit at least three 3-point shots; he has hit four three times (at UMES, vs. FDU-Florham, vs. Kentucky).
 
9 - Penn players with at least one double-figure scoring game this season.
 
11 - Double-figure scoring games by Slajchert this season; in the outlier game, a win over Monmouth on November 26, he was "held" to nine points (on a trio of treys).
 
21 - Three-point baskets made by Penn in it December 6 win over Division III FDU-Florham, a program record; the Quakers shot 21-34 (61.8 pct) beyond the arc, and nine different players hit treys in the game—one shy of the NCAA Division I record the Quakers set against Delaware State on December 27, 2017.
 
22.0 - Slajchert's points-per-game average over the last four games; over that span he has shot 63.6 percent (35-55), and perhaps more impressively over the last five contests he is 63.3 percent from 3-point land (19-30).
 
26 - Of senior Andrew Laczkowski's 38 rebounds this season, 26 (or 68.4 percent) of them have come on the offensive glass; perhaps not surprisingly, he is 25-29 (86.2 pct.) on 2-point FG.
 
30 - Of Penn's 39 first-half points in its win over Monmouth, 30 of them were scored by freshmen (14 by Brown, 6 by Augustus Gerhart, 5 each by Perkins and Niklas Polonowski).
 
46.2 - Penn's 3-point FG percentage over the last five games (66-143); the Quakers enter the weekend leading the Ivy League in overall 3FG percentage (40.3) and 3FG made per game (10.3).
 
58 - Rebounds snared by Spinoso over the last seven games against Division I opponents (8.3 rpg).
 
+82 - Penn's rebound advantage through 12 games this season (465-383); the Quakers—whose +6.8 margin leads the Ivy League—have outboarded nine opponents so far this season including a 52-22 (+30) advantage against Bucknell, their largest margin against a Division 1 opponent since going +37 in a win over Columbia on February 2, 1974 (65-28).
 
94 - Points scored by Brown through eight games; he missed Penn's first four contests due to injury but has started the last six games and is shooting 46.0 percent on 3FG to date (23-50).
 
108 - Points scored by Slajchert in the four games Penn has played away from The Palestra; he had 27 on November 10 at Saint Joseph's, 31 a week later at UMES, 33 on December 2 at the Wells Fargo Center against La Salle, and 18 a week later vs. Kentucky at WFC.