PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team was able to hold off a pesky Columbia squad Friday night at The Palestra, ultimately pulling out a 74-65 decision.
The Quakers led by as many as 18 points in the second half, but the Lions whittled away at the lead and got as close as five before Penn was able to close things out.
Penn won its third straight game and improved to 12-11 overall; the Quakers also got to .500 in Ivy League play, at 4-4. Columbia fell to 6-17 overall, 1-7 in Ivy play.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn improved to 11-0 this season when holding an opponent below 70 points.
*Penn set season highs in free throws made (22) and taken (31); the 22 made free throws were most by the Quakers since they hit 25 at New Mexico on December 22, 2018.
*Penn outrebounded Columbia, 45-29; the +16 margin was the Quakers' largest this season.
*After going 15-of-23 from three-point land last month in New York City, the Quakers took just 15 treys Friday night—fourth fewest in a game this season—and made only four of them.
*Junior
Jordan Dingle once again led the way, scoring 25 points (17 of them coming in the second half). It was his fifth straight 20-point game and his 18th in his last 19 appearances.
*Dingle's 18 20-point games this season is tied for third-most in program history with Ron Haigler, who accomplished the feat in 1974-75. Ernie Beck had 25 such games in 1952-53, while Stan Pawlak had 19 such games in 1965-66.
*Dingle has 39 20-point games in his career, fourth all-time behind Beck (54), Keven McDonald (43), and Pawlak (42).
*Dingle's double-figure scoring streak is now at 30 games, the sixth-longest streak in program history; AJ Brodeur is fifth, with 34 such games in a row.
*Dingle is now 16th on Penn's all-time scoring list with 1,380 points; Bob Morse (1970-72) is 15th with 1,381 points and Miles Cartwright (2011-14) is 14th with 1,401 points.
*Sophomore
George Smith was the other Penn player with a double-figure scoring total (14 points), matching the season high he set last weekend vs. Harvard.
*Senior
Lucas Monroe stuffed the box score with five points, seven rebounds—which tied for game-high honors—two assists and three blocked shots (which tied his season/career high).
*Sophomore
Nick Spinoso also had seven rebounds to go with six points, an assist and a steal.
*Columbia was led by Zavian McLean (19 points) and Avery Brown (18). Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa finished the night with seven points, a team-high seven rebounds, five assists and two steals.
How It Happened
Penn had won the first meeting between these teams by 29 points, and it looked like the Quakers might cruise to another win for about 30 minutes on Friday night.
Down early, 4-2, Penn ripped off eight straight points, and then when Columbia got back within one (10-9) the Quakers used another seven-point run for a 17-9 lead. It was a two-point game with just under four minutes left in the first half, 25-23, but Penn scored the next 10 points to blow its lead out to double digits. It was 38-27 at the break.
Columbia briefly moved the margin to single digits early in the second half, at 42-33, but a pair of
Max Martz buckets on back-to-back possessions sent Penn on an 11-2 run that put the Quakers' advantage at 18 (53-35) with 13:15 to play.
Columbia cut the deficit to 12 as the second half passed its midpoint, but Penn held the margin at double digits for several minutes after that. It was still 13 points, at 60-47, when Smith hit both sides of a 1-and-1 with 7:15 to play.
Both teams went cold after that, the only point over the next two minutes coming from a Zine Eddine Bedri free throw. As the clock went inside five minutes, though, McLean scored on consecutive possessions—one inside the arc, one outside—and with 4:33 left Penn's lead was suddenly a precarious seven (60-53). The Lions then got another stop, and Kenny Noland was fouled on their next possession. He made one of two foul shots and the score was 60-54.
Penn got a huge bucket from Dingle after that, the junior converting a driving layup and getting fouled. He made the and-1 foul shot on the other side of the media timeout, pushing the lead back to nine with 3:41 to play. That bucket looked bigger after Rubio De La Rosa converted two free throws, then McLean scored again in the paint to cut the lead to five with more than three minutes still to play.
Penn tried to shake their guests but Columbia matched a pair of Monroe free throws with a McLean bucket, then a Dingle three-pointer with an Eddine Bedri trey. It was 68-63 as the clock went inside two minutes. Penn turned it over on the next possession, and with 1:30 left Brown went up for a three-point shot that would make it a one-possession game. The shot missed, Smith got the rebound, and Monroe was fouled as he brought the ball across the timeline. He made one of his two freebies for 69-63, rebounding his own miss of the second one (after several hustle plays kept the ball in play) which allowed the Quakers to run more time off before Smith missed a jumper.
At the other end, Brown was called for an offensive foul,
Andrew Laczkowski drawing the foul in the lane as the clock went inside a minute. Smith was fouled on the inbounds and made one of two, putting the score at 70-63. Columbia got three bites at the apple on its next possession but missed all three shots—Monroe coming up with a nice block from behind on Brown's first attempt—and Smith converted an and-1 layup on the fast break to get the margin back to nine.
Up Next
Penn is back at home again tomorrow night, hosting Cornell at 6 p.m. The Big Red (15-6, 5-3 Ivy) fell at Princeton on Friday night in a meeting of the two teams at the top of the Ivy League standings, 89-82.
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