PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team made a gallant second-half comeback but could not overcome Harvard Saturday at The Palestra, falling 70-61.
 
The Quakers were down by as many as 21 points in the first half and took a 20-point deficit to the locker room at halftime. They got as close as four late in the second half, and had the crowd of nearly 5,000 rocking, but Harvard made enough plays to keep Penn at bay and escape with the win.
 
Both teams are now 1-2 in Ivy League play after tonight's game. Penn fell to 9-9 overall while Harvard is 10-6.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn's loss snapped a four-game winning streak over the Crimson, and the Quakers fell to 8-2 at The Palestra this season.
 
*Penn made just six three-point shots, one shy of its season low, and shot 20.7 percent from beyond the arc which was a season low.
 
*Penn also was outrebounded by Harvard, 37-30.
 
*Penn lost despite committing just nine turnovers, compared to Harvard's 15.
 
*Junior Nick Spinoso and freshman Tyler Perkins tied for team scoring honors, both of them scoring 12 points; it was Perkins' team-leading 13th double-figure scoring game this season and Spinoso's ninth.
 
*Spinoso also led all players with eight rebounds and added four assists and two blocked shots.

*Spinoso also hit his first three-point basket of the season. In fact, the last time the junior hit a trey was the last game of his freshman year, when he went 2-2 in the Ivy League Tournament against Yale; he was 0-9 beyond the arc last season and was 0-6 this season before hitting his triple early in Saturday's game.
 
*Senior Andrew Laczkowski scored nine points, one shy of his season high, and set a career best with three steals.
 
*Junior Ed Holland III scored eight points, all in the second half; it was his best scoring output since he had 12 against Villanova on November 13.
 
*Freshman Niklas Polonowski also scored eight points, knocking down a pair of three-pointers and scoring his first two-point field goal since FDU-Florham on December 6.
 
*Harvard had three players score in double figures: Chisom Okpara (18 points), Louis Lesmond (17), and Malik Mack (16). Mack also had a game-high five assists and two steals. Chandler Pigge had seven points and a team-high seven rebounds.

How It Happened
The first half was forgettable if you're a Penn fan. Harvard—which came in with a sense of desperation, still looking for its first Ivy League win—punched the Quakers in the mouth and the hosts didn't respond.
 
Lesmond threw the first punch of the night; he hit three treys in a row as the Crimson turned a 5-2 deficit into a 13-7 lead with an 11-2 run. A few minutes later, his fourth trey made it 24-16. The lead was 24-18 when Mack went for five in a row to push the lead to double digits at 29-18, then Okpara hit four straight that made the score 34-20. Overall, Harvard shot 50 percent from the field in the first half both overall (16-32) and from beyond the arc (9-18).
 
Penn, meanwhile, was abysmal offensively. The Quakers hit just two field goals over the final 12:42 of the period, none for nearly seven minutes before a Reese McMullen trey with 5:47 to play. As a result, Harvard's lead was 46-26 at the half.
 
Penn was the team that came out with urgency in the second half and it paid immediate dividends. Off the initial inbounds, Spinoso converted a bucket, and that was followed by a Sam Brown three-pointer, then a Perkins dunk that came off a Brown steal and feed. After another stop, Spinoso found Laczkowski for a backdoor layup, and just like that the Quakers were within 11 at 46-35.
 
Harvard recovered. It was 48-37 when Okpara scored in the lane and Pigge knocked down a triple. The lead was back to 16 at the first media timeout, 53-37.
 
After scoring four field goals in the first 2:05 of the second half, Penn hit another drought and went more than five minutes without a point. Harvard was unable to take advantage, though, and when Polonowski ended the skid with a three the score was a manageable 53-40.
 
It was 56-43 when Penn's full-court press started paying off, the Quakers getting back-to-back steals that led to Holland layups. Suddenly, Penn was within nine at 56-47 and Harvard was taking a timeout. After the stoppage, Harvard broke the press and Thomas Batties II completed an and-1 layup to make the score 59-47 at the under-8 media timeout.
 
Harvard went nearly four minutes without a point after that, though, and Penn took advantage as the Palestra crowd increasingly turned up the volume. Perkins scored in the paint, then Holland knocked down two free throws to get the deficit back to a single-digit margin. A George Smith steal on the press left Laczkowski unattended for an easy layup, and then after another defensive stop Spinoso was fouled going up and hit both foul shots. The run was 8-0, and the Quakers' deficit was just four (59-55).
 
Harvard finally got back on the board when Pigge muscled into the lane for a bucket, then Mack got out in the open court after he rebounded a Spinoso miss. However, he missed his contested layup and Spinoso fed Perkins down the court for a 2-on-1 break. The freshman, in turn, dished off to Laczkowski who unsuccessfully tried to throw it down. As a result, the score remained 61-55 at final media timeout (3:53 left).
 
Both teams missed their first shots out of the stoppage, then Perkins made a few moves and hit a shot in traffic to get Penn back within 61-57 with 2:35 left. However, at the other end Mack drove and hit an acrobatic layup around Spinoso's body at the end of the shot clock to push the Crimson lead back to six, 63-57.
 
That play seemed to take the wind out of Penn's sails. The Quakers missed their next three shots over two possessions as the game went into its final minute, and they were eventually forced to foul. A Polonowski triple with 32 seconds left made it 65-60 but that was as close as the Red and Blue got.
 
Up Next
Penn plays the first of four straight Ivy League road games next Saturday, traveling to the Big Apple to face Columbia at Levien Gym (site of this year's Ivy League Tournament). The Quakers and Lions are scheduled to tip off at 2 p.m.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.