PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team closes out Big 5 play on Tuesday night at Villanova, the Quakers and the Wildcats both looking for their first city series win of the season after falling to Saint Joseph's last week.
 
GAME 5 – PENN (2-2, 0-1 Big 5) at VILLANOVA (2-3, 0-1)
Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 | 7 p.m.
Villanova, Pa. | Finneran Pavilion
Watch Live on Peacock ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
 
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Villanova Game Notes (PDF)
 
Quaker Audio Network (QAN)
Penn fans can listen to all of the 2024-25 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 for Tuesday's game, with Brad Fadem and Vince Curran providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
 
Early Start
Penn's 58-57 win at NJIT on November 4 marked the earliest start to a season, by date, in program history. Prior to that, the earliest start date was November 5, set in 2019 when the Quakers traveled to Alabama and beat the Crimson Tide in what was Nate Oats' first game as Bama's head coach, 81-80.
 
The Series with Villanova
*The Quakers and Wildcats are meeting for the 71st time, with Villanova holding a healthy 50-20 lead in the series.
 
*Penn won last year's meeting at The Palestra, 76-72, its second win in the last five games after Villanova won 15 in a row from 2003-17.
 
*This will mark a reunion of sorts, as the returning Penn players will see their teammate from last year, Tyler Perkins. He transferred to Villanova shortly after last season ended.
 
Big 5 Pod Play to Date
*Tuesday night's game will settle placement in one pod; Saint Joseph's has already beaten both Villanova and Penn so the Hawks will play in the championship game at the Big 5 Classic. The winner of Tuesday's game will play in the third-place game and the loser will play in the fifth-place game.
 
*In the other pod, Temple and La Salle have both beaten Drexel to put the Dragons in the fifth-place game. The Explorers will host the Owls on Saturday, Nov. 30—the first Big 5 game in the new John Glaser Arena—with a spot in the Big 5 Classic championship game on the line.
 
*The second annual Big 5 Classic will take place on Saturday, Dec. 7 at the Wells Fargo Center.
 
Penn MBB by the Numbers
2 – Consecutive one-point wins by Penn to start the season; the last time the Quakers had two straight one-point wins was the 1978-79 Final Four season (59-58 in OT over Princeton on 1/13, then 43-42 over Saint Joseph's on 1/16). Prior to this season, the last time Penn even won ONE one-point game was February 19, 2022, an 89-88 decision at Brown.

3 – Transfers who have joined the Penn roster for the 2024-25 season: Ethan Roberts (Drake), Dylan Williams (Triton College) and Michael Zanoni (Mercer). Of the group, Roberts is the most decorated as he was the Patriot League Rookie of the Year at Army in 2022-23 before spending last season at Drake (missing the campaign due to injury). Williams, meanwhile, started at point guard for a Triton team that went 34-3 last season and advanced to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) national championship game.
 
7 – Total newcomers on the 2024-25 roster: in addition to the trio of transfers mentioned above, the Quakers also have the freshman quartet of Bradyn Foster, AJ Levine, Alex Massung, and Michelangelo Oberti.
 
7 - Returning players who have recorded at least one double-figure scoring game during their collegiate career: seniors Reese McMullen, Nick Spinoso and George Smith; junior Cam Thrower; and sophomores Sam Brown, Augustus Gerhart and Niklas Polonowski.
 
7.9 - Rebounds per game last season by Spinoso, which was fourth among Ivy League players; he is averaging a team-high 6.3 boards per game so far in 2024-25.
 
9 – Rebounds snared by Gerhart last Tuesday at Lafayette, a season/career high for the sophomore.
 
9 – Points scored by Roberts in the final 5:38 of the season opener at NJIT; he had nine of Penn's last 10 points in the contest, including the winning free throw with 1.6 seconds left.
 
10 – Free throws taken—and, thankfully, made—in the final minute of last Thursday's home-opening win over UMES, eight of them from Brown and two by Roberts. Penn needed all of them in taking an 85-84 win, as the Hawks scored a staggering 18 points in that same time.
 
10 – Rebounds grabbed by Roberts in the UMES win, to go with a game-high 23 points for his first double-double at Penn; he had two double-doubles as a freshman at Army in 2022-23, one of them in Patriot League play against Boston University.
 
14 – Points scored by Smith against UMES, his first double-figure scoring game in nearly a year and most points in a game since he dropped 14 in back-to-back games against Harvard and Columbia his sophomore season.
 
17 – Deficit that Penn made up in the opener at NJIT; the Quakers were down, 52-35, with just over 13 minutes left but outscored the Highlanders 23-5 the rest of the way. It marked the largest comeback in a Penn victory in the Steve Donahue coaching era. (The Quakers made up a 21-point deficit at Princeton on January 7, 2017 but ultimately lost to the Tigers, 61-52.)
 
17 – Points scored by Williams at NJIT, leading the Quakers; he scored 11 points last Tuesday at Lafayette and 10 Friday night against Saint Joseph's.
 
29 – Starts made last year by Spinoso; he was the only player on the team to start all of the Quakers' 29 games. Other returnees who were regular starters are Smith (19), Brown (18), and Thrower (9).
 
34 – Consecutive starts made by Spinoso—in fact, he had started 58 of the Quakers' last 59 games—before he came off the bench Friday night against Saint Joseph's.
 
61 – Three-pointers knocked down by Brown last season, on 141 attempts (.433); he finished third among Ivy League players in 3FG percentage and fourth in 3FG per game (2.44). Brown's 61 treys were the second most by a freshman in program history, behind only Jackson Donahue who had 62 in 2015-16.
 
211 – Assists dished out over the last two-plus seasons by Spinoso (11 so far in 2024-25, 93 in 2022-23, 107 last season); he finished fourth among Ivy League players in assists/game last season (3.69) and was the only big man among the top 12.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.