PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team jumps into Ivy League play this weekend, getting its longest bus ride out of the way immediately with a journey to Dartmouth for a Saturday afternoon meeting with the Big Green.
GAME 14 – PENN (4-9, 0-0 Ivy League) at DARTMOUTH (6-7, 0-0)
Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025 | 2 p.m.
Hanover, N.H. | Leede Arena
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Listen on QAN | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Dartmouth 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 games 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.
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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 Saturday's game, with Stan Pawlak providing analysis. To access the Quaker Audio Network, simply type
www.pennathletics.com/audio into your computer or device.
The Series with Dartmouth
*The Quakers and Big Green are meeting for the 226th time, with Penn holding a 160-65 lead all-time.
*Penn swept last year's series, taking an 80-51 decision in the Ivy League opener at The Palestra and then rolling to an 82-69 victory in Hanover.
*Prior to last season, the teams split the season series in 2020, 2022 and 2023 with the home team winning all six games.
*Sophomore
Sam Brown had a monster game the last time the Quakers played at Leede Arena, knocking down six of his seven three-point shots on the way to a career-high 26 points.
*In last year's first meeting, at The Palestra, Penn hit 13 straight field goals—nine of them from beyond the arc—to blow out to a 26-point lead before halftime.
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.
7.0 – Rebounds-per-game average by senior
Nick Spinoso so far this season, tied for second among Ivy League players.
7 – Total newcomers on the 2024-25 roster: in addition to the transfers, the Quakers also have freshmen
Bradyn Foster—who made his first career starts last weekend—
Levine,
Alex Massung, and
Michelangelo Oberti.
7 – Three-point shots knocked down by
Zanoni at Penn State, a Penn player high in that category for this season.
9 – Points scored by
Roberts in the final 5:38 in the season opener at NJIT on November 4; he had nine of Penn's last 10 points in the contest, including the winning free throw with 1.6 seconds left.
12 – Players who have started at least one game this season for Penn; only sophomore
Sam Brown has started all 13 games.
13 – Free throws made (on 14 attempts) by
Brown against Maine; that is a Penn player high in the
Steve Donahue era and most since Ibrahim Jaaber made 15 against Navy on December 2, 2005. Brown finished with 19 points to go with four rebounds vs. the Black Bears.
14 – Points scored by senior
George 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 NJIT win; 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
Donahue era. (The Quakers made up a 21-point deficit at Princeton on January 7, 2017 before losing, 61-52.)
18.7 – Points-per-game average by
Roberts over his last seven contests (he missed the Penn State game due to illness); the junior transfer has reached double figures in all of them and is currently fourth among Ivy League players in points per game this season (16.6).
21 – Rebounds grabbed by Maine in its Cathedral Classic Invitational game with Penn on November 30; that is tied for fewest by a Quakers opponent in the
Donahue era.
Penn outboarded the Black Bears, 39-21.
27 – Points scored by
Zanoni at Penn State, a collegiate high including his time at Mercer; he also tied his collegiate best with six rebounds.
32 – Points scored in the last three games by sophomore
Niklas Polonowski (14 vs. Rider, 10 at Mason, 8 at PSU); prior to that, he scored just seven points in Penn's first ten games.
32 – Three-point baskets knocked down by Penn over the last three games: 11 vs. Rider, 10 at George Mason, and 11 at Penn State. The Quakers' percentage beyond the arc was 36.0 in those three games (32-89).
34 – Consecutive starts made by
Spinoso—in fact, he had started 58 of the Quakers' last 59 games—before he came off the bench against Saint Joseph's on November 15; he has started every game since then and nearly had a triple-double (14 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists) in Penn's win over Maine.
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.
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