HANOVER, N.H. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team dropped a tight battle with Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon at Leede Arena, the host Big Green escaping with a 73-70 victory.
 
The Quakers were down by as many as six in the final minute but got within one when Michael Zanoni knocked down all three free throws after he was fouled taking a trey with 4.2 seconds left. However, the Quakers allowed Dartmouth's Ryan Cornish to get the ball on the inbounds and he hit both freebies with 2.8 seconds left. Ethan Roberts had a chance to tie it with a jumper just inside midcourt, but the shot was off the mark.
 
Penn falls to 4-10 overall with the loss, while Dartmouth is now 7-7 overall. Saturday's game was the Ivy League opener for both.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn outrebounded Dartmouth on Saturday, 42-36.
 
*Penn lost for the first time this season when leading at the half; previously the Quakers were 3-0 in such games.
 
*Senior Nick Spinoso led Penn in points (16) and rebounds (8).
 
*Sophomore Sam Brown scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds, one shy of his season/career high.
 
*Roberts also finished the day with 12 points, extending his streak to eight straight games reaching double digits in the scoring column. He also had six rebounds.
 
*Zanoni finished the day with 11 points, giving him 38 in Penn's last two games and 49 in the last three.
 
*Spinoso, Brown and freshman AJ Levine had three assists each to lead the Quakers.
 
*Dartmouth was led by Brandon Mitchell-Day and Ryan Cornish; Mitchell-Day led all scorers with 25 points and added eight rebounds, while Cornish had a double-double (24 points/10 rebounds) and added a game-high five assists.
 
How It Happened
Both teams came into Saturday's game off long layoffs, and the rust showed early as the teams struggled offensively. The Big Green eventually got it going, taking an 18-10 lead out of the under-12 media timeout and extending it to 22-11 at the under-8 media. Penn went more than seven minutes without a field goal during that stretch, but a Zanoni layup was the start of a stretch that saw the Quakers score three straight field goals in 100 seconds. That forced a Dartmouth timeout, and out of the stoppage Ryan Cornish knocked down a three-pointer that pushed the hosts back out by eight.
 
Penn's offense was running much better, though, and the Quakers ended the half on a 12-2 run. When AJ Levine scooped in an off-handed layup with just seconds left, Penn had its first lead of the day and took it into the locker room, 31-29.
 
The second half was all Dartmouth to start. The Big Green scored the first 12 points, getting out to a double-digit lead, before Spinoso finally got the Quakers on the board nearly five minutes into the period. He actually scored the next three buckets, getting Penn within four at 41-37.
 
It was still a four-point game at the under-12 media timeout, 46-42, but out of the stoppage Niklas Polonowski drained a trey that got the Quakers within one. Dartmouth scored on its next possession, but Augustus Gerhart scored three the old-fashioned way off a Brown feed and then Brown spun into a lefty layup that put the Red and Blue up, 50-48, with a little less than eight minutes to play. Penn's lead was still 52-51 at the under-8 media.
 
Brown gave Penn what would be its last lead of the game with just over five minutes remaining, at 58-56. A critical moment occurred shortly after Mitchell-Day tied things up at 58-58: Spinoso was called for an illegal screen, then the refs tacked on a technical foul when he got involved in heated words with Dartmouth's Cade Haskins. That gave Spinoso four fouls with more than four minutes to play. The Big Green piled on, scoring three on an and-1 feed and layup. They would never trail again.
 
It was 63-58 when Roberts got free underneath to score, then followed up with a driving layup to get Penn back within one. However, the Big Green scored the game's next four points and seven of the next nine, Cornish stealing the ball at one end and making one of two free throws at the other. That made the score 70-64 with just over a minute remaining.
 
Roberts quickly got three of them back from just in front of the Penn bench, and then the Quakers played it out defensively. It looked like it might pay off when Cornish's shot was blocked out of bounds by Spinoso with just three on the shot clock, and then the Big Green couldn't get off a good shot on the ensuing inbounds. The rebound fell to Levine, who turned and raced up the floor. Unfortunately he had Cornish coming up behind him and the Big Green senior poked the ball away to a teammate.
 
The ball got back to Cornish before Penn could finally foul with 8.8 seconds left on the clock, and he missed the first before making the second. The Quakers pushed the ball up the floor and Zanoni got a good look from the right corner with 4.2 seconds left. His shot missed but he was fouled, giving the Red and Blue life. Zanoni made the first two and then, after a Penn timeout, drained the third to make the score 71-70. Penn fouled Cornish on the ensuing inbounds, and this time he was good on both shots.
 
Penn still had 2.8 seconds left. That was enough for Spinoso to inbound to Roberts, who raced down and got a decent look inside midcourt. However, the shot was long and to the left, bouncing off the backboard as the horn sounded.
 
Up Next
Penn is back into Ivy League action twice next weekend, hosting Cornell on Saturday before coming back to Northern New England to face Harvard on Monday as part of the Ivy League's annual MLK Day games. Both contests are scheduled for 2 p.m. tipoffs.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.