PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Playing its third game in five days—and its second on the road in three—the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team was defeated by Providence College on Tuesday night at Amica Mutual Pavilion, 106-81.
The Quakers fell to 1-2 on the young season, while the host Friars out of the Big East Conference improved to 2-1.
Quaker Notemeal
*The 106 points scored by PC marked the most by a Penn opponent in a game since Duke dropped 114 on the Quakers on December 31, 2009.
*Penn actually took three more shots than Providence on Tuesday night (70-67); however, the Quakers shot just 35.7 percent from the field (25-70) while the Friars were 53.7 percent (36-67).
*For the second straight game, Penn shot well from beyond the arc: 12-28, 42.9 percent which was well above what they shot inside the arc (13-42, 31.0 percent).
*Much better distribution of the ball in this game; after having a 0.50 assist/turnover ratio at American on Sunday (9/18), the Quakers had a 1.80 ratio on Tuesday night (18/10).
*For the third time in as many games, Penn took more free throws (24) than its opponent (23); for the first time, the Quakers made fewer (19) than their opponent (21) as PC was a scintillating 91.3 percent at the charity stripe.
*
Michael Zanoni was the story for the Red and Blue on Tuesday night; he scored 30 points, a career high, giving him 50 across the last two games. Zanoni drained five of his eight three-point shots, giving him 11 treys in the last two games, and was 10-17 overall and 5-5 at the foul line.
*Junior
TJ Power continues to grow into the game after missing much of the preseason; he finished with 15 points—shooting 6-13 overall and draining a pair of treys—and filled the stat sheet tying for the team lead with seven rebounds (four on the offensive glass), dishing out four assists and coming up with two steals.
*Senior
Ethan Roberts also scored 15 points and added four boards and four assists to his scoreline.
*Junior
Augustus Gerhart tied Power for the team lead in rebounds, both overall (7) and on the offensive boards (4), while sophomore
AJ Levine led the Quakers with five assists and freshman
Jay Jones had a team-high three steals.
*Providence had six players score in double figures on Tuesday night, led by Corey Floyd Jr. who had 20 and Ryan Mela who finished with a double-double (18 points/12 rebounds). Jason Edwards and Stefan Vaaks both reached double digits in the scoring column and led the Friars with five assists each.
How It Happened
Things went back and forth early—Zanoni set the tone for his night by knocking down a three-pointer almost immediately off the opening tap, Providence responded with the game's next ten points, only to see Penn come back and tie things up at 16-16 by the first media timeout.
The teams essentially traded points for several minutes after that, the Friars leading by as many as six and the Quakers getting as close as one on a few occasions—a Power trey making it 30-29, Roberts answering a Vaaks triple with one of his own to make it 33-32, and then a pair of Roberts free throws making the score 35-34 with 4:23 left in the first half.
Vaaks drained another triple, however, and that was the start of a 13-2 Friars run to end the half as Penn's offense went cold. Providence took a 48-36 lead into the locker room.
Zanoni single-handedly tried to get the Quakers back into it early in the second half; he had the Red and Blue's first 10 points and 14 of their first 17 in the period. His last bucket in the run made it an 11-point game, at 64-53, but PC scored nine of the next 12 points to earn its largest lead of the night at 73-56.
Penn scored the next five points as the clock went under nine minutes remaining, Power in the lane then Zanoni dialing long distance off a Roberts feed. That was as close as the Quakers got, however, as the Friars extended their lead to 18 (84-66) with a little less than six minutes left and 19 (88-69) a minute later. The margin finally reached 20 just ahead of the final media timeout and grew from there as head coach
Fran McCaffery emptied his bench.
Up Next
The Quakers' next two games will be their Big 5 pod games, starting next Monday when they host Saint Joseph's at The Palestra. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 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.
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