PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team will play for some hardware in two weeks, after the Quakers defeated Drexel on Friday night at the Dragons' Daskalakis Athletic Center, 84-68.
The win, coupled with a victory over Saint Joseph's on Monday, means that Penn (3-2) wins it Big 5 pod and will play in the championship game at the Big 5 Classic on Saturday, Dec. 6. That game will tip off at 7:30 p.m. against either Temple or Villanova. The Quakers will be looking to win their first city series title since 2018-19 and their 14th overall.
Quaker Notemeal
*For the first time in a game against the Division I opponent this season, Penn never trailed in the contest. The only tie of the night came at 2-2.
*Drexel's 68 points were an opponent low for the season, and the Dragons' 30-point second half also was an opponent low.
*Penn shot 50 percent from the field on Friday night (27-54), its best percentage against a Division I opponent this season.
*Penn outrebounded Drexel on the night, 40-33.
*For the fifth time in as many games, Penn took more foul shots (28) than its opponent (17); the Quakers are +29 in free throw attempts across four games against D1 competition.
*Penn held a massive advantage in fast break points (16-4) and edged the Dragons in points off turnovers (12-9) and second-chance points (15-12).
*Senior
Ethan Roberts once again led the scoring parade, dropping 30 points on Friday night including 19 in the first half.
*The last time a Penn player scored 30 points in consecutive games was the 2021-22 season, when Jordan Dingle scored 31 against Yale and another 31 six days later at Harvard.
*Roberts—who was 11-18 from the field and a perfect 6-6 at the foul line—also led all players with eight rebounds and added three steals and two assists to his line.
*Junior
TJ Power had a strong second half on Friday, scoring 12 of his 18 points after the break. He also had four rebounds and three assists.
*
Michael Zanoni was the Quakers' other double-digit scorer, with 12 points all in the first half. He also had five boards and went 4-4 at the foul line, making him 13-13 for the season.
*Sophomore
AJ Levine had a great stat line on Friday night: season highs in points (7) and rebounds (5), and tying a career high with seven assists (without committing a turnover).
*Junior
Augustus Gerhart finished the night with seven points and seven rebounds.
*Senior
Cam Thrower scored eight points, including three-pointers on consecutive possessions in the second half.
*Drexel got 21 points from Josh Reed off the bench, while Shane Blakeney scored 11.
How It Happened
The teams traded the first two baskets of the night, but then Zanoni scored five in a row and the Quakers never looked back. Zanoni and Roberts had the Red and Blue's first 10 points and 18 of the first 19 as the lead grew to nine a little more than midway through the half.
Drexel cut into the lead with a modest six-point run, and got as close as 24-22 on a second-chance tip-in with six minutes left in the period. However, Zanoni scored the game's next five points and Roberts added a bucket to push Penn's lead back up to eight, at 31-23. The margin briefly went to double digits, at 41-30, but Drexel got some momentum with an 8-2 run in the final two minutes to make it a five-point game at the break, 43-38.
Power set the tone on the first possession of the second half, muscling his way to an old-fashioned three-point play, and then he scored three more in a row to push the lead back up to double digits out of the first media timeout. Drexel went nearly seven minutes without a point and Penn took advantage, scoring seven unanswered to go up by 12. Horace Simmons finally ended the Dragons' skid with a three-pointer, but Penn responded with buckets from Thrower and Power, then the senior Thrower sandwiched a pair of treys round a Drexel hoop. The second one pushed the Quakers' lead to 17 points with 9:30 left.
Reed and then Blakeney hit back-to-back triples to get Drexel within 11 just after the eight-minute media timeout, but once again Penn hit the reset button and put the game out of reach. Power missed a three but
Lucas Lueth got the rebound and quickly found Roberts, who was pure from distance. After a defensive stop, Power powered his way to the hoop for two, then a steal led to Levine scoring in transition. The Dragons called a timeout, but out of the stoppage their inbounds pass was picked off by Roberts who played give-and-go with Levine at the other end. Suddenly the margin was 20, at 74-54, with less than five minutes to play.
Drexel never got closer than 14, when Simmons completed a three-point play to make the score 76-62 with 2:40 left. Penn's next possession wasn't the cleanest, but the ball ended up with Levine in the corner and he coolly drained a dagger three as the shot clock expired. Roberts then answered a Kevon Vanderhorst with the game's next four points, and the margin was back at 20 as the clock neared the final minute.
Up Next
Penn is off until next week's Cathedral Classic; the three-day event runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend with doubleheaders all three days at The Palestra. Penn is scheduled to play Merrimack on Friday at 4:30 p.m.; Big 5 rival La Salle on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.; and Hofstra on Sunday at 2:30 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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