PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team opened play at the Cathedral Classic with a 77-65 win over Merrimack on Friday at The Palestra.
Penn has won three in a row and improved to 4-2 on the season, while the Warriors fell to 2-5.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn had its best shooting night of the season against a Division I opponent, going 31-58 (53.4 percent) from the floor. Of note, the Quakers were 28-46 (60.9 pct.) inside the arc.
*Penn took 23 foul shots to Merrimack's 15. The Quakers have taken more free throws than every opponent so far this season and are +37 in five games against the D1 opposition.
*Penn outrebounded Merrimack on Friday, 46-32, the 46 boards serving as a team high against a D1 opponent this season.
*Merrimack's 65 points for the game and 30 first-half points were both opponent lows for this season, as was the Warriors' shooting performance (25-67, .373).
*Freshman
Dalton Scantlebury led the charge on Friday, scoring 22 points and grabbing 13 rebounds with eight of them coming on the offensive glass. Both of those numbers were season/career highs and he also had three blocked shots and two assists.
*What was particularly impressive was that Scantlebury went a perfect 10-10 from the field and nearly had a double-double just in the second half (17 points, eight rebounds).
*Junior
TJ Power also had a double-double on Friday, scoring 14 points and snaring 12 boards. He also led the Quakers with six assists.
*Senior
Ethan Roberts was Penn's other double-digit scorer, keeping his streak intact of reaching double figures in all six game so far this season. He also had four rebounds and four assists.
*Sophomore
Lucas Lueth was active off the bench, finishing the night with nine points, four rebounds and a blocked shot in 22 productive minutes.
*Junior
Augustus Gerhart ended the game with eight points, hitting all three of his field goals and both of his fouls shots—and added four boards.
*Merrimack was led by Kevair Kennedy (18 points), Andres Marrero (14) and Ernest Shelton (12).
How It Happened
Marrero opened the scoring in Friday's game, but Penn responded with the next seven points as
Michael Zanoni got the Quakers on the board with three free throws and
Augustus Gerhart scored the next four points. Merrimack was pushing tempo throughout the first half and led by as much as six when a Marrero fast-break layup made it 23-17 with 9:16 left. It was still 30-25 Warriors with less than three minutes to play, but Penn scored the last 10 points of the half to go from a five-point deficit to a five-point lead.
Merrimack got buckets from Marrero and Kennedy to start the second half, then answered a Gerhart layup in the paint with driving layup by Shelton. That left Penn leading, 37-36, but Lueth hit a triple and then Power drained a turnaround in the lane. That was the start of an 11-0 Quakers run, and when Scantlebury finished a feed from
Cam Thrower Penn was in front, 48-36.
Merrimack got within eight, Kennedy driving to a layup that made the score 52-44 with 11:44 left, but Scantlebury sandwiched a pair of buckets around a Roberts triple to push the advantage up to 13, at 57-44.
The Warriors got the margin to single digits just two more times after that, at 67-58 with 4:21 to play and 69-60 a little more than a minute later, but this time Scantlebury bookended a Power basket with two of his own to make the score 75-60 with just 1:35 to play. Penn saw it out from there.
Up Next
Penn continues Cathedral Classic play on Saturday and Sunday, hosting Big 5 rival La Salle on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and Hofstra on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. The Explorers and Pride played the first game on Friday afternoon, with Hofstra earning a 63-58 victory.
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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