PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team nipped Lafayette Monday night at The Palestra, 74-72.
 
The Quakers looked like they might run away with it a few times in the first half Monday night, but the Leopards were pesky and that set up a dramatic second half that only came to an end when Lafayette's Mark Butler took a missed Penn free throw, drove the length of the floor, and put up a contested driving layup to tie the game that was off the mark.
 
Penn—which played the game without leading scorer Ethan Roberts, who missed the game after suffering an injury Saturday vs. Villanova—improved to 6-4 with the win while Lafayette fell to 3-8.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn committed nine turnovers, a season low, and dished out 18 assists for a season-best 2.00 ratio.
 
*Penn's leading scorer was Augustus Gerhart, who dropped a career-high 15 points—all of them in the first half—and added six rebounds. The junior was 6-of-7 from the field.
 
*Junior TJ Power nearly posted his third double-double of the season, scoring 14 points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. He also had two assists.
 
*Freshman Dalton Scantlebury also had 14 points, scoring seven in each half. He shot 6-of-9 from the field and also snared three boards.
 
*Michael Zanoni ended the night with nine points; however, after hitting his first two foul shots Monday night—giving him 18 in a row to start the season—he missed his third to end his streak.
 
*Sophomore AJ Levine set a season/career high in assists (8, tops in the game), tied his season best with five rebounds, and knocked down a pair of three-pointers en route to eight points which is one shy of his season high.
 
*Senior Cam Thrower got the start in Roberts' place and finished the night with six points, three rebounds and four assists.
 
*Sophomore Lucas Lueth scored four points and grabbed seven rebounds, six of them coming on the offensive glass.
 
*Lafayette was led by Caleb Williams, who scored 21 points, and Butler who scored 14. Andrew Phillips ended the game with 16 points, four rebounds and two assists while Christian Humphrey-Rembert recorded eight points and a team-high eight rebounds
 
How It Happened
Penn looked like it would run away with this thing not once but twice in the first half. The first time came early on, the Quakers scoring a season-best 14 points in a row over a four-minute span to go in front 22-6 before the first half had reached its midway point. The prosperity did not suit the Red and Blue; Lafayette finally ended its skid when Williams drained a trey, and that was the start of a 14-3 Leopards run that brought them back within five at 25-20.
 
Penn righted itself and was back up by 12 when Power hit both ends of a 1-and-1 late in the half. It was still an eight-point game when the half ended (41-33).
 
Lafayette threw the first punch out of the locker room; the Leopards scored the first five points of the second half and nine of first 11, and they took their first (and, it turned out, only) lead of the night at 46-45 when Humphrey-Rembert hit a pair of foul shots with 16:32 left.
 
Lueth put Penn back in front, the start of a modest six-point Penn run as his bucket was followed by scores from Scantlebury and Power that made the score 51-46. Williams drained a trey and Butler followed with a score to tie things against a 51-51, but a Scantlebury free throw was followed by a spectacular play from Lueth as he had his first attempt at the rim blocked but recovered the ball and threw it down over his defender. Penn never trailed again.
 
The lead crested at eight points with eight minutes to go, and it was still 68-60 when Zanoni drained a mid-range jumper from the right baseline with just under six minutes left. At that point, Lafayette went into overdrive—the Leopards needed a little more than a minute to put together a 7-2 run which got them within three, 70-67. Power and Butler matched buckets after that, and at the final media timeout Penn's lead was a precarious 72-69.
 
Lafayette got within a point with 2:16 left when Butler scored, and then both teams had empty possessions as the clock neared a minute. Power got the ball and was fouled with just over a minute left, hitting the first but missing the second to make it 73-71 Quakers. Lafayette got a matchup it wanted on the block, Misha Bednostin posting up Levine who was forced to foul. Bednostin missed the first but made the second, getting the margin back to one with 41 seconds left.
 
Penn worked the shot clock down and got the ball to Power. The junior worked his way into the lane and took a shot that grazed the rim. Lueth attacked the glass and got the offensive rebound, and the ball made its way to Thrower who was fouled with 4.9 seconds left. He made the front end of his 1-and-1 but missed the second, and Lafayette quickly pushed the ball to Butler who went the length of the floor and tried to draw contact as he put up a lefty layup. It never had a chance, and the Palestra crowd was able to exhale.
 
Up Next
Penn is off until Saturday, Dec. 20, when the Quakers play at Rutgers. Tip time is scheduled for 8 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.