HANOVER, N.H. – Ethan Roberts and
AJ Levine kept the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team afloat in the first half Saturday at Dartmouth's Leede Arena, and then
TJ Power and
Michael Zanoni led the way in the second half as the Quakers powered their way to an 84-74 victory.
Roberts (17 points) and Levine (10) had 27 of Penn's 38 first-half points as the Red and Blue made up an eight-point deficit to get back level by the break, then Power (20 points) and Zanoni (11, all in the final 8:43) powered the second-half surge as Penn led by as much 14 on the way to victory.
Penn and Dartmouth are now 2-1 and two of the five teams tied for first place in the Ivy League standings. Overall, the Quakers improved to 9-7 while the Big Green fell to 8-8.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn committed only five turnovers, fewest in a game since the Quakers had just four against Princeton on March 9, 2024; the Red and Blue did not have one in the second half on Saturday and recorded 13 points off turnovers while Dartmouth had just four.
*Penn outrebounded Dartmouth on the day, 39-35, and had 12 on the offensive glass.
*Penn continues to stroke it from the outside; the Quakers entered the day tenth nationally in 3FG percentage (39.4) and shot 9-17 (52.9 pct) from beyond the arc Saturday.
*For the second straight game and the third time this season, Penn was tied at halftime; the Quakers are undefeated in such games (3-0).
*Power scored a game-high 27 points and flirted with his fifth double-double of the season with eight rebounds (five offensive). He was an efficient 10-16 from the field including 3-5 from distance.
*Roberts finished with 25 points, giving him 72 in three Ivy games so far this season (24.0 ppg). He also had four rebounds and two assists and shot 4-7 from beyond the arc.
*Levine ended the day with 14 points including a pair of emphatic dunks, a one-hander at the end of the first half and a two-hander early in the second. He also dished out three assists without a turnover and shot 5-7 from the field.
*Zanoni's 11 points marked his sixth straight game in double digits (17.0 ppg); he hit all four of his field goal attempts in the final 8:43.
*
Augustus Gerhart led all players in the game with nine rebounds, three of them coming on the offensive glass.
*Dartmouth got 18 points from Connor Amundsen, 15 from Jackson Munro, and 13 from Kareem Thomas. Brandon Mitchell-Day finished with eight points and a team-high seven rebounds while Ben Brown came off the bench to score nine.
How It Happened
Thomas hit a three-point shot on the opening possession of Saturday's game, and Dartmouth had a lead that it wouldn't relinquish until the very end of the first half. A layup by Niko Abusara had the Big Green in front by seven less than four minutes in, and a Brown triple boosted it to eight just past the midpoint of the stanza.
Roberts had three points at that juncture, and he went to work scoring eight points in a 1:30 span to get Penn within three at 24-21. Dartmouth went back up by six, at 29-23, but then it was Levine's turn as he got inside for a layup and then dialed long distance to get Penn back within one. A pair of Amundsen triples put the Big Green back up by seven with four minutes left in the period, but Roberts scored five of Penn's next eight points—
Dalton Scantlebury had the other three—and then Levine emphatically tied it with a drive and dunk in the final seconds.
The host Big Green scored the first five points of the second half, Munro opening the run and Thomas going the old-fashioned route for three. However, Power scored the game's next seven points in a span of 1:14, and his bucket in the lane gave Penn its first lead of the day with 17:24 to play, 45-43. Levine followed with a pair of free throws, and then Power dialed long distance for the second time in a 2:04 span. Overall, it was a 12-0 run and the Quakers were up by seven at the first media timeout.
Penn never relinquished that advantage. Dartmouth got within two on a Munro free throw with 13:34 left, 52-50, and Mitchell-Day made it a 56-55 game as the second half reached its midpoint. However, Roberts drove baseline for an and-1 layup, making the freebie, and that was the start of a 10-2 Penn run that pushed the advantage to a nine-point margin.
Zanoni had the last five points in the run, draining a triple and a transition layup in a span of 25 seconds to get unlocked. His next bucket was another trey and pushed the margin to double digits (70-59) with less than seven minutes left. A pair of Mitchell-Day free throws brought it back to nine briefly, but Roberts drilled a triple and Power followed with a bucket to give the Red and Blue their biggest lead of the day at 14 (75-61).
The margin stayed in double digits most of the rest of the way. Dartmouth got as close as eight twice, at 80-72 with 1:09 left and then 82-74 in the final minute, but Penn did well to make the plays down the stretch and salt this one away.
Up Next
Penn stays in New England until Monday, heading to Cambridge for an MLK Day matchup with Harvard. Tip time is set for 2 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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