PHILADELPHIA – For the second time in as many nights, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team struggled through the first half and let its opponent get up by double digits. And for the second time in as many nights, the Quakers stormed back in the second half for a hair-raising victory. This time the victim was Harvard, Penn coming back from a 10-point halftime deficit to defeat the Crimson 64-61.
 
With the win, Penn clinched its spot in the 2026 Ivy League Tournament which will take place March 14-15 in Ithaca, N.Y. The Quakers are guaranteed to be the third seed and will meet these same Crimson in a semifinal on Saturday, March 14 at 2 p.m. The other semi will feature top-seeded Yale and fourth-seeded Cornell tipping off at 11 a.m., with the winners meeting in the Ivy Madness final on Sunday, March 15 at noon. The winner of that game will clinch the Ivy League's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
 
Penn (15-11, 8-5) has won six of its last seven, while Harvard (16-11, 9-4) saw its seven-game road winning streak snapped with the loss.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*The 10-point halftime deficit that Penn made up to win the game was its largest this season. The previous best? Eight points, set last night vs. Dartmouth.
 
*Penn finished the season with a 12-2 record in The Palestra, its best mark since the 2006-07 Ivy champions also went 12-2.
 
*Penn finished Ivy play with a 6-1 home record, best since 2022-23; this is the 18th time the Quakers have gone 6-1 in Ancient Eight play since the start of Ivy play in the 1950s.
 
*Interesting stat: Penn is now 7-1 when only two players score in double figures, as happened tonight (Ethan Roberts, 21; AJ Levine, 13).
 
*Penn improved to 10-1 this season when shooting a better field-goal percentage than its opponent.
 
*Penn is just 2-6 when scoring fewer than 70 points this season—but those two wins have come the last two teams the Quakers finished in the 60s (also a 61-60 win over Princeton on February 7).
 
*Penn finished the month of February a perfect 5-0.
 
*Penn's 21-point first half was the Quakers' lowest-scoring half of the season, and the 10 foul shots they took were a season low.
 
*Roberts—who was honored prior to the game along with fellow seniors Dylan Williams, Johnnie Walter and Cam Thrower—led all scorers with 21 points, 17 of them coming after halftime.
 
*By the same token, ten of Levine's 13 points came in the second half. The sophomore also had seven rebounds on Saturday.
 
*Junior TJ Power—who torched the nights with 38 points on Friday vs. Dartmouth—was decidedly cooler on Saturday but scored all of his nine points in the second half and very nearly had his second double-double in as many nights with the nine points and a game-high nine boards.
 
*Sophomore Lucas Lueth was a huge presence off the bench, with six points and two boards in 24 minutes.
 
*Junior Niklas Polonowski also made his presence felt, getting almost eight minutes and scoring five points.
 
How It Happened
This will appear later tonight.
 
Up Next
Penn concludes the regular season next Friday night at Brown, tipping off with the Bears at 7 p.m. in Providence.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.