Penn falls prey to No. 5 Pittsburgh

Despite 22 points from freshman Miles Cartwright, the Penn men’s basketball team succumbed to No. 5 Pittsburgh Saturday in the Steel City.

Despite cutting the Panthers’ lead to 21-18 midway through the first frame, the Red and Blue could not recover from a 9-0 Pitt run that opened the game and a 15-0 run that ended the half, as Penn fell 82-58 and failed to pick up its first road win of the season.

The Quakers (2-3) ran into foul trouble early against the undefeated Panthers (7-0), as senior Andreas Schreiber fouled twice within the opening three minutes. Co-captain Conor Turley subbed in and scored Penn’s first two layups of the game, but he also committed two quick fouls and was replaced by freshman Fran Dougherty.

“I just think that’s the nature of it when you play on the road,” Penn coach Jerome Allen said. “I’m not saying that the whistle will blow in the home team’s favor, but you have to anticipate things you can’t control.”

While the Quakers struggled with early first half fouls, they failed to grab boards throughout the game. Pitt — who moved to No. 3 in the rankings following the game — outrebounded Penn 35-20, as 6-foot-11 center Gary McGhee was a monstrous presence underneath the basket and 6-foot-9 and 6-foot-6 forwards Talib Zanna and Gilbert Brown grabbed five and seven rebounds, respectively.

But Allen refused to blame the Red and Blue’s struggles on smaller size alone.

“Charles Barkley was six-foot-four, 260 pounds, and he was one of the best rebounders in the history of the game,” Allen said. “At the end of the day, rebounding is something that requires anticipation and an inner will and desire to just flat out go and get the ball.”

Senior Jack Eggleston led the Quakers with seven boards, six of which came on defensive glass, and scored 16 points.

Dougherty and Cartwright also made strong cases to break into the starting five, as Dougherty had five rebounds and two assists. Cartwright added six assists and a rebound to his game-high 22 points, which came on 7-for-8 shooting from the field — including three from downtown — and 5-for-6 at the line.

While the underclassmen came up big, senior Tyler Bernardini was 0-for-7 with no assists or rebounds. Junior Rob Belcore managed just one rebound in 22 minutes.

Both squads’ benches outscored their starting lines, with 11 Panthers players seeing double-digit minutes.

“It’s definitely special because of the fact that we have guys who come off the bench with experience — game experience,” Pitt forward Gilbert Brown said.

But the Red and Blue will still take many positive lessons back to Philadelphia.

Penn’s top three outscored Pitt’s leading scorers 49-34, and the Quakers scored 36.8 percent from beyond the arc compared to the Panthers’ 32 percent.

And a 24-point loss to a top-five team doesn’t sting as badly as last season’s 114-55 stomp by then-No. 7 Duke — the Quakers’ worst loss in program history.

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