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Mens Basketball vs. Harvard Credit: Ilana Wurman , Ilana Wurman, Ilana Wurman

It's been awhile since Penn basketball played a game away from the Palestra. But after putting together a stretch of the team's most respectable games this season, the Quakers are looking to continue to piece wins together in the Empire State.

Following a split in their first Ivy doubleheader of the season, the Red and Blue will get back to work when they take on their New York rivals this weekend, facing Cornell in Ithaca on Friday night before doing battle with Columbia on Saturday.

Despite grabbing their second consecutive win and notching their first Ivy victory of 2014-15 in a win against Dartmouth last week, the Quakers (6-11, 1-2 Ivy) were brought back down to Earth the following evening. Overwhelmed by a superior Harvard squad, Penn never led, knocking down only 13 shots en route to a 63-38 loss.

But to only focus on the Red and Blue's drubbing at the hands of the Crimson would sell Penn's recent five-game homestand short. Following a win on the road against Niagara, the Quakers' return to the Palestra featured a near-upset of then-No. 5 Villanova and two stout defensive performances against Saint Joseph's and Dartmouth (9-10, 1-3).

And at this point in the season, with an Ivy win under its belt and a series of winnable games ahead, coach Jerome Allen insists Penn has not lost focus, despite the ease with which Harvard handled the squad on Saturday.

"We're still in the present," Allen said. "We still have everything in front of us that we want to play for."

First up for the Red and Blue is Cornell, the only team that finished below the Quakers in the Ivy League standings last season. With the return of senior forward Shonn Miller from an injury that kept him out all of 2013-14, the Big Red (10-10, 2-2) have already bounced back significantly from last season's two-win campaign.

Cornell has won four of its last six, including a split of its own Ivy doubleheader last weekend. The Big Red followed up their win over Columbia on Jan. 24 with an eight-point win over Brown on Friday, before falling to Yale -- the only team still undefeated in Ivy play.

If the Quakers are to continue their three-game winning streak against Cornell, putting points on the board and converting open shots early will be key. Penn has averaged 18.3 points in the first half of its past three games, never scoring more than 20 points in any of the three.

"Both nights [last weekend], I thought we struggled to score the ball," Allen said. "But defensively the difference was that we were able to give ourselves an opportunity to win on Friday.

"I think there's a lot of parity in this league, and we need to prepare our guys to play 40 minutes at a time and appreciate an 80-minute weekend."

Penn's defensive intensity will be thoroughly challenged when it returns to Levien to take on the Lions (10-8, 2-2). The last time the Quakers took on Columbia, then-sophomore guard Tony Hicks was ejected for throwing a punch and the Lions blew out the Red and Blue, 74-55.

Even without star forward Alex Rosenberg, Columbia has held its own this year. Despite dropping four of their past six, the Lions came closer than any other Ivy squad to beating Yale last weekend, falling by just four on Friday.

As the Quakers prepare to enter the major haul of its Ivy slate, long bus rides to Ithaca and games on consecutive nights may begin to take their toll. However, those challenges, like the teams Penn plays, are merely obstacles to success in the long run.

"I think [road trips] can be a good thing," Allen said. "We get away on the road and we laugh, joke, bond and share stories.

"We have a business-like approach to everything, so it's not vacation time. But we try to make those outings as much about the family, the program and winning as possible."

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