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jakesilpe

Penn basketball coach Steve Donahue will look to a number of young player, including freshman guard Jake Silpe, to usher his team into conference play starting this weekend at Yale and Brown.

Credit: Thomas Munson , Thomas Munson

Now, we’re into the thick of things.

After a one-off loss against Princeton nearly three weeks ago, Penn men’s basketball (6-9, 0-1 Ivy) will dive into Ancient Eight play for good this weekend as they travel to Yale and Brown.

The Bulldogs (11-5, 2-0) and Bears (5-11, 0-2) have already faced off against each other twice this year, with Yale winning both matchups handily by a combined 31 points. The Elis, picked narrowly to win the conference in the preseason coaches’ poll, have looked every bit like the team that tied with Harvard for the conference’s top spot a season ago.

Still, Penn coach Steve Donahue is reluctant to look at the New Haven Five as anything but just another team.

“This year, all seven teams are really good,” the first-year boss said of Penn’s Ancient Eight foes. “Yale’s just the next one up. We’re excited about going up there and playing them.”

The Bulldogs’ early-season success — which has featured a two-point road loss to until-recently-undefeated SMU and an active six-game winning streak — is largely attributable to the continued excellence of reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Justin Sears. The senior forward has put up 15.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game, both of which rank in the top 10 of the conference’s leaderboards.

Sears, however, has had his veteran supporting cast prove more than capable of picking up the slack. Most notable is sophomore guard Makai Mason, who has matched Sears with 15.4 points per game while dishing out a team-high 4.1 assists per contest.

“They’re good enough around him with three other seniors, plus their leading scorer is a sophomore,” Donahue said.

After finishing with Yale on Friday, the Quakers will head to Rhode Island. While Brown is ostensibly a much more beatable team, the Bears have managed to give Penn fits in recent years, winning four consecutive matchups dating back to March 2013.

“They’re a solid team. They have a lot of good pieces,” junior guard Matt Howard said of the squad that finished tied for last in the conference with Penn a season ago. “We haven’t really looked ahead to [Saturday] yet, but we’ll be ready for them.”

For their own part, the Red and Blue will continue to look for backcourt leadership from two rookies — freshmen guards Jake Silpe and Jackson Donahue. Donahue in particular has shined as of late, averaging 17.5 points over his last four games.

“Over the last few months I’ve really gotten accustomed to playing within the system,” the Connecticut native said. “I’m starting to come along and do the right things at the right times.”

“Jackson Donahue and Jake Silpe have been playing 35-40 minutes a night, and I think you’re going to see that continue,” coach Donahue acknowledged. “One, they’re playing well and two, that’s the situation that we’re at right now.”

So, as the team faces the final 13 games to determine their Ivy fate, fans will not be rooting for the established backcourt of Tony Hicks and Antonio Woods that seemed destined to lead the team just a few months ago; rather, the Penn faithful will put their trust in two first-year players riding the hottest streaks of their young careers.

“My mentality is not going to change just because we’re coming into Ivy play,” Jackson Donahue said. “I’m just going to keep cutting, keep shooting and keep finding ways to get open.”

The Red and Blue have already played more than half of their games, a 15-contest stretch which has clearly featured both ups (a 16-point victory over La Salle) and downs (that overtime loss to Princeton).

However, much like the careers of Silpe and Donahue, the part of the season that truly matters is just getting started.

Jacob Adler contributed reporting.

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