The 2-4 Quakers didn't have much going for them. They had lost at home to a Howard team allowing 82.3 points per game and their only win came over a Citadel team with only three non-freshmen on the roster.
But a couple of second-half spurts helped Penn come away from Thanksgiving break with a respectable 85-100 loss to No. 23 Virginia on Friday night and a 71-67 win over Navy in the third-place game of the Philly Classic on Saturday.
PENN 71, Navy 67
Saturday night's game was anything but pretty, particularly in the first half. With Navy up 26-23 at the break, the two teams combined for 1-for-16 shooting from three-point range, six assists and 23 turnovers.
"I think from my perspective it was an ugly game, but it's nice to be able to win one of those ugly games," Quakers coach Glen Miller said. "There's a certain amount of toughness that's required to win those games. And we need to be a tougher team, both physically and mentally."
In fact, it took the Midshipmen 11 and the Quakers 15 minutes to make it into double-figures. But with five minutes left in the half, the pace quickened and a sloppy game turned into a slugfest.
Each team gave the other plenty of chances to take control - both on missed shots (Penn hit 41.3 percent to Navy's 30.6) and turnovers (Penn had 22 to Navy's 18). But in the end it was the Quakers who turned up the heat on the Midshipmen when it counted the most.
"I thought their transition offense at the start of the second half was the difference in the game," Navy coach Billy Lange said. "Their energy offensively was really good, [as was] their physicality."
The Red and Blue put up 48 second-half points on 55 percent shooting and a 23-for-29 effort from the foul line. After Navy took back the lead on a 12-0 run with eight minutes to go, Penn hit eight straight free throws to slowly pull away.
Navy attempted 26 shots more than the Quakers. Still, the Midshipmen only connected on three more than their opponents. Against Penn's man defense, Navy shot a dreadful 22-for-72 from the floor, including a 5-for-28 performance from three.
As Penn's defensive stops turned into transition offense, Navy struggled to convert easy opportunities around the basket despite grabbing 16 offensive rebounds.
"I don't kind of wish, I do wish that we [would finish]," Lange said. "Early in the game we just could not make baskets."
Virginia 100, Penn 85
It looked to be a blowout in the making; the Cavaliers opened up a 14-3 lead just over five minutes into the contest.
And while Penn played Virginia even the rest of the way, the Quakers couldn't make up for the early deficit.
After going down by as many as 19 in the first half, Penn slowed down the potent Cavaliers' offense, and finally started hitting a few threes later on to keep the game close. Down 50-35 at the half, Penn stayed an even 50-50 with Virginia for the rest of the game, dropping a 100-85 decision.
The Quakers used a stunning 20-point performance from freshman Remy Cofield an eight-assist night from rookie point guard Harrison Gaines and 5-for-11 shooting from three-point range in the second half to stay alive.
The lead remained between 13 and 20 points the entire second half until Virginia used a 9-2 run in a 1:17 stretch to go up by 23 with just under six minutes remaining and put the game away.
The Quakers let Adrian Joseph shoot 5-for-7 from three-point range, but overall Virginia shot below its average against a Penn team that allows a lot of threes.
But a good part of the problem for Penn was the rebounding, an effort which Miller called "a horrendous job boxing out." The Quakers were outrebounded by a stunning 30 boards, including a 25-to-17 deficit on its own defensive glass.
In addition, All-American Sean Singletary had an off-night in front of his hometown crowd, hitting only four of his 12 shots for 16 points and coughing the ball up five times.
"We wanted him to come down and look at three defenders," the Quakers' coach said. "Our players had to play off their man, cut down on the gaps and seams in the defense and there are times that we did. We made him take some tough pull-up shots with a little bit of fade."
One for two wasn't horrible for the Quakers against one ranked team and another solid squad. They have seen significant improvements since the beginning of the season, but still have a long way to go.
"If anything, these guys should be looking back and saying 'you know all these small things we didn't do, if we did them this could have been a lot closer of a game, we could have been right in it with a chance to win,'" Miller said.
