Despite hangover in Hanover, Penn rallies to beat Dartmouth 70-58

HANOVER, N.H. — Ten minutes into the first half against Dartmouth, Penn men’s basketball coach Jerome Allen pulled all five of his starters out of the game, hoping a change would spark some sort of production from the Quakers.

Nothing, it seemed, except the intermission could help Penn.

Trailing 34-21 at the half, the Quakers steadily chipped away at Dartmouth’s lead after the break. Penn took over midway through the half and held on to win 70-58 to close out their final road trip of the season with a victory after losing to Harvard by 15 on Friday.

“I wish I knew,” senior Jack Eggleston said, looking for a cause for Penn’s anemic start. “Whether you want to call it a hangover from last night … it’s a long bus trip — you could give any number of excuses. But there’s no reason to play like we did in the first half. I thought we did a good job of making adjustments being more aggressive being sharper on both ends, and the end result showed that.”

Penn turned 35 percent first-half shooting into 59 percent in the second half, hitting eight of 12 shots from three after the break. Dartmouth’s shooting took the opposite turn as Allen’s Quakers got key stops on defense to turn the tide.

“There’s nothing I could write on the board as far as execution or my observations about the game from a tactical standpoint,” Allen said of his half-time changes. “[In the first half] we didn’t respect the game.”

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing,” he said.

In the opening minutes of the second half, the Quakers embodied that attitude — if even a little too much. Senior Conor Turley was called on a technical foul for hanging on to the rim after a thunderous dunk, which narrowed the deficit to two points. Dartmouth’s Ronnie Dixon negated the dunk with two free throws for the Big Green (5-23, 1-13 Ivy).

With the momentum rolling in their favor, the Quakers went on a 15-1 run over six minutes midway through the second half.

Penn (13-14, 7-6) took the lead with eight minutes remaining on a Tyler Bernardini three. Eggleston and Zack Rosen followed up with deep threes to give the Quakers some insurance. Eggleston finished with a game-high 21 points and eight rebounds. Bernardini followed with 16 points and Rosen had 13.

Dartmouth’s Tyler Melville stopped the bleeding with a lay in, but Penn would hold on and hit its free throws — 12-for-15 on the night — to close out the win.

It wasn’t pretty in the slightest, but Penn at least has the luxury of enjoying the long ride back to Philadelphia with a win. The Quakers will close out the season at the Palestra against Princeton Tuesday. After losing to Harvard Saturday night, the Tigers must beat Penn to hold on to a share of the Ivy title with the Crimson.

“I don’t care about Princeton, I don’t care about Harvard. We’re worried about the Penn Quakers,” said Eggleston, who will play in his final game Tuesday. “It’s my senior night. I want to go out with a win.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.