La Salle came to the Palestra ready to play some high intensity Big Five basketball—and Penn was the victim.
After the Explorers jumped out to a 9-0 start, Penn senior co-captain Zack Rosen finally put the Quakers on the board five minutes into the first half. Although the Quakers cut their opponents’ lead down to five after some clutch offensive rebounds by Rob Belcore late in the second, it was too little to late for the Red and Blue. Penn ultimately suffered a 68-57 Big Five loss to La Salle last night.
Penn couldn’t get much started offensively, as Rosen was held to just 8 total points. Despite the Explorers’ constant pressure, Tyler Bernardini picked up some slack and netted 12 points of his own. Fran Dougherty was Penn’s leading scorer and came off the bench to add 14 to the Quakers’ cause.
The game’s leading scorer, was La Salle’s Tyreek Dureen, who put up 21 points for the Explorers. Dureen also helped his squad on the defensive end with four steals and three defensive rebounds.
Check back later for a full recap.
