On Saturday, Penn men’s basketball took the battle to New Haven to face the Ivy League leader Yale Bulldogs. The two of the top programs in the Ivy looked to extend their respective win streaks, but Penn ultimately fell 74-70 in a fierce game that came down to every possession.
“It’s typical of ... the games in this league,” head coach Fran McCaffery said. “They're all pretty even. They all come down to the last couple possessions. Nobody's blowing anybody out. You just, you know, you gotta play a little bit smarter, get a break.”
The Quakers’ three-point offense and defense
The Quakers (13-11, 6-5 Ivy) started the first half on fire with a 10-0 run to start the game, in large part due to the team’s shots from the three point line, finishing the half shooting 66% from deep. Junior forward TJ Power couldn’t seem to miss, quickly downing three triples, and senior guard Michael Zanoni opened his game making three of his four shots from beyond the arc.
Penn’s three-point defense in the first half shut down the best three-point shooting team in D1 basketball. Penn's three point defense, which has been stellar all year, allowed Yale (21-4, 9-2 Ivy) to connect on only 2 of their 10 three point attempts in the first half. Through the first 10 minutes of the game, Yale was trailing Penn 25-14.
Star Yale forward Nick Townsend was out this game with a concussion he suffered against Harvard and his absence was felt. The Bulldogs struggled to get any kind of consistent offense in the first half of the first period, before finding some brief scoring spurts towards halftime. But the discrepancy in shooting kept Penn in the lead and in control for the entirety of the first half.
An offensive stalemate in the second
Penn’s hot first half was immediately juxtaposed by the inefficient start to the second half. In the first 5 minutes of the second half, the Quakers didn’t score and allowed the Bulldogs to go on a 10-0 run of their own. Yale started to look more like the team that leads the NCAA in three point efficiency all year.
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But it was Penn’s offense that kept them behind the Bulldogs for the majority of the first half. The Quakers shot an abysmal 9-27 from the field, significantly lower than their 50% shooting from the first. McCaffery, however, attributes the struggles to start the second to the team’s lack of rebounding.
“[Shotmaking] really wasn't the problem. We didn’t rebound the ball. That was the issue at the beginning of the second half,” he said.
The stars of the first half, Zanoni and Power, were much quieter in the second and combined for a mere 8 points in the entirety of the second period.
“We should have done a better job getting TJ [Power] the ball in the second half,”McCaffery said. “We called some things for him, but he’s so unselfish. He just gives it up. We try to iso and try to get him in situations, but we will do a better job.”
Despite the Bulldogs shooting 4/15 on threes in this final period, it seemed like the Quaker’s offensive deficiencies took them out of the contest, and with this win Yale secured its spot in Ivy Madness.
A late push from the Quakers in the second period brought the game down to one possession in the last minute. However, a series of big shots in the final seconds from the Yale forward Isaac Celiscar gave Yale the four point win.
“This was an intense game, but, you know, it was one where I thought the kids really worked hard in preparation,” McCaffery said. “And they wanted it. They came out with the right mentality. And, they fought for us, proud of them.”
Next Friday at 7 p.m. the Quakers are back at the Palestra and will take on Dartmouth in the first night of a double header looking to secure their place in Ivy Madness.
