Game 8-Villanova, The Good, Bad and Ugly

For the second-straight game against ranked opponents (not including last year's win over Cornell), the Quakers beat the spread, but lost last night to No. 12 Villanova, 65-53. Some observations from an exciting Palestra:

The good: Despite the Quakers' insistence that there's no such thing as a moral victory, Penn exceeded expectations and, despite the final score, was poised for most of the second half to make a run at the Big 5 rival. The Quakers may not have had much (or any) success against city teams recently, but this should be a big motivator going into the next three Big 5 games.

The bad: Shooting continues to plague the Quakers. Miles Cartwright and Tyler Bernardini combined to go 0-for-7 from behind the arc — and with Bernardini's low offensive and defensive production (five points, zero rebounds Wednesday night), the senior needs to turn it up to earn the 28 minutes he played.

The ugly: Jack Eggleston finished with 12 points, five shy of the 1000 mark, and will now have to wait until Dec. 22, when Penn goes to Delaware, to hit the milestone. The senior co-captain was heating up in the first half and made two pretty threes, but hit just one field goal in the second stanza.