Game 20 - Cornell: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Another game, another devastating overtime loss for the Quakers. Penn's first two overtime losses — to Harvard and Princeton — in this three-game losing streak were understandable, and, if anything, they were encouraging for Penn's prospects in the Ivy League. But Penn played down a level to Cornell Friday night. This one's got to be tough for the team, but for some context:

The Good: Not much here, but Jack Eggleston's line was once again impressive: 21 points, nine rebounds, and five assists Captain Jack is starting to make these type of lines look routine (averaging 19.2 points and nine boards over his last five games). Probably the lone bright spot for Penn, Jack brought it all game — logged 45 minutes — and you have to feel for him, as he's valiantly pulling out these big-time games, yet receiving "L's" at the end of the night. Another "good" that I completely forgot about during the game? Rosen's 15 points pushed him over the 1,000 career points mark (he entered the game sitting on 999), the 36th player to do so in Penn history. I'm sure he wasn't feeling good about this one though post-game.

See more after the jump.

The Bad: Penn's lack of focus to start the game. I don't know if it's just me, but I was expecting Penn to come out firing on all cylinders, getting back to the basics and cruising to a nice victory to lift their morale. You have to give Cornell credit, though. The Big Red came out of the gates on fire and Penn really had no answer for Max Groebe, who torched Penn for six threes off the bench. To give some context, my favorite stat of the first half was that nine different players for Cornell had scored in the first half. NINE! When Cornell eventually cooled off, Penn was able to climb back in it and even take a nine-point lead with 8:41 remaining, but ultimately, the duo of Chris Wroblewski and Groebe was too much. I talked to Wroblewski after the game and not surprisingly, he told me that Coach Bill Courtney had emphasized in practice that the Big Red needed to take it to a Penn team that would be mentally and physically exhausted, and they sure did. So did Penn lose due to their mental and physical fatigue? I can't say for sure (and I'll toss that out to you guys), but the Quakers certainly had their chances to win the game and they didn't execute down the stretch — they were outscored 8-3 in the final four minutes of regulation.

The Ugly: Is it Turley's missed 1-and-1 free throw that could have given Penn the lead with 1.3 seconds remaining ? Miles Cartwright's 9 turnovers? Or Penn's bench getting outscored 54-15?

All three were pretty ugly, but I'm sure the ugliest part of it all must just be the sick feeling the Quakers have in their stomachs. Three-straight overtime losses — I can't think of a team that has gone through that. Can you?