Game 22 — at Brown: The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Penn completed the series sweep of Brown last night at the Pizzitola Center in Providence, R.I. As most victories are wont to be, this game had plenty of good for the Quakers and not all that much bad. Nevertheless, your good, bad and ugly:

The Good: It would be easy to pick Tyler Bernardini’s 26-point night on red-hot shooting (6-of-8 from three), but I was even more impressed by the Quakers’ defense down the stretch. This game almost became another heartbreaker, as Penn’s double-digit lead dwindled in the second half and Brown’s three-point shooting eventually brought it back in front, 49-48, with about six minutes remaining. From that point on it may have just been Brown cooling off, but the Quakes noticeably kicked it up a gear defensively, closing out quicker on three-pointers and actively pressuring the ball to force some key turnovers. Honorable Mentions: Besides Bernardini’s night, there was Mike Howlett’s 10-7 night, Zack Rosen’s 8-8 free throw shooting (mostly in the final minutes), and more simply, just getting an Ivy road win and snapping an eight-game Ivy road losing streak.

The Bad: The bad part of this game is hidden in that overly extensive breakdown of the good, and that was Penn letting Brown back into the game. The Quakers had total control in the second half before Brown went on its run to take the lead. It’s tough to complain since they were able to pull out the win, but as Megan wrote this week, the Quakers continue to struggle with inconsistency. When the game got tight, one commenter on the live blog said “Both teams know who's going to win this game. We do, too.” reflecting an obvious lack of confidence in this team as a result of the way it has closed out recent games like Harvard, Princeton and Cornell.

The Ugly: This DP sports writer’s battle with rush hour traffic on the way to the game. As many of you loyal followers know, we got to the game about 8 minutes (of clock time) into the first half because of horrendous delays on I-95 outside of New Haven. Rush hour traffic around New York is understandable. But New Haven?