Three Up, Three Down: St. Joseph's Edition

On Thursday, Penn basketball broke their eight-game losing streak in a close and admittedly ugly 54-53 victory over NJIT. Up next, the Quakers will (not really) go on the road for a Big 5 matchup against St. Joseph's at the Palestra, for which the Hawks are the official home team. Here are some predictions for the Quakers' third Big 5 contest of the season:

Three Up-

Darien Nelson-Henry: In his first career start on Thursday against NJIT, Nelson-Henry had somewhat of a coming out party. He recorded his first collegiate double-double and was a huge factor in Penn’s vast improvement on the boards. The turnover problems are still there, but the Quakers will need to rely on DNH to be a presence in the paint, especially if Henry Brooks finds himself in foul trouble again.

Penn's bench contribution: St. Joseph’s Halil Kanacevic will miss his third straight game due to a death in the family. With him out, the Hawks won’t have a single bench player who averages more than 10 minutes per game. The Red and Blue will look to take advantage of their much deeper bench, as coach Allen has 10 players fit who average double-digits in minutes per game.

Patrick Lucas-Perry: While just about everyone else on the team underperformed against NJIT, Lucas-Perry was a rare bright spot. PLP scored eight points in only nine minutes on the court, including Penn’s final five points to grab the victory. So Perry has now been a driving force in two of the three Penn wins of the season — NJIT and UMBC. Expect more minutes for the diminutive guard as the Quakers will need all the help they can get to shut down an explosive St. Joe’s backcourt.

Three Down-

Penn turnovers: At some point, there really is nowhere to go but up. Or down, in this case. The Quakers turned the ball over a ghastly 26 times against NJIT, but expect that number to be significantly lower on Saturday. St. Joe’s only causes its opponents to commit 10.9 turnovers per game this season, while hopefully coach Allen will have made some tweaks to who handles the ball for Penn and how they do it.

Jamal Lewis: With the recent emergence of Tony Hicks, Lewis has seen his minutes drop in the past few games. His performances have also dropped: 0 points off just two shots against Princeton and NJIT. This won’t have gone unnoticed by coach Allen, who should give emerging players like Lucas-Perry more minutes.

Penn rebounding deficiencies: Kanacevic’s absence for the Hawks also hurts them on the boards. St. Joe’s will miss his 7.2 rebounds per game, especially as Penn has been steadily improving in the rebounds department. Against NJIT, Quakers won the rebounding battle 41-24, the highest margin ever under coach Allen.