After a tough loss, all you can do is get back on your horse. Or Heelys. Or whatever the Quakers are using these days for their latest transportation shenanigans. Penn women's basketball will play host to Cornell and Columbia this weekend at the Palestra, looking to get back in rhythm after suffering its first Ivy League loss against Yale last week.

Hope has blossomed into opportunity for Penn men’s basketball, but the Quakers still have to seize it. Two weeks ago, hope was the only thing the Red and Blue (11-12, 4-6 Ivy) had: at 0-6 and last place in the conference, they seemed all but eliminated. Since, Penn has looked unstoppable in four straight wins, three of them wire-to-wire. Now, the fourth-place Quakers have an opportunity to play their way into the Ivy League tournament and a potential NCAA bid.

First would be head-to-head. Penn won the first meeting between the two teams as it kickstarted its comeback in the league from rock bottom to fourth just two weekends later — but the two teams meet again this Saturday in a high-stakes clash at Columbia. If the Lions were to win, but still end the season on the same record as the Quakers, the scenario would have to go to the next tiebreaker.

With just a few weeks left before the inaugural Ivy League Tournament for both men's and women's basketball, both of Penn's squads will have meaningful games to come.

Freshman Ryan Betley is currently playing the best basketball of his young career, and by no coincidence at all, Penn is enjoying its best stretch of the season.

The rookie sharpshooter played the game of his life on Friday, scoring a career-high 28, including six three-pointers at a remarkable 60 percent accuracy. He also registered seven rebounds and four assists.

Coming off a sweep of the New York schools last weekend, the Red and Blue kept their momentum going with a pair of dominant performances, blowing out Brown, 96-72, on Friday before upsetting third-place Yale, 71-55, two days later. With the wins, Penn has remarkably clawed back into fourth place in the Ivy League after being four games off not even two weeks ago.

The closest thing I can compare it to is what Liverpool FC manager Jürgen Klopp calls “Heavy Metal Football” — and well, ladies and gentlemen, what the Quakers have finally worked their way into is Heavy Metal Basketball.

It’ll be a long bus ride home for Penn women’s basketball. Across sports as a whole, many athletes hate losing more than they like winning, and that holds especially true at the elite level. And that’s exactly why this weekend isn’t as bad as it seems.

Penn women’s basketball split their second Ivy League road trip doubleheader with a win at Brown followed by their first conference loss at the hands of Yale. Despite the 61-48 defeat, the Quakers (15-7, 8-1 Ivy) still remain in sole possession of first place in the league. But that doesn’t mean they played first-place basketball this weekend.

Put the funeral pyres away — Penn men’s basketball is back. Boosted by a ridiculous 27-2 first-half run spearheaded by a career-best shooting performance from freshman shooting guard Ryan Betley, the Quakers jumped out to a 25-point first-half lead at Brown and never looked back, cruising to a 96-72 win over the Bears.

Rock-bottom after six games, even we had written this team off. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the Quakers have taken the bull that is the Ivy League by the horns and is almost halfway through a Mission Impossible: going from 0-6 to finish in fourth place and make the Ivy League Tournament.

In what was arguably Penn women’s basketball’s wildest game since last year’s epic Ivy title-clinching win at Princeton, the Quakers battled back to overcome a 16-point first-quarter deficit and edge a feisty Brown squad, 71-68, to keep their dreams of Ancient Eight perfection alive. Here are our biggest takeaways from the epic contest:

One player Penn could not have lived without at Brown was junior Michelle Nwokedi. The star forward kept her team in the game all night, scoring 21 points and giving five assists in the process. It was her composure in the second and third quarters of the contest that enabled the Quakers to slowly carve out Brown’s large lead.

Penn men’s basketball had a diamond weekend against Columbia and Cornell, winning its first two Ivy League games of the season under immense pressure. The pressure was both expected and self-imposed; the result of an 0-6 run bookended by twin loses to rival Princeton. The Quakers (9-12, 2-6 Ivy) knew that another loss meant the end to their post-season chances, and they responded with two of the most spirited performances to date.

Still undefeated in the league, the Quakers (14-6, 7-0 Ivy) are clear favorites to take another pair of wins on Friday and Saturday, but they can ill afford to take their eyes of the ball. In Brown (14-7, 5-3) they face what some might call a sleeper team, currently fourth in the league and playing some solid basketball.

Penn women's basketball's Princess Aghayere just had the best weekend of her career, and now she has the hardware to prove it. The sophomore from Reston, Va., was named co-Ivy League Player of the Week for her tremendous efforts in propelling the Quakers to wins over Columbia and Cornell.