After jumping out to a massive early lead, Penn basketball regressed substantially over the game’s final 30 minutes en route to a 69-59 loss to Harvard Friday night.

Penn women's basketball beat a team ranked 20th in the RPI while hardly pulling out of first gear on Friday night, with a 63-43 demolition of Harvard taking the Quakers to the top of the Ivy League.

Penn women's basketball topped Harvard 63-43 in a highly-anticipated affair that never really lived up to its billing. Penn (11-6, 4-0 Ivy) locked the game down from the get-go and never gave the Crimson (16-2, 4-1) a chance to work their way back into the contest.

Harvard (11-6, 3-1 Ivy) has perennially been one of the toughest outs in the Ivy League, and with point guard Syani Chambers back after missing last season with an injury, they are firing on all cylinders again. 

Around Penn Athletics, there will be no shortage of high-octane matchups across the board this weekend. All in all, seven Penn teams will be in regular season action over the next three days, with the majority of them getting deep into the crucial stretch of conference play. With such an action-packed weekend ahead, our sports editors head to the roundtable to debate: which Penn team is under the most pressure to perform this weekend?

The calendar has turned to February, and it's conference play the rest of the way for Penn women's basketball. But that might not go quite as smoothly as the defending champs would hope.

February 7 is far and away the most important day of the Penn men’s basketball season. For the first time since 2012, Penn's students will be on campus to witness one of the most historic rivalries in college basketball when the Quakers take on the Princeton Tigers at home.

The freshman's game against La Salle wasn't just one of the best performances in the Ivy League last week. Brodeur scored more points in one game — 35, to be exact — than any other men's basketball player for Penn in the past 20 years. Despite his rookie label, the forward was quick to play down his inexperience.

As we get deeper into the second semester, we’ve started to get a firm grasp on the true makeup of Penn’s winter sports teams. Though there unquestionably is still time for certain teams to flip the script, we’ve already seen enough from most squads to judge whether they’re contenders or pretenders at this point. With that said, our sports editors take to the roundtable to debate: which Penn winter team has exceeded expectations the most so far:

From the Quakers' perspective: trap avoided. In a game that was close for a total of five minutes, Penn women’s basketball dispatched Stevens Tech 89-43.

In its final non-conference game of the season, Penn women’s basketball cruised to a 89-43 victory over Stevens Tech, breaking a few team records under coach Mike McLaughlin in the process.

This was a special performance. Brodeur started off the game hot with 14 first half points, but it only got better from there. Simply put, Brodeur dominated down the stretch. He finished the game with a career-high 35 points, including 13 in a row for the Quakers at one point, and also scored the biggest points of the game with two big free throws to put Penn up three with just two seconds left. Brodeur’s 35 are the most in a game for Penn since 1995.

Don’t let the 63-53 scoreline deceive you, the Penn women’s basketball took Temple’s explosive side down to the wire in tonight’s Big 5 finale.

In its final Big 5 tilt of the season, Penn women's basketball just couldn’t keep up with Temple’s size and athleticism, falling by a score of 63-53. The score doesn’t do Penn justice, as the Red and Blue held a lead as late as 4:47 in the fourth quarter. The Quakers (9-6, 0-4 Big 5) finish winless in Big 5 play on the season, failing for the first time in five years to win a game in the mini-conference.

Wednesday evening, Penn men’s basketball made the most of its last matchup against a Big 5 foe, outpacing La Salle, 77-74, on the road.

Losers of four straight, Penn men's basketball knows that as the losses pile up, so does its chances of earning a spot in this year’s inaugural Ivy League Tournament. But not to worry — the Red and Blue travel across town to La Salle Wednesday night with one last chance to iron out the wrinkles before resuming conference play in February.

Needless to say, the local lack of success for Penn basketball has been disappointing, particularly so for a women's team that won the Big 5 as recently as 2015. With these struggles in mind, our sports editors take to the roundtable to debate: Does the Big 5 still matter to Penn basketball?