Every Saturday morning, the Palestra gives guys like Scott Kegler a chance to mean a lot to both friends and strangers alike, while losing themselves in basketball.

It’s Penn’s defense first and foremost that can elevate the Quakers back to Ivy contender status next season.

Over the course of these 31 games, many words have been spent on the Quakers’ ability to stay energized. But the Red and Blue, Hicks in particular, fed off of the Palestra crowd against Princeton.

While conventional wisdom holds that the Quakers will make leaps and bounds with more experience in 2013-14, the reality is that nothing is guaranteed.

It was a true battle on the court in the Quakers’ season finale against rival Princeton, but it all fell apart in the final minutes, as the Tigers came away with the victory.

To get revenge, Penn (9-21, 6-7 Ivy) will have to flip the script of its last dance with Princeton (16-11, 9-4), a 65-53 defeat for the Quakers at Jadwin Gym on Jan. 12 that was more decisive than its final score suggests.

For Penn basketball, this Ivy season has truly been the best of times and the worst of times and a win against Princeton would provide much-needed team momentum throughout the offseason.

Next season will decide once and for all whether this team full of underclassmen has what it takes for long-term Ivy success. But the glimpses of brilliance Penn has shown from time to time in 2012-13 have been too few and far between to suggest that this team isn’t still a youthful bunch with everything to prove.

Yale’s suffocating defense in the second half gave the Quakers fits, and the Bulldogs took advantage, turning a one point deficit at half time into a 14-point victory, defeating the Quakers, 79-65.

As flashy and important to the Quakers’ success as Hicks and Nelson-Henry have proven to be over the last two weekends, until junior Miles Cartwright graduates, he is the leader of this team. Without question.

Penn bested Brown, 66-64, on the strength of another stellar showing from Cartwright, who notched 25 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field.

See what Penn coach Jerome Allen and top scorers Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry had to say after the victory over Harvard.

One thing Saturday’s win against Harvard doesn’t change is the fact that there are still more questions about this young Penn team than there are answers.

The Quakers (8-20, 5-6 Ivy) entered their matchup against the Crimson (17-9, 9-3) having suffered two bad losses in a row against traditional Ivy bottom-dwellers Columbia and Dartmouth. But their effort against first-place Harvard would be a different story.

It’s pretty clear Penn’s level of irritation has reached the boiling point. In fact, it’s not just boiling, it’s overflowing. And it’s pretty clear why.

At the Palestra Friday night, the Big Green overtook the Quakers, 69-64, in a game that went down to the wire.

The Quakers enter this weekend’s home games against Dartmouth (6-18, 2-8) and Harvard (17-7, 9-1) with the only reasonable goal in mind of playing for pride — and for next season.