Philadelphia: The push to make the Ivy League Tournament goes on as the Penn Quakers took on the Columbia Lions from “The Cathedral of College Basketball” The Palestra on the Campus of the University of Pennsylvania on Friday night. Penn comes into the game at 15-9, 3-5 in Ivy League and off an OT Loss to Harvard on February 16. The Quakers opponent Columbia enter the game at 6-16, 1-7 in Ivy league and off a loss to Brown also on February 16.
Only the top 4 teams in the Ivy League make the conference tournament and the Penn Quakers stand in 5th place coming into the game.
Columbia would open the scoring on a basket from Randy Brumant, Penn would get on the board with two foul shots from Bryce Washington. The Quakers would struggle to make their shot and because of that, Columbia Lions would take full advantage as they would have two separate leads of 6 with the last one being 10-4. Penn would take their first lead of the game on a three-pointer from Antonio woods which made it13-12 with 12:16 left. The Lions would answer the run and Penn would counter the run late in the half as Quakers took a 35-30 at halftime,
In the Second half, Columbia would make things very difficult for the Quakers. The Lions would have a 7 point lead at 65-58 with 5:10 left & the Quakers would show that fight as they would not go away as they would tie the game at 70 with 1:33 left as AJ Brodeur makes the shot & got fouled.
AJ Brodeur Basket & FOUL
Penn took the lead at 72-70 with 49 seconds left, The Lions would tie the game with 33 seconds left and this Game would head to OT tied at 72
In the OT, the Quakers would have a 5 point lead and Columbia would rally back and score the winning shot with 1.4 on the clock as Maka Ellis scored from under the basket
Maka Ellis Winning Shot
Penn would have one final shot at the end and it would come up short, Columbia Lions would take down Penn 79-77 in OT. This loss really hurts for Penn in trying to make the Ivy League Tournament.
Penn goes to 15-10 3-6 in Ivy League and will try to rebound from this gutwrenching loss as they take on Cornell on February 23 while Columbia goes to 7-16, 2-7 in Ivy League and attempt to get back to back wins as they take on Princeton also on February 23.
Final Stats:
Penn Quakers:
Antonio Woods: 16 points, 8 rebounds
Jake Silpe: 14 points, 6 rebounds
AJ Brodeur: 13 points, 5 rebounds
Columbia Lions:
Gabe Stefanini: 20 points, 8 rebounds
Maka Ellis & Patrick Tape each with 14 points
Video:
Penn Coach Steve Donahue:
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