The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team struggled to stop Brown's hot shooting throughout the second half of Saturday night's game at the Pizzitola Sports Center, and the Bears were able to put away the Quakers 82-72.

  Brown shot 62.5 percent from the field (15-24) and knocked down four of its eight three-point shots in the final 20 minutes. Despite those numbers, Penn hung around and even got within a point after a rare seven-point possession, but ultimately the host Bears were able to hang on.

  Penn is now 6-16 overall and 2-7 in Ivy League play while Brown—which swept this home weekend against Princeton and Penn—improved to 4-5 in league play and 12-10 overall.

 
*Penn never led in the game and was tied only one time, at 11-11.

  *That said, the Bears' 10-point margin of victory was a bit misleading as it was literally the only time in the game that the margin reached double digits. Brown never had a run longer than 6-0 on Saturday.

  *Penn won the rebound battle for the second straight night and doubled up Bruno in offensive boards (10-5), winning the second-chance points tally 11-7.

  *Junior Ethan Roberts led all scorers in the game with 26 points, going 9-of-18 from the field and knocking down three three-pointers.

  *Sophomore Sam Brown had his second straight strong game offensively, going for 19 points including a 6-of-6 performance at the foul line.

  *Senior Nick Spinoso was the Quakers' third double-digit scorer, with 10 points, and he led the Red and Blue with six rebounds.

  *For the second straight night, Niklas Polonowski had nine points on a trio of treys; he was 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.

  *Brown had five guys score in double figures, led by Kino Lilly Jr. who finished the night with 23 and dished out a game-high five assists. Landon Lewis—who missed the first meeting this season, an 88-79 Brown win at The Palestra—finished the night with 20 points, (7-11 FG), seven rebounds and five blocked shots. Malcolm Wrisby-Jefferson recorded 11 points, six boards, four assists and three steals.

 
Penn has been beset by slow starts recently, and that was the case again on Saturday night as Brown scored the first six points and got it to 9-2. Penn settled down after that, and Roberts hit two of three foul shots out of the under-12 media timeout to make it an 18-16 game. It was a two-point game again when a Polonowski triple made it 33-31, but Lilly scored the game's next five points to re-establish a margin. The Bears led at the break, 39-35.

  Brown got out quickly in the second half, and a five-point run over a 20-second span had Bruno's lead at nine and forced a Penn timeout. The stoppage settled things, and the Quakers scored the game's next seven points to make it a two-point game (48-46) by the under-16 media.

— Penn Men's Basketball (@PennMBB) February 16, 2025

Brown got momentum back out of that stoppage, going on a modest 8-2 run to get back in front by eight, but Penn got right back into it with the incredibly rare seven-point possession.

  The whole thing started when Polonowski drained a three-pointer from the right corner. As the ball swished through the basket a foul was called on Brown's N'famara Dabo as he knocked Spinoso to the ground battling for rebound position. (It was the second time that happened on Saturday night, as Dabo was called for the same foul in the first half). Following a review, Dabo's foul was upgraded to a flagrant 1 and Spinoso was given two foul shots. He missed the first but made the second, and then on the ensuing inbounds Roberts drilled another triple from up top to make the score 56-55.

  Brown scored on its next possession, but Bears head coach Mike Martin's chirping at the refs caught up to him as Penn brought the ball up and he was hit with a technical. Brown took the foul shots for Penn and made both, and the score was 58-57 as the teams took the floor out of the under-12 media timeout.

  Once again, Lilly had the response for Brown. He drilled a triple, then turned a steal into another bucket which got the margin to six (63-57). Brown dialed long distance to halve the deficit for Penn, but Lyndel Erold scored the game's next five points and the Bears were back up by eight by the under-8 media timeout.

  Bruno kept Penn at bay the rest of the way, the Quakers getting as close as six points just once in the final seven minutes when Brown scored in the paint for Penn to make the score 75-69.

 
Penn is back at home for its final two games at The Palestra in 2024-25, hosting Dartmouth on Friday at 7 p.m. and Harvard on Saturday at 6 p.m. The Quakers will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday, ahead of the game with the Crimson.

  For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.

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