Record-Setting Long Distance Shooting Propels MBB Past Columbia, 93-78

Published 1 month ago• 5 minute read

The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team got out to a fast start in the second half Saturday at The Palestra, and the Quakers were able to sail to a 93-78 victory over Columbia.

Penn gave up a 13-point first-half lead and only led by two at the break, but the Quakers scored the first six points of the second half and followed that up with a 13-1 run that pushed them out to a 19-point lead after eight minutes.

Penn won its second Ivy League game in a row and improved to 2-2 in league play, 6-11 overall. The Lions remain winless in the league (0-4) and are 11-6 overall.

*Penn has won two in a row for the second time this season; the Quakers also won their first two games of the campaign.

*Penn's 93-point outing was its best this season.

*Penn shot 18-of-35 on three-point shots on Saturday, a season-best 51.4 percentage.

*The 18 makes set a program record for treys against a Division I opponent; the overall mark is 21, set last year against FDU-Florham.

*This was Penn's second straight game reaching double digits in triples, and the fifth time in seven games after doing it just once in the first 10 contests.

*Penn took 35 three-point shots and just 19 two-point shots on Saturday.

*Overall, Penn shot 27-of-54 from the field, finishing at or above. 500 for the second straight game.

*Penn outrebounded Columbia, 39-27, including an 8-5 edge in offensive boards in outscoring the Lions 15-5 in second-chance points.

*Penn turned Columbia's nine turnovers into 21 points, while the Lions turned the Quakers over 15 times but could only generate 14 points from that.

*For the first time this season, Penn had five players reach double figures in the scoring column.

*Sophomore Sam Brown was a beast on Saturday, with a career-high 30 points to go with three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

*Brown also hit eight three-pointers, tied for second on the program's individual single-game list with five other players (most recently Jordan Dingle on February 12, 2022 vs. Harvard).

*Junior Ethan Roberts grabbed the last rebound of the game, giving him his fourth double-double this season and first in Ivy play (15 points, 10 rebounds). He also had five assists, tying for team-high honors.

*Senior George Smith had a superb game, tying his season highs in points (14) and rebounds (4) and dishing out a season-best four assists.

*Senior Nick Spinoso had 13 points (on just seven shots) and added three boards, two assists, a steal and a blocked shot.

*Sophomore Niklas Polonowski scored 11 points, hitting a trio of treys.

*Freshman AJ Levine continues to grow; he scored just four points but posted season/career highs in rebounds (9) and assists (5).

*Sophomore Augustus Gerhart had another active game, with seven rebounds and two blocked shots to go with three points.

*Columbia got 19 points from Avery Brown, while Kenny Noland added 16 points, six assists and three steals. Noah Robledo added 11 points. A huge factor was the absence of Geronimo Rubio de la Rosa, the Lions' leading scorer who missed almost the entire second half after going for seven points and four steals.

Penn gave up the first five points of the game Saturday, but responded with 10 of the next 12. It was still a 16-16 game when Smith and Polonowski drained consecutive treys, the start of a 17-4 run that covered a little more than four minutes and featured five three-pointers from three different players.

It was still 36-23 when Columbia got off the mat. The Lions scored nine unanswered, then responded to a Brown trey with seven more in a row. Overall, it was a 16-3 run that took just 4:30 of game time and had things level at 39-39. The teams went more than a minute without scoring, before Spinoso scored four in a row. Penn took a 44-42 lead into the locker room.

Penn scored the first six points of the second half, with Spinoso setting the tone when, off an inbounds steal, he took a fast-break pass from Levine and slammed home the transition jam.

— Penn Men's Basketball (@PennMBB) January 25, 2025

Columbia scored its first four points of the half to halve Penn's eight-point lead at 50-46, but Roberts nailed a triple and Smith followed up from distance to push the Quakers' lead into double digits. Avery Brown had a pair of free throws, but Brown scored an and-1 triple from the left corner and then Williams followed a Noland foul shot with his first three-pointer of the day for a 63-49 lead.

Penn wasn't done. Gerhart hit a pair of four shots, and then Polonowski again dialed long distance. In just more than five minutes, the Red and Blue had upped its lead from four to 19 and it swelled to 21 on a Spinoso free throw as the second half reached its midpoint.

— Penn Men's Basketball (@PennMBB) January 25, 2025

Brown put the final proverbial nails in Columbia's coffin with a little more than six minutes to go, hitting back-to-back triples to push the Quakers in front by a staggering 27 points at 87-60 with five minutes left. The Lions never got closer than 14 after that.