Last season Penn clinched the Ivy title on the final Friday with a win at Yale, then proceeded to eke out a hung-over victory at Brown the following night. The same thing happened this year at home, but the Quakers will look to avoid a different fate tonight from last year’s regular season finale at Princeton.
Penn (21-8, 12-2 Ivy) at Princeton (11-16, 2-11 Ivy) – 7:00 pm ET (ESPNU)
Live stats | Penn audio | Princeton audio
It’s been a very rough year for Princeton, but some small amount of solace could be taken from inflicting some damage on Penn going into the NCAA Tournament. Last year’s loss didn’t really change anything with the Quakers’ seeding, but defeat in the finale this year almost certainly would rule out a 13 seed and make a 15 seed a very real possibility. Glen Miller undoubtedly realizes this, as he was vocal about his unhappiness with his team’s effort against Brown. While there’s always a chance Penn comes in and breezes by its arch rival, odds are Princeton will succeed in making this into another ugly fight in the mud, along the lines of what we saw on Saturday at The Palestra. This certainly was the case in the first meeting between the two teams last month, and the Tigers have played better at home, going 2-4 in the league at Jadwin, compared to 0-7 on the road.
When these two teams got together on February 13 in Philadelphia, Princeton threw Penn a curveball by aggressively going after offensive rebounds while still managing to control the tempo. The Quakers didn’t help their cause by settling for semi-challenging shots in close instead of making the extra pass to get the easier look. Princeton has fallen back into the habit of fouling defensively, ranking second to last in opponent free throw rate in league games, which means Penn will need to hit its free throws tonight. Turnovers have cropped up as a problem for Joe Scott’s team at times this year (23.7 percent turnover rate in Ivy play), so the Tigers will need to take very good care of the ball tonight to keep the Quaker transition game from busting out. In addition to trying to force turnvoers defensively, Penn will look to guard the three-point arc against its trifecta-loving hosts.
Pomeroy says: Penn 57, Princeton 48
