Penn clinches final Ivy League tournament berth with 58-51 win over Brown

After six roller-coaster weeks, Penn finally scratched and clawed its way to the final spot in the Ivy League tournament with a 58-51 win over Brown in front of a raucous Palestra crowd of 4,033 on Saturday.

There was an edge in the house from the opening tip. Jake Silpe hit an early three that brought the crowd to its feet, and Brown star Desmond Cambridge responded with a three and a roar toward the rafters. The action wasn’t always that pretty, but the 27-27 tie at halftime was fair.

Penn opened the second half on an 8-0 run, with defensive stops that were just as impressive as the baskets.

Brown countered with 13 of the game’s next 17 points, capped off by an Obi Okolie three-pointer that put the Bears ahead, 40-39, with 14 minutes, 34 seconds to go. Penn responded with an 11-4 run that included five straight points by Devon Goodman.

There was a grand total of one made field goal in the last seven minutes of the game, and the teams combined for seven points. But if anyone noticed, they didn’t care. All that mattered was that Penn survived.

Two weeks ago, the Quakers were 4-6 in conference play. They finished 7-7, enough to tie Brown and Cornell and win a three-way tiebreaker on head-to-head results (3-1 vs. Brown and Cornell’s 2-2).

There will be no ignominy of missing the Ivy tournament after being league co-champion last season (and winning the Big 5 this season). Penn will play Harvard in Saturday’s semifinals.

“I just sensed that over the last couple weekends, someone was going to have to really knock us out to not be in this,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said. “I tried not, as a leader, to act a certain way -- stressed. But I didn’t sense that from [the players] at all -- they actually led me. ... I didn’t see concern on any of their faces."

Goodman led all scorers with 20 points, and grabbed three steals; Brodeur had 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists; Silpe had 13 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Cambridge was Brown’s top scorer with 13 points.

Freshman Michael Wang did not play because of knee problems that Donahue said have lingered for “a good month and a half.” The injury got bad enough that Wang did not dress Saturday night, and Donahue said he won’t play in the Ivy tournament.

Saturday, March 16

Men’s semifinals

Harvard and Yale finished tied for first place. Harvard got the No. 1 seed via the tiebreaker of sweeping Yale.

12:30 p.m.: 1. Harvard (10-4, 17-10) vs. 4. Penn (19-11, 7-7), ESPNU

3 p.m.: 2. Yale (10-4, 20-7) vs. 3. Princeton (8-6, 16-11), ESPNU

Women’s semifinals

Princeton and Penn finished tied for first place. Princeton got the No. 1 seed via the tiebreaker of sweeping third-place Harvard.

6 p.m.: 1. Princeton (20-9, 12-2) vs. 4. Cornell (12-13, 6-8), ESPN3

8:30 p.m.: 2. Penn (22-5, 12-2) vs. 3. Harvard (9-5, 16-11), ESPN3

Sunday, March 17

12 p.m.: Men’s final, ESPN2

4 p.m.: Women’s final, ESPNU