Penn takes a 70-63 road loss to Yale, despite 27 points from star guard Jordan Dingle

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Despite a wire-to-wire affair in the first half, Penn fell at Yale, 70-63, inside the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Saturday.

The loss drops the Quakers (9-11, 2-4 Ivy) to seventh place in the Ivy League.

“Both teams competed at a really high level,” said Penn coach Steve Donahue. “Everybody’s still involved in chasing to get into the [conference] tournament.”

Jordan Dingle led all scorers with 27 points, including 19 in the first half. Entering Saturday, he ranked third in the nation in scoring at 23.4 points a game. Earlier this week, he was named to the Oscar Robertson Award Watch List for the best Division I hooper in the nation. He is the only Ivy League or City 6 member named to the list.

Penn can owe its 38-35 halftime lead to Dingle’s 19-point performance. He was the only scorer in Penn’s 9-0 run over a nearly two-minute span.

Even though Penn went to the locker room with the slim three-point lead, it showed tremendous poise on both sides of the court. The Quakers’ defense kept the Bulldogs outside of the paint, forcing them to shoot threes efficiently.

On offense, Penn took control of the ball and made 46.2% of its shots from the field.

With some halftime adjustments, Yale jumped to its first lead thanks to a 10-1 run. Dingle, along with the rest of the Quakers, fell silent in the second half. The star guard had just eight points, including a scoring drought that lasted for almost 13 minutes.

Penn’s only lead after halftime lasted just 17 seconds.

The biggest issue was turnovers. Yale scored 12 points off 11 Penn turnovers. The Bulldogs also stole the ball five times from Penn in the second half.

“We have been playing for 30 to 35 minutes [on the road],” Donahue said. “That’s what’s going to have to change.”

Penn remains in Connecticut for a late-season non-conference matchup against Hartford (4-16) on Monday (7 p.m., HH All-Access).