Call it Palestra magic, but understand how Penn’s Big 5 upset of Villanova came about

This was really happening? A Palestra stunner in the only South 33rd Street appearance for a new Big 5 tournament? The old barn close to full, Villanova fans on edge, agitation growing. Penn fans silently counted down minutes, then seconds ...

A big Villanova steal and slam dunk, maybe they steal the thing back in the end?

Let’s be clear: No Palestra fairy dust got sprinkled on Quakers players Monday night to help knock off Villanova, 76-72, causing a rare November court storming, old-school streamers flying, ball thrown high at the final whistle, the place in full throwback mode.

No, this feat … this was the Penn Quakers, all by themselves.

At least until it was too late, the Quakers outplayed, outcoached, outhustled, outshot, out-everythinged the vaunted Wildcats, who led for 53 seconds, most of that after the first basket of the game.

If Penn had made more free throws, ‘Nova fans making up at least half of the 6,723 inside could have escaped earlier, missing Penn’s student section taking over the court.

» READ MORE: Penn upsets No. 21 ranked Villanova in a Big 5 Classic of its own at the Palestra

A couple of Penn players escaped the bedlam as they headed for the Quakers locker room. Except they must have realized they were hanging out in there alone. All the rest of Penn’s players lingered on the court. Their coaches stood up in the bleachers, taking it all in. You half expected the Quakers to cut down a net.

“My second-favorite win here ever,” mentioned Penn’s athletic trainer of four decades, Phil Samko, going back three decades to a Penn-Princeton classic for a topper. (You meant that to be off the record, Sam? … Oh well.)

Penn had played a lot of zone, but this was an aggressive, guard-all-three-pointers zone, not daring ‘Nova to shoot over it so much as daring the Wildcats to venture inside it. Was that a 3-2 or 2-3? Maybe it wasn’t a matchup, but somebody surely was going to match up, for instance, with ’Nova sharpshooter Brendan Hausen.

“Late summer, Coach D says, ‘Yo, let’s just have something in the bag,’” Quakers assistant Joe Mihalich Jr. said of that zone.

Quakers coach Steve Donahue explained that this zone wasn’t just for ‘Nova; the Quakers had played it a bit already. … He’d wanted something that fit this group, which had only two starters back. He’s never been a huge fan of playing zone, Donahue said, and had used it a lot coaching Cornell, but for this one time, this could be a good wrinkle. He called it a version of the famous Syracuse zone, those wrinkles picked up from Merrimack. (“Merrimack College ‘No. 3′ Zone Defense,” available on YouTube.)

“I thought they did a decent job against it, but it’s different,” Donahue said. “It’s not the same shots you get.”

Kyle Neptune acknowledged that the Wildcats have to improve against any kind of zone or they’re going to keep seeing it. This wasn’t just a scheme win, though. Villanova players will long remember Clark Slajchert bouncing around the court causing issues, and how this freshman, what’s his name? … Tyler Perkins, that’s it, the star of this one, scoring 22. (Here’s a stat: fouls drawn. Perkins drew nine of them on his way to 22 points.)

Perkins had never heard of the Big 5 before being recruited by Penn, he admitted afterward. It’s a Philly thing, and he’s a northern Virginia kid. After scoring 25 points of his own, Villanova star Justin Moore was asked if he’d ever played against Perkins since they were both from the D.C. area and said he hadn’t heard of him before Penn popped up next on the schedule.

A reminder that these are separate generations of players. Perkins wasn’t in high school yet when Moore was graduating and coming to ‘Nova.

At what point, Perkins was asked at a press conference, did he feel they were about to pull off the upset?

“Um, when we started the scout,” Perkins said, meaning when they first heard the scouting report.

“When we started the scout?” Donahue said, sitting next to Perkins, sounding incredulous.

“He told me that,” Slajchert interjected.

“I felt confident in our guys, felt like we matched up well with them,” Perkins said. “Coach had a great plan. So, yeah. I did.”

You want to chalk this up to rookie brashness, understand that Perkins had earned that away from the bright lights.

“Tyler works harder than anybody I’ve ever seen,” Slajchert said. “I actually don’t think it’s healthy how much he works out, every second. The guys getting an opportunity now are more than ready for it.”

Donahue talked about center Nick Spinoso, the second returning starter with Slajchert, injecting life at a key juncture.

“If we’re going to be really good, Nick Spinoso’s got to play like that,” Donahue said. “He’s literally the best passer I’ve coached — in particular of the bigs.”

Villanova still is figuring out its rotation, big-time. You thought with all this new talent brought in, Neptune would have a hard time figuring out whom to sit. But depth causes its own issues. Right now, it’s more a question of who deserves to play. In the first half, Jordan Longino’s aggressive bounciness kept ‘Nova in it. Moore took over late. Nobody else found a rhythm.

» READ MORE: Villanova heads back to the drawing board

To be clear, nobody quit on this game. Villanova had eight steals and only seven turnovers. The more damning stat: The Wildcats had only six assists on 22 baskets (and only two assists at halftime) while shooting 34.9% from the field, 27.3% from three.

Sometimes the ball just isn’t falling. At the other end, Penn shot 51.1% from the field, and 41.2% from three. The Quakers had 14 turnovers but had 11 assists on 24 buckets.

It all added up to … oh, what the hell, Palestra magic. The best college basketball arena ever built, holding its own at almost a century years old, adds another memory to the pile.