Penn beats Columbia to earn first Ivy League win

On a young Penn team, junior guard Miles Cartwright is taking his leadership role seriously.

Cartwright scored the Quakers' final eight points and finished with a season-high 22 as Penn defeated Columbia, 62-58, in Friday's Ivy League game at the Palestra.

Penn is now 4-15 and 1-1 in the Ivy League, while the Lions fell to 9-8, 1-2.

Cartwright broke a 56-56 tie and gave the Quakers the lead for good when he hit a 17-foot jumper with 26.8 seconds left.

"I was trying to make plays, and as it got late in crunch time I know we needed something, whether it was a bucket, a pass, but I knew we needed something down the stretch," Cartwright said.

Columbia, which trailed by as many as nine points three times in the second half, had tied the score at 56 on Brian Barbour's three-pointer with 1 minute, 18 seconds left.

Then Cartwright hit the jumper and four subsequent free throws, finishing 10 for 10 from the line.

"When he broke the tie it gave them the momentum back and was big for them, and we just couldn't get over the hump," said Barbour, who had a team-high 21 points.

Penn also received a major boost from 6-foot-8 junior Fran Dougherty, who missed the previous eight games with mononucleosis. Dougherty scored five points, all in the second half. He also added four rebounds and two assists in 18 minutes.

"It was exciting," Dougherty said. "I knew my legs would be tired and wasn't sure how much I would play."

Also giving Penn a boost was 6-11 freshman Darien Nelson-Henry, who saw extensive playing time in Dougherty's absence. Nelson-Henry had 11 points and four rebounds.

With Dougherty back and Nelson-Henry rapidly developing, things could be looking up for the young Quakers, who hit 26 of 29 foul shots.

It all started with Cartwright, who is coming on strong as a team leader after scoring 21 points the previous game in a 76-69 loss at Temple.