Yale's late run sinks Penn
Penn continues to play competitive Ivy League games, but the young Quakers are finding it difficult to close the deal.
With a youthful team made even younger by injuries, Penn basketball coach Jerome Allen refuses to use any excuses.
His team doesn't have a senior and has been competitive in Ivy League play, but has had trouble closing the deal.
And Allen couldn't hide his frustration after Friday's 68-59 loss to Yale at the Palestra, where the winners put the game away with a late 7-0 run.
"I am not into making excuses for our inability to get it done," said Allen, whose team fell to 4-17 overall and 1-3 in the Ivy League.
The Quakers played without leading scorer Fran Dougherty, who suffered a season-ending elbow injury during last Saturday's 71-69 loss to Cornell. Penn was also without junior guard Steve Rennard, who was sidelined with a foot injury.
"To be honest, we don't have any freshmen anymore. We are 20 games into the season, and by now everybody has played a significant number of minutes, and everybody should be at another level," Allen said.
Penn 6-foot-11 freshman Darien Nelson-Henry, one of the team's recent bright spots, was held to one point in 18 minutes. He didn't play late in the game, and when Allen was asked why, he said: "No comment."
Yale is now 8-14 overall and 2-3 in the Ivy League and survived a 1-for-10 shooting effort by senior guard Austin Morgan, the team's leading scorer.
Penn sophomore Henry Brooks had a team-high 12 points, and freshman Tony Hicks added 11. Sophomore guard Armani Cotton had 15 points for Yale.
After Hicks made a layup to tie the score at 44 with 10 minutes, 10 seconds left, Yale went on a 10-0 run. Penn then scored nine consecutive points, including seven by Hicks, to cut the lead to 54-53 with 3:56 remaining.
Morgan's three-pointer from the corner extended Yale's lead to 62-57 with 1:09 left. Yale sealed the win by closing out a 7-0 run with four more free throws.