The Quakers struggled by going 4-10 against their pre-Ivy schedule. Their 10 losses came against teams with a combined record of 137-62. And they start two freshmen and two sophomores. The Ivy, however, is what matters, what gives Penn the opportunity to get to the NCAA tournament. And while defending champion Cornell (11-6, 3-0 IL) is again formidable, and Harvard has a win over Boston College, the Quakers will be in the mix, something they proved with last night’s 66-60 victory up in Cambridge. It was, as Jonathan Tannenwald notes in The Inquirer, a continuation of the strong game they played last Saturday against Saint Joe’s, when they led by 16 early before losing by 12. Zack Rosen, a freshman point guard who had been recruited by Villanova, scored 15 points and had nine assists, showing he could be a difference-maker in games against the Ancient Eight. Jack Eggleston led all scorers with 19 points, and and freshman Rob Belcore, tasked with guarding Hahvad’s leading scorer, Jeremy Lin, limited Lin to 13 points, which is five below his season average. The Quakers (5-10, 1-0 Ivy) are at Dartmouth tonight at 7.

Link: Penn beats Hahvad [The Inquirer]

A quick glance at who’s playing whom, when and where this weekend around the city…
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It’s not every day that a former Big 5 player lands a gig acting on a hit television show. But today is one of those days.
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Rhode Island was without Keith Cothran, its second-leading scorer, who was down with a knee injury. And it didn’t matter. The Rams beat Your Temple Owls, 67-59, last night in Kingston, R.I. The Owls used a 10-0 run to tie the game at 53, and then had just one field goal in the game’s final 10 minutes. They shot 39 percent for the game, but check out this quote in the Daily News from coach Fran Dunphy, who was referring to what happened in that fateful, dreadful stretch:

[W]e had a missed layup by Dionte Christmas. We had a missed layup by Luis Guzman. We had a missed layup by Micheal Eric. We had a missed wide-open jumper by Ryan Brooks. We had a missed wide-open jumper by Juan Fernandez.”

Ouch. It certainly didn’t help that Christmas (27 points) accounted for nearly 46 percent of Temple’s offense. Or that Lavoy Allen had five points and three rebounds amidst much foul trouble. Or that Craig Williams, a catalyst who had helped the Owls win six of seven since becoming a starter, was out with an ankle injury sustained in practice earlier this week.

Temple (11-8, 3-2 A-10) hosts Richmond on Saturday.

Link: Temple can’t shoot against the Rams [Daily News]

We mentioned the other day that La Salle finally got a win against a solid program when it beat UMass on Saturday on the road. Explorers teams in the past tended to follow big wins with bad losses, which was pretty much the scenario they were facing when George Washington came to 20th and Olney last night with a nine-game losing streak in tow. And, as if on cue, La Salle found itself behind by one with a little less than six minutes to play. But the Explorers pulled away down the stretch and won just the sort of game they so often used to lose, 76-66. Check out Rodney Green’s line: 20 points, eight assists, six rebounds, two steals. He’s not in the Christmas-Nivins-Cunningham conversation for Big 5 player of the year, but he just might be next season. Yves Mekongo Mbala had 22 points and nine rebounds, Vernon Goodridge had 11 boards, and Paul Johnson scored 13 points in just 20 minutes in addition to playing solid D on GW’s Noel Wilmore, a Chester High product, according to Bob Cooney’s story in the Daily News. La Salle coach John Giannini, in a blog entry at the Daily News‘ Philly Hoops Insider,
raves about Johnson’s leadership and how much it has contributed to the Explorers’ sudden solid play. Winners of three straight at seven of nine, La Salle (12-7, 3-2 A-10) visits Rhode Island on Saturday.

Link: La Salle has a winning streak of its own, people [Daily News]
John Giannini has a blog [Philly Hoops Insider]

Yes, the Dragons are ranked 324th in the country (out of 330 Division I teams) in field-goal percentage. And yes, they shot a meager 30 percent last night. But so what? Bruiser Flint’s boys have won six in a row after completely dismantling Georgia State last night at the DAC, 64-47. The Drags owned the glass, 46-25, and had a 26-6 advantage in second-chance points, which is pretty much the only way to survive when you can’t shoot at all. But Drexel was also 21-for-24 from the line, including 16 of 17 in the second half. This really was a team picked to finish last in the Colonial Athletic Association, but it is now 11-8, 7-3 CAA, and just two games out of first. Scott Rodgers had 17 points, Evan Neisler had 10 boards, and the beat goes on. Up next is a road game at Towson (8-14, 3-7) on Saturday.

All year, it’s been about Ahmad Nivins at Saint Joe’s, what with the way the senior forward is putting up a double-double just about every night. But Tasheed Carr (pictured, left) is slowly and steadily contributing more on the offensive end, particularly with the 21 points and eight assists he had in last night’s 68-58 win at Richmond. Carr is averaging 13.4 points per game this season, but in the last four games — all Hawks wins — he’s scoring at a clip of 17.5. From the start of the season, Saint Joe’s coach Phil Martelli was worried about offense, thinking his team would struggle with it. But the Hawks are now scoring more consistently. They shot 47.9 percent against Richmond, and had a 35-28 edge on the glass, with Nivins collecting 14 rebounds to go with his 15 points. It should be noted that the Spiders were without 6-9 Dan Geriot, a Springfield, Delaware County, native and a tough inside presence who’s out for the season with a torn ACL. But it should also be noted that Saint Joe’s (12-7, 5-0 A-10) has won six in a row heading into Sunday’s matinee showdown at Dayton (18-2, 4-1 A-10).

Photo credit: [Saint Joseph's University]

We’ve got a slllloooooww Internet connection here at the old Wachovia Spectrum, which explains both our late arrival and what will be out lack of constant updates from the final college basketball game at the original sports complex building at Broad and Pattison. But check back for regular updates as they come.
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This just arrived in our inbox. We’ve got to get moving to get down to the Spectrum, but we can tell you that Penn’s Jerome Allen, La Salle’s Curt Fromal and Saint Joe’s women’s player Susan Moran are going in. The full text of the release straight from the Big 5 office after the jump.
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It hasn’t been used by any of the city’s “major” teams for quite some time now, but it’s still there, at least until it gets torn down in the not-too-distant future to make way for the much-needed hotel, retail and entertainment complex that will complement the three newer playgrounds that now surround it. These days, the Spectrum bears the first name of a bank (Wachovia) that recently merged to remain solvent, a twist of cruel irony that’s about as representative of the gilded excess of our country’s ongoing financial meltdown as any. And while the old building at Broad and Pattison in South Philly will always be the place where the Flyers (literally) beat up the Russians, where Julius Erving worked his late-career magic for the 76ers, and where too many concerts from big-name acts ranging from Sinatra to Springsteen were held, it’s also been home to some tremendous college basketball games. And tonight’s Villanova-Pitt game will be the last.
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