Penn And Villanova Readying For Big 5 Tilt
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- City series basketball is on tap at the Pavilion on Saturday night as Villanova hosts Penn.
This will be the second Big 5 game for each squad. Penn lost in overtime to Temple, while Villanova needed overtime to take care of La Salle.
Overall on the season, Villanova is 4-2 and head coach Jay Wright is looking forward to getting back into Big 5 action.
"You love these games. If you're from Philly you love these games, and as soon as you come to one of these Big 5 schools, wherever you're from, and you start playing, you love these games."
Hear Matt Leon's entire interview with Villanova head coach Jay Wright...
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Jerome Allen's Penn Quakers are 4-4 and coming off a win over Manhattan.
"We're part of the Big 5. We look at this as a league (Ivy) game for us and one of our goals is, not only to compete for an Ivy League championship, but to compete for a Big 5 championship as well."
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Allen talked about what they need to do to pull this one out.
"It's our duty, if we want to win this game, to continue to be poised and execute our gameplan on both the defensive and offensive end and not turn the ball over and not allow them to get out in transition and take care of our defensive boards."
Wright is impressed with what the Quakers bring to the table.
"They've got a guy in Zack Rosen that can kill you and go off for 30, but if you pay too much attention to him the other guys are all good enough that they can hurt you too. So you gotta defend them as a team, you're not going to just stop one guy and beat Penn."
Rosen is having a wonderful season for the Quakers. The senior guard is averaging more than 21 points a game and shooting 58% from the field. The Wildcats are led by junior guard Maalik Wayns' 20 points a game. Junior forward/center Mouphtaou Yarou is adding 15.2 points a contest and pulling down a team high eight rebounds a contest.
Tip-off on Saturday night at the Pavilion is set for 7:00pm.
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