Penn Readies For Empire State Weekend

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Penn Quakers are headed to New York for a couple of Ivy League match-ups this weekend.

On Friday, they will visit Cornell up in Ithaca before heading to New York City for a Saturday night tussle with Columbia.

The Quakers are 6-11 this season (1-2 in the Ivy League) after splitting their first Ancient 8 weekend.  A 58-51 win over Dartmouth on Friday night at the Palestra was followed by a 61-38 home loss to Harvard on Saturday night. In that game the Crimson jumped out to 36-15 halftime lead and never looked back.

"I'll give them some credit," Penn head coach Jerome Allen tells KYW Newsradio. "I'll blame us a little bit, I'll blame myself, first and foremost. I just thought the overall weekend, I thought the guys did a tremendous job Friday night of being locked in to the scout and really leaving it on the floor. And then on Saturday, I just felt like we ran out of gas a little bit. That could be a direct function of our youth and inexperience, playing such a quick turnaround. But it could also be just us being in the process of learning how to win and playing a complete 80 minute weekend with an appreciation of just taking it 40 minutes at a time."

Listen to Jerome Allen with KYW's Matt Leon:

It was a good weekend for Penn sophomore guard Matt Howard. He poured in a career high 18 points in Friday night's win (shooting 6 of 8 from the field) and then he was the only Quaker to finish in double figures on Saturday, scoring 11 points. Allen says they've really pushed Howard to be more aggressive on the offensive end.

"He has taken to the coaching," Allen says. "He works extremely hard and I'm just happy that he's now being able to see some tangible results as far as the work he's put in."

On Friday night Penn will take on a Cornell team that is 10-10 overall and 2-2 in the league and led by an outstanding talent in Shonn Miller. The 6'7" senior forward paces the squad in scoring (16.2) and rebounding (8.0).  Cornell also split its two games last weekend, beating Brown on Friday before losing to Yale on Saturday.

"I think, first and foremost, (Cornell) Coach (Bill) Courtney has done a tremendous job of getting these guys to play together and play for one another," Allen says. "They play aggressive defensively, they push the ball in transition, they play physical with Miller on the perimeter and on the block."

Last season the Quakers won both match-ups with Cornell.

On Saturday, Penn faces a Columbia team that is 10-8 heading into the weekend which the Lions will open on Friday night by hosting Princeton.

Penn and Cornell will tip-off on Friday night at 8:00pm in Ithaca.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.