Penn Welcomes Yale, Brown To The Palestra
By Matt Leon
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – It's another weekend of Ivy League action for the Penn Quakers as they prepare to welcome Yale and Brown to the Palestra.
The Quakers earned a split of their first full weekend of Ancient 8 action, beating Columbia 62-58 before losing a heartbreaker to Cornell on Saturday, 71-69.
"It's a game of inches," Penn head coach Jerome Allen tells KYW Newsradio. "Friday night's game against Columbia came down to the wire, kind of expected the same thing on Saturday night. Unfortunately, we didn't come down on the victorious side. But I thought, in stretches, we played the way we're capable of playing. Especially Saturday night, we can't afford to have lapses for a substantial amount of time and expect to win."
Penn got leading scorer Fran Dougherty back last weekend after a lengthy battle with mono, but in Saturday's game he suffered an elbow injury that could keep him out for a significant amount of time, if not the rest of the season.
Listen to Matt Leon's interview with Jerome Allen:
Jerome Allen Interview
Also in Saturday's game, the Quakers got a great burst off the bench from sophomore guard Patrick Lucas-Perry, who scored 14 points in 22 minutes.
"The one thing I can say about him is that when his number has been called, thus far, he has been ready," Allen says. "To his credit, he's selfless. Whatever we ask of him, whether it's pressuring the ball or whether it's making open shots, he does all that he can possibly can to service the group."
This weekend starts with Friday night's game with Yale, before Brown comes to town on Saturday.
"The overall weekend is going to be another challenge," Allen says.
Yale is 7-14 on the season, and 1-3 in the Ivy League.
"I expect Friday night's game to be a tough game," Allen says. "It will be a game that we have to concentrate for a full forty minutes. I think Coach (James) Jones does an excellent job of getting those guys to buy into his system and we've got to come focused and ready."
Brown is 8-10 this season (2-2 Ivy).
Both games this weekend will tip-off at 7:00pm.
You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.
