The University of Pennsylvania men’s basketball team secured a narrow 74-72 victory over Lafayette at The Palestra on Monday night. The Quakers, playing without their leading scorer Ethan Roberts due to an injury sustained in the previous game against Villanova, improved their record to 6-4. Lafayette dropped to 3-8 with the loss.
Penn limited its turnovers to nine, a season low, and recorded 18 assists for a season-best assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.00.
Augustus Gerhart led Penn with a career-high 15 points—all scored in the first half—and added six rebounds while shooting 6-of-7 from the field. Junior TJ Power came close to his third double-double this season, contributing 14 points and nine rebounds along with two assists. Freshman Dalton Scantlebury also scored 14 points and grabbed three rebounds.
Michael Zanoni finished with nine points and ended his streak of consecutive made free throws at 18 after missing his third attempt of the night. Sophomore AJ Levine set personal highs with eight assists and matched his season best with five rebounds, scoring eight points including two three-pointers.
Senior Cam Thrower started in place of Roberts, recording six points, three rebounds, and four assists. Lucas Lueth contributed four points and seven rebounds, six of which were offensive.
For Lafayette, Caleb Williams scored a game-high 21 points. Mark Butler added 14 points while Andrew Phillips finished with 16 points, four rebounds, and two assists. Christian Humphrey-Rembert tallied eight points and led the Leopards with eight rebounds.
Penn built an early lead by scoring 14 unanswered points to go ahead 22-6 in the first half before Lafayette responded with a run that narrowed the gap to five. At halftime, Penn led by eight at 41-33.
Lafayette opened the second half strongly and took its only lead at 46-45 following free throws by Humphrey-Rembert. However, Penn quickly regained control as Lueth’s basket sparked a six-point run that put them back ahead for good.
Despite building an eight-point advantage late in the second half, Penn saw its lead shrink as Lafayette rallied within one point multiple times in the final minutes. With just under five seconds left, Cam Thrower made one of two free throws for Penn before Butler’s last-second drive for Lafayette missed as time expired.
Penn will next play at Rutgers on Saturday, December 20th at 8 p.m.
