Daily Cup of City 6 (3/1/14)

By Sean Kennedy

Yesterday’s Action

Brown 76, Pennsylvania 67

Penn put forth a disjointed effort Friday night against Brown as they continued their slide down the Ivy League standings with their fourth loss in five games. The Quakers brought a 16-point 2nd half Brown lead down to 5 in the final minute but the initial deficit proved too big a hill to climb to complete the comeback. Penn was hurt by a poor night at the charity stripe, where they shot just 12-23, while also getting out-rebounded by the Bears 46-34.

Tony Hicks kept Penn in the game in the first half, recording 17 points on 7-13 shooting by the break. He cooled off after halftime but still finished with a game-high 25 points. Brown had two players record double-doubles, with Steven Spieth leading the way with 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Cedric Kuakumensah adding 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 blocks (adding to his already-school record block total). The Quakers are back in action tonight against second-place Yale.

Box Score

Today’s Action

1:00 PM: Drexel (16-12, 8-7 CAA) @ Northeastern (9-20, 6-9 CAA)

The Dragons find themselves in a weird position entering their final regular season game as they’re locked into the 4-seed in the conference tournament regardless of today’s outcome, and they’re not anywhere near the bubble where an additional win would help them earn an at-large tournament bid. So the only things on the line for Drexel today are some possible improvement toward an NIT bid, and the achievement of finishing above .500 in conference play. For Northeastern, they can still earn anywhere between the 5th and 7th seed for the conference tournament; a win by the Huskies might mean a rematch between these two teams in the first round. Drexel won the first game between these team’s in a double-overtime thriller as Chris Fouch scored 31 points and Frantz Massenat was 2 assists shy of a triple-double. Hopefully, this regular season finale is half as exciting as that contest.

3:00 PM: Saint Joseph’s (20-7, 10-3 A-10) @ St. Bonaventure (16-12, 6-8 A-10) – NBCSN

With three regular season games remaining, the Hawks look to build on their current 5-game winning streak and solidify their second-place position in the Atlantic 10. St. Joe’s finds itself firmly in the NCAA tournament field but all they can change with a couple bad losses down the stretch. However, the Bonnies are reeling fresh off losses against both La Salle and Rhode Island, two teams not in the same class as the Hawks. St. Joe’s has too much on the line to stumble in New York; with March now upon us, the Hawks better get used to play games this month, because they’ll have plenty more to come.

5:00 PM: La Salle (13-14, 5-8 A-10) @ Fordham (9-17, 2-11 A-10)

After finally snapping their 5-game losing streak, the Explorers will look to build on that effort against the last-place Rams. Fordham has lost 5 straight contests themselves, and look poised to have to take part in the initial play-in game of the A-10 tournament. The Rams play an up-tempo style that leads to big scoring totals for the likes of Jon Severe (18.7 ppg) and Branden Frazier (17.2 ppg), but they shoot 34% and 41% from the field, respectively, as part of a team-wide inclination toward bricks. Against one of the few teams in the nation who actually shoot worse than them, La Salle ought to earn their first two-game winning streak since mid-January.

7:00 PM: Pennsylvania (7-17, 4-6 Ivy) vs. Yale (14-11, 8-3 Ivy)

Tonight marks the final home game for the Penn seniors, a group that includes starters Fran Dougherty and Miles Jackson-Cartwright. Things haven’t gone as they might have hoped in their senior year but they can still do something about that against a Bulldogs squad in a freefall of their own. Yale has fallen from first-place in the Ivy League with two straight losses, and now sitting two games behind conference leader Harvard, another defeat would spell postseason elimination for the Bulldogs. Yale put the screws to Penn a few weeks back behind 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 blocks from forward Justin Sears. Despite Yale’s recent struggles, Penn does not look to be in any position to pull off the upset in Philly tonight.

9:00 PM: Temple (7-20, 2-13 AAC) vs. Houston (14-14, 6-9 AAC) – ESPNU

Granted, the Owls are coming off an extremely tough stretch of opponents, but they’ve still lost 7 of 8 games and find themselves all alone in last place of the AAC. Houston easily dispatched Temple down in Texas behind a Herculean effort from TaShawn Thomas, who dropped 25 points on 10-12 shooting, 9 rebounds, and 6 blocks. The Cougars are looking are looking to maintain the 6th-seed in the conference to avoid the initial conference tournament play-in games that 7-10 have to take part in. We’ll see if the Owls have a better gameplan in place to contain Thomas and can build some momentum going into the AAC tournament.