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Penn tops Harvard to sweep Ivy weekend

For the first time since 2008, Penn swept the Dartmouth-Harvard weekend after topping the Crimson, 67-57, Saturday night at the Palestra.

For the first time since 2008, Penn swept the Dartmouth-Harvard weekend after topping the Crimson, 67-57, Saturday night at the Palestra.

In the middle of the Ivy League victory was Quakers freshman Max Rothschild. The 6-foot-8, 225-pounder from Chicago scored 14 points and pulled down 11 rebounds (four offensive) as Penn outrebounded Harvard, 53-32. Rothschild was one of three Quakers to record double-doubles. Darien Nelson-Henry led all scorers with 18 points and a game-high 12 boards, and Matt Howard contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds.

"I can't say enough about just our effort, in terms of competing," said Quakers coach Steve Donahue, whose team dominated in the paint, outscoring Harvard, 46-26. "These kids have done it all year."

It was Rothschild's six straight points, off feeds from Jackson Donahue and Darnell Foreman, that gave Penn (8-11, 2-3 Ivy) a 58-47 lead and the breathing room it would need with 4 minutes, 54 seconds left in the game.

"You make a couple of plays, and things start to come to you and you start getting into the flow of the offense," Rothschild said. "And you just start to feel yourself loosen up a little bit. That's how I felt tonight, and my teammates did a great job."

With starting point guard Jake Silpe picking up his fourth foul with 10:18 left in the game and Penn holding on to a 43-39 lead, Matt Howard dropped in five quick points. A pair of hook shots from the 6-11 Nelson-Henry followed by Rothschild's three layups propelled Penn to a 13-4 run.

"He's a good player and he played extremely hard," Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said of Rothschild. "He earned every bit of it. I thought he had a great presence on the floor and played with a great deal of passion and energy."

The Quakers missed 4 of 5 foul shots late - their only misses of the game - and allowed Harvard back in the game. But Donahue, after a Flagrant 1 foul on Harvard's Tommy McCarthy, hit a pair, and Foreman followed with two more as Penn held on.

"We have a young team," Rothschild said, "but our chemistry is there with any other team in the nation, I think. I love all the guys here, and I think we have a really good feel for each other now."

Harvard, the four-time defending Ivy champion, dropped to 9-13 and 1-5 in the Ivy League.

The Quakers got down, 7-0, to start the game. But the play of freshman Silpe put Penn back in it. His three-point play followed soon after by an impressive steal and feed to Donahue for a three-pointer from the corner tied the game at 10.

Penn was down by 25-20 before scoring the final seven points of the half, thanks in part to a Nelson-Henry dunk and a three from Matt Jones off a Silpe feed. For the half, Penn shot 37.5 percent (12 for 32) while holding the Crimson to 30.3 percent (10 for 33).

"To sweep Harvard and Dartmouth, both great teams, both well-coached," Rothschild said, "I think it says a lot about our toughness. We competed this weekend and I thought we grew as a team."