Men's Basketball Back at it Friday

PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team has struggled through the first third of its season, no question, as young and inexperienced players get minutes while Head Coach Jerome Allen looks for the right combinations on the floor. With the University's fall exams completed, the runup to Ivy League play starts in earnest Friday night with a trip to Delaware.

GAME 10 - PENN (2-7) at DELAWARE (3-8)
Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 * 7 p.m.
Bob Carpenter Center (Newark, Del.)
TV: BlueHens.com
Radio: WNTP 990 AM (Brian Seltzer, Vince Curran)

Click here for Live Stats!

Penn Game Notes (PDF) / Delaware Game Notes (PDF)

The Penn-Delaware Series
*The Quakers and the Blue Hens have met 23 times in history, with Penn holding an 18-5 lead in the series. That record includes Delaware's 84-69 win on Nov. 12 as part of the NIT Season Tip-Off; that game was played in Charlottesville, Va. (recap and box score on page 12 of these notes).

*These teams have also met each of the last three seasons, with Penn winning last year at The Palestra (69-60) and two years ago in Newark (78-68) and Delaware taking the decision three years ago in Philadelphia (97-94 in double overtime).

*The last time Penn played a non-Ivy, non-Philadelphia Big 5 team twice in one season? Try St. John's way back in 1980-81, once in the Red Storm's Lapchick Tournament on the St. John's campus and the second time as part of the Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.

*Penn is 39-16 all-time against programs that currently compete in the Colonial Athletic Association, including this season's losses to Delaware and Drexel. (18-5 vs. Delaware, 1-0 vs. Northeastern, 15-9 vs. Drexel, 2-0 vs. Towson, 1-1 vs. Hofstra, 2-0 vs. William & Mary, 0-1 vs. James Madison ... 0-1)

A Short December
After an intense start to the season that included a stretch of six games in an 11-day span, things have slowed down considerably for the Quakers in the month of December. Friday's game will be Penn's first in 13 days and just its third in this month. The Quakers have just one more game -- next Saturday at Wagner -- before the calendar turns to 2013.

Countdown to 1,700
Penn has won 1,699 games as a program; with one more, the Quakers will become the 11th NCAA Division I program to reach 1,700 wins. (Indiana only recently became the 10th, scoring its 1,700th win Wednesday night against Mount St. Mary's.)

Quaker Notemeal From Villanova
*For the first time in the Jerome Allen coaching era, Penn was credited with an assist on every one of its baskets (13); that said, Penn's 13 field goals were a program low in the Allen era.

*Penn hit more three-point baskets (7) than two-point baskets (6).

*Junior guard Miles Cartwright went 10-of-10 from the foul line, the best performance by a Penn player since Zack Rosen went 12-of-12 against Delaware almost exactly a year ago (Dec. 7, 2011); Cartwright has hit 18 straight foul shots over the last four games and is 40-of-43 (93.0 percent) over the last seven.

*Junior guard Steve Rennard had 12 points, his first double-figure scoring game this season and third at Penn; he also tied a career high with three steals.

*For the first time this season, junior forward Fran Dougherty did not lead Penn in rebounding; those honors were shared by Cartwright and freshman center Darien Nelson-Henry.

*Nelson-Henry also tied a season/career high with seven points and set a new high with 21 minutes.

*Sophomore forward Greg Louis set a season/career best with eight points and played 22 minutes, also a season/career high.