Men's Basketball Gets Set For New York Road Swing

PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team hits the road for the second weekend in a row, this time making the Ivy League's New York swing. The Quakers are at Cornell Friday night for a 7 p.m. tipoff, before making the trip to the Big Apple to face Columbia Saturday night at 7 p.m.

GAME 25 - PENN (5-18, 2-4) at CORNELL (13-12, 5-3)
Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 * 7 p.m.
Newman Arena (Ithaca, N.Y.)
TV: CornellBigRed.com
Radio: WXPN 88.5 FM (Matt Leon, Stan Pawlak)

GAME 26 - PENN (5-18, 2-4) at COLUMBIA (10-12, 2-6)
Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 * 7 p.m.
Levien Gym (New York City, N.Y.)
TV: GoColumbiaLions.com (there is a charge for this service)
Radio: WNTP 990 AM (Matt Leon, Stan Pawlak)

Penn Game Notes (PDF) / Cornell Game Notes (PDF) / Columbia Game Notes (PDF)

The Cornell-Columbia Road Trip
The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team has made this New York road trip 53 times; the Quakers have swept this trip 22 times, split it 21 times, and been swept 10 times (including three of the last five years). Last year, Penn swept this trip (66-64 at Columbia, 64-52 at Cornell).

The Cornell Series
*The Quakers and the Big Red have met 217 times in men's basketball, with Penn holding a 143-74 lead in the series.

*Cornell won the first meeting this season, a 71-69 decision at The Palestra in Philadelphia as Galal Cancer hit a bucket in the final seconds. Errick Peck had 20 points to lead the Big Red, while Patrick Lucas-Perry scored 14 to lead Penn.

*Cornell has won four of the last six and eight of the last 11 meetings; prior to that, Penn had won 18 in a row over the Big Red.

The Columbia Series
*The Quakers and the Lions have met 222 times in men's basketball, with Penn holding a 137-85 lead in the series.

*Penn won the first meeting, 62-58 at The Palestra. Miles Cartwright had the Quakers' last eight points in the game, and finished with 22 for the night. Brian Barbour had 21 to lead Columbia.

*Seven of the last 10 games in this series have been decided by four points or less including two with a one-point margin and three with a two-point margin.

He'll Take The Charity
Junior Miles Cartwright started the season by going 12-of-19 at the foul line-unusual, given that he began the season at almost 80 percent for his career. Since then, however, he has returned to form-in fact, he has surpassed it. Cartwright enters the weekend having gone 91-of-101 (.901) over his last 21 games. He had made 26 in a row, dating back to Jan. 23 at Temple, before missing his first free throw last Friday at Harvard.

Closing in on 1,000
Cartwright enters the weekend with 987 career points, and needs 13 to become the 38th player in Penn history to reach the milestone. The last player to get there was Tyler Bernardini, who hit the mark at Yale on Feb. 19, 2011.

It's Worth Noting...
*Penn has had nine different players lead the team in scoring in a game this season, and eight different players have led the team in rebounding in a game.

*Eleven different players have had a double-figure scoring game for Penn this season.

*Penn is 6-0 in the Jerome Allen era when holding an opponent below 50 points, and 23-5 when holding its opponent below 60.

*Penn has matched or had fewer turnovers than its opponent five times in the last eight games, after doing so just five times in the first 16 contests.

*Penn has had more assists than turnovers four times in the last eight games, after accomplishing that feat just twice in the first 16 contests.

*Penn has outrebounded its opponent in three of the last five games and six times in the last 12, after doing it just twice in the first 12 contests this season.

*Four of Penn's last six opponents have shot below 36 percent from the field.

*Freshman Tony Hicks has gone 13-of-13 from the foul line over Penn's last three games, and has hit 15 in a row dating back to Columbia on February 1.

*Freshman Jamal Lewis scored 14 points last Saturday at Dartmouth, matching his point output from the last 11 games combined; he hit his first three-pointer since January 2 (at Butler) and made three free throws, one less than he had made for the entire season to that point.

*Freshman Darien Nelson-Henry has scored at least eight points in 10 of Penn's last 11 games, with eight double-figure scoring performances during that period.

*Nelson-Henry also has averaged 5.5 rebounds per game the last eight contests, after averaging 2.5 rpg in his first 14 appearances.

*Sophomore Camryn Crocker has a 2.85 assist/turnover ratio over the last 12 games (37/13).

*Junior Dau Jok entered this season with nine career points and seven rebounds; he entered the January 5 game at La Salle with 37 career points and 29 career boards; in the last 12 games, he has scored 58 points and snared 36 rebounds.

*Junior Cameron Gunter entered last weekend with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the season; he then recorded a combined 13 points and 12 boards against Harvard (10, 9) and Dartmouth (3, 3).

*Gunter made three free throws Saturday at Dartmouth; amazingly, they were his first made free throws in almost exactly a year, as the last time he made one was Feb. 17, 2012 against Cornell.

*After averaging 10.1 minutes through the first 16 games this season, sophomore Patrick-Lucas Perry has seen his court time rise to 22.4 mpg over the last seven contests and averaged 7.4 points per game in that time.

*Lucas-Perry has not missed a free throw since Dec. 1 at Penn State; that said, he has only taken nine in that time.