Penn beats Harvard, 83-68, to climb back to .500

There’s always something nice about being back home.

In a much-needed win at the Palestra, Penn (11-11, 3-4 Ivy League) beat Harvard, 83-68, to claw back to .500.

Heading into the game, Penn was seventh in the Ivy League but has five of its next seven games at home.

Guard Jordan Dingle tallied a game-high 27 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Senior Chris Ledlum led the Crimson (12-9, 3-4) with 21 points and six rebounds.

Penn outscored Harvard, 50-35, for a season high in first half points. The Quakers knocked down 8 of 16 three-point attempts, led by juniors Dingle and Max Martz who combined to make 7 of 11 attempts.

Martz finished with 16 points and six rebounds.

Penn forced Harvard defenders to close out shot attempts, paving the way for Quaker guards to penetrate into the lane and generate easy shots at the rim.

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Sophomore George Smith provided a valuable spark off the bench, adding a season-high 14 points and six rebounds and tied a career-high with five assists.

Sophomore Nick Spinoso hit all four of his first-half shot attempts, which helped extend Penn’s lead to double digits just as Harvard sought to close the gap going into the second half. Spinoso finished with 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting.

“This week, we worked really hard on making sure we share the ball and limit dribbles,” Smith said. “That makes us more difficult to guard, and I think that showed today. If we continue to build on that, I think we’re going to be really good down the stretch.”

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Despite leading at half in its past three conference games, Penn lost all three contests.

“I think where we’ve hurt ourselves in the second halves of games is on offense,” Quakers coach Steve Donahue said. “For us to be the team we want to be, it’s gotta be 40 minutes. And to me, it does come down to not settling and not over-dribbling on the offensive end.”

Although scoring and efficiency declined, Penn kept Harvard at bay with defensive intensity — extending its lead to as many as 20 points in the second half.

The Quakers held the Crimson to 35.5% shooting from the field — the third-lowest mark of the season and well below Penn’s average opponent shooting percentage.

“We’re playing more guys like Andrew Laczkowski, Max Lorca-Lloyd, George Smith, in particular, those three are really good defenders,” Donahue said. “I think when we come off the bench with those guys, our defense rises a level.”

Penn will host Columbia (6-16, 1-6) on Friday for the second leg of a three-game homestead (7 p.m., ESPN+). The next day, the Quakers will host second-place Cornell (15-5, 5-2) at 6 p.m. (ESPN+).