Navy Sails past Penn in Cathedral Classic Invitational at The Palestra

Philadelphia: As the nation continues to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, College Basketball keeps on going & we had a very cool tournament going in Philadelphia as the Penn Quakers would battle with the Navy Midshipmen in the Cathedral Classic Invitational at The Palestra.  The Quakers would enter this game after being off for 9 days and 2 blowout losses to Saint Joseph’s & Villanova while the Navy made their way to the Cathedral of Basketball off a win over Washington College (Md.)

Lineup:

Starting 5⃣ is in! Ready to "stuff" ourselves with three games this weekend.
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📊https://t.co/gem1RRYfOb#Whānau | #FightOnPenn 🔴🔵🏀 pic.twitter.com/sG1PxJwZm6

— Penn Men's Basketball (@PennMBB) November 29, 2024

How the game went:
In the first half both Penn & Navy would have some scoring chances and just could not finish, The Midshipmen would at one point have the lead as high as 12 points at 28-16 with 8:09 left. The Quakers would attempt to cut into the lead by going to the lane for a hard shot attempt

1H (7:48) | Navy 28, Penn 16

Mids keep on drilling them from downtown, up to seven treys already. Ethan has 10 to lead us so far.#Whānau | #FightOnPenn 🔴🔵🏀 pic.twitter.com/IgiX8SpJga

— Penn Men's Basketball (@PennMBB) November 29, 2024

Navy would attempt to add to the lead as the first half was coming to close but the Quakers would not allow it and Midshipmen took 37-28 lead into halftime. Going into the second half, Could the Penn Quakers find a way to make things challenging for the Midshipmen & early on the answer was NO as Navy got the lead up to 11 at 47-36 & then things would change as the Quakers would fight back and & would take the lead at 51-50 with 9:04 left & the crowd at the Palestra was liking the effort that Penn was showing to get back into the game & take the lead

#Penn takes the lead at 51-50 pic.twitter.com/Zhsb4oJcbg

— David Malandra Jr (@DaveMReports) November 29, 2024

Could Penn keep it going and Navy would fire back with some big 3-pointers and take advantage of some very costly turnovers from the Quakers as theh Midshipmen would sail to an 86-78 win.

You have to like what you saw from Penn, they could have just folded but they wanted to show for the 9 days that they were off that they were ready for the challenge & made things very interesting and this is something that they could build on going forward.

Postgame:

Penn Coach Steve Donahue on Performance

Penn Coach Steve Donahue on what went wrong after taking the lead in 2nd half

#Penn Coach Steve Donahue on what happened after they took the lead and never recovered from it #FightonPenn pic.twitter.com/tbkedZMugE

— David Malandra Jr (@DaveMReports) November 30, 2024

Final Numbers:

What is next:

Penn will keep doing battle in the Cathedral Classic Invitational at The Palestra as they battle Maine & Elon to finish off the weekend before heading to the Wells Fargo Center for a showdown with Drexel in the Big 5 Classic. For Navy, they will also finish off playing in the Cathedral Classic Invitational at The Palestra against Elon & Maine