Sophomore Wesley Saunders finished with a team-high 20 points on 10 shots. The wing was the Crimson’s primary source of offense in the opening half—contributing 15 of Harvard’s 26 points—but was held to just five in the second.

After going two of 10 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Crimson received a boost from Webster and junior co-captain Laurent Rivard in the second, who combined for seven of the team’s eight second-half three-pointers.

But it was not enough to make up for the Crimson’s slow start.

Hicks sparked the Quakers offense early, scoring nine of Penn’s first 15 points to help the hosts jump out to an early 15-8 lead.

Midway through the period, the rookie gave the Quakers their first double-digit lead of the contest, rattling home a three-pointer off a kick-back from Miles Cartwright in transition to make it 22-12.

Cartwright—who entered the contest as Penn’s leading scorer—scored just four points in the opening frame but gave the Quakers their biggest lead of the period, 38-22, off a jumper with 41 seconds remaining.

“That was one of the keys to the game. They really disrupted us and got us on our heels,” Amaker said. “Transition wise they had it up our throats and had us backpedaling a lot…. Next thing you know we are down early and we are down big.”

The Crimson made use of the charity stripe in the final seconds of the first, pulling within 12 off four straight free throws heading into the break.

Coming out of the break, the Crimson began chipping away at the Quakers’ lead, pulling within seven, 44-37, off a deep Webster triple from the top of the key with 12:00 to play.

But Hicks answered with a turnaround jumper and then capitalized on a Harvard turnover with a transition layup to put Penn back up by 11. Following a Webster miss, the Quakers’ Greg Louis stuck a jumper to give Penn its largest lead of the period.

But the Crimson made another push. Fueled by eight points from Rivard and four from sophomore Steve Moundou-Missi, Harvard went on a 14-6 run to cut Penn’s deficit to five with 6:15 to play.

Thirty-four seconds later, Wesbter drilled a three-pointer in front of the Crimson’s bench to make it a four-point game.

Harvard forced a Hicks miss on the other end, but Nelson-Henry was there for the tip-in to put Penn back up by six.

Rivard answered with a triple to make it a three-point game, but the Crimson once again surrendered an offensive rebound on the other end that turned into two more Penn points.

The Crimson cut Penn’s lead to four points three times over the next 3:25, but each time the Quakers didn’t let it get closer than that.