GAME NOTES: The Penn Quakers shoot for a season-high third win in a row tonight, as they invade Levien Gym to take on the Columbia Lions in Ivy League play. After struggling through their non-conference schedule, the Quakers have gotten off to a good start in Ancient Eight play, posting back-to-back wins over Harvard (73-69) and Dartmouth (68-66) last week. With the victories, Penn improved to 7-12 overall, as it is now in search of its first three-game winning streak of the season. Achieving that goal however, may be difficult, as the Quakers have won just once in seven road outings this season. As for Columbia, it has dropped three of its first four league games, including a 68-63 setback at Brown on Saturday. Now at just 8-11 overall, the Lions return back home, where they have gone an even 4-4 thus far. With respect to the all- time series, Penn owns a 131-80 lead over Columbia and it has won 10 of the past 11 meetings.

The Quakers are averaging 66.0 ppg and they are making 42.3 percent of their field goal attempts, but they are allowing opposing teams to score a much higher 76.5 ppg on 45.4 percent shooting from the floor. The team has also had trouble avoiding mistakes, committing 18.2 turnovers per game. Tyler Bernardini has committed a team-high 41 turnovers, but he has helped compensate for that by leading Penn in scoring at 13.0 ppg. Brian Grandieri nips at his heels with 12.5 ppg and he is pulling down a team-best 5.6 rpg. In the squad's last game, the Quakers hit on 47.3 percent from the field and they survived a game-tying shot attempt in the closing moments of a two-point win over Dartmouth. Penn dominated on the boards, 44-31, and that helped compensate for its 0-of-5 performance from long distance and its 17 turnovers. Jack Eggleston led the charge with 16 points and six boards, while Grandieri had 10 points and six caroms.

The Lions roar into the contest with a 64.3 ppg average and they are connecting on 40.6 percent of their attempts from the floor and 74.2 percent at the charity stripe. John Baumann leads the squad in both scoring (15.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.9 rpg) and he is the only player on the roster averaging in double figures. In the team's prior contest, Baumann registered a double-double with 23 points and 13 rebounds, but it wasn't enough in a loss at Brown. The Lions were outscored at the foul line, 16-8, in the setback and they went just 5-of-17 from beyond the arc compared to an 8-of-23 effort by Brown.

Penn survived a couple of tight games last week, so don't rule out Columbia in this one. As a matter of fact, if Baumann can duplicate his performance from last game, expect the Lions to prevail tonight.