College Basketball

Ethan Roberts & Dalton Scantlebury Lead Penn To Victory, Fran McCaffrey’s First Win As Penn Head Coach

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David Malandra Jr
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David Malandra Jr Sports Editor

I am Sports Reporter that covers Pro & College Sports in Philadelphia & any other events that are featured in Philadelphia

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Published07 Nov 2025

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Philadelphia: There is a buzz when a new head coach gets to be in front of the home fans to start the season & that is what we saw on Friday night as the Penn Quakers would start the Fran McCaffery era. They battled NCAA Division III Rowan University at the Palestra.

Lineup:

How the game went:
Penn would score the game’s first 8 points, which included a 3-pointer from Ethan Roberts.

Rowan got on the board with a 3-pointer but Penn took the 12-5 lead into the 1st media timeout.

The Quakers would have very good ball movement compared to last year.  At one point, the Quakers would get the lead as high as 31 at 45-14 with 5:14 left. Rowan went on a 7-0 run to get it down to 20 at 47-27 with 3:24 left.

Penn Freshman Daulton Scantlebury would get it done in the paint with 14 points on 6-9 shooting & 3 blocks. The Quakers took a 53-32 lead into halftime

In the second half, Penn would pick up where they left off & Ethan Roberts would heat up with a 6-0 run as the Quakers took a 65-42 lead into the 1st media timeout.

Rowan would attempt to get back into the game, but the defense from the Quakers was just too much. The Quakers would get the lead up to 41 at 88-47 with 10:18 left.

Later on in the 2nd half, the Quakers would answer what Rowan was doing and got the lead up to 48 at 109-61 with 3:32 left.  This game was completely dominated by the Quakers & there is a lot of good to take from tonight. The rotation of players, winning the rebound and points in the paint among them.

The Quakers would handle Rowan 119-72. This would be the 1st coaching win for Fran McCaffery.

Postgame:

Penn Coach Fran McCaffery:

Penn’s Ethan Roberts & Dalton Scantlebury:

Rowan Coach Eric Brennan:

Final Numbers:

What is next:
The Quakers will look to start the season with back-to-back wins as they hit the road for the next 2 games, starting with American on Nov 9 & then at Providence on Nov 11 before coming home for a Big 5 battle on Nov 17 against Saint Joseph’s.