Penn vs Harvard Picks and Odds (Jan. 28)

• Harvard is a 3.5-point home favorite over Penn on Friday night
• Penn’s Jordan Dingle is the second-leading scorer in the Ivy League with 18.7 ppg
• A look at the Harvard vs Penn odds and matchup can be found below with a prediction

In a game featuring two of the top players in the Ivy League, Penn visits Harvard at 5:00 p.m. ET Friday at Lavietes Pavilion in Boston.

Led by sophomore guard Jordan Dingle, Penn has won four of its last six games since a six-game losing streak. The Quakers beat Yale 76-68 on Saturday.

Harvard (10-6/2-2 Ivy League/7-2 home), led by senior guard Noah Kirkwood, has won two of its last three games, though the Crimson lost at Cornell 76-61 on Saturday.

Penn vs Harvard Odds

Odds as of January 27th at BetMGM.

Harvard is a 3.5-point favorite in a game that will be televised by ESPNU. Being favored -165 on the moneyline gives the Crimson and implied win probability of 62.26%.

Penn Betting Outlook

Penn has struggled on the road against the spread, going 2-6-1, though it is 9-9-1 overall and has covered in four of its last six games.

Dingle is second in the Ivy League in scoring at 18.7 points a game after tying his career high with 31 points in the win over Yale. He was just 1 of 8 on three-point attempts but made 12 for 16 two-point tries.

QUAKERS CONQUER.

Jordan Dingle netted a game-high 31 points to lead @PennMBB to a crucial 76-68 victory over Yale at the Palestra. 🌿🏀 pic.twitter.com/HyF9YxQDpR

— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) January 22, 2022

It marked Dingle’s 10^th game of the season with at least 20 points. However, he had scored 29 points combined in his three previous games before Saturday.

Sophomore guard Clark Slajchert continued his scoring surge with 13 points, giving him five straight games in double figures. He has lifted his season average to 9.9, which is second on the team.

Sophomore wing Max Martz has an 8.9 average after scoring 11 in a poor shooting game for the Quakers. Junior guard Jonah Charles had six rebounds.

Penn made just 5 of 26 (19.2%) three-point shots but held Yale to 3 of 19 (15.8%) from beyond the arc.

Harvard Betting Outlook

Harvard has been a money loser against the spread recently with four defeats in a row and in seven of its last eight games. For the season, the Crimson is 5-8 overall and 3-3 at home.

Kirkwood is making a case for Ivy League Player of the Year. He was the Rookie of the Year as a freshman in 2018-19 and made first-team all-league in 2019-20. The Ivy League did not play last season because of the pandemic.

Noah Kirkwood is up to 18 points on 7-12 from the field in Ithaca

2H 7:57 | Cornell 64 Harvard 49

📺: https://t.co/kq6KHCHd94#OneCrimson #GoCrimson @espn pic.twitter.com/Kj7p4nvrXO

— Harvard Men’s Basketball (@HarvardMBB) January 22, 2022

Kirkwood has averages of 17.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.3 steals. He is third in the league in both scoring and assists, ranks 12^th nationally in steals and has scored at least 11 points in every game this season.

In the loss to Cornell, Kirkwood tallied 18 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Junior forward Chris Ledlum leads the Ivy League with 9.3 rebounds a game but has missed the last four games for undisclosed reasons and his status for Friday is undetermined. He is also averaging 16.7 points to rank fourth in the league in scoring along with 1.7 steals.

Junior guard Luka Sakota has a 10.7 scoring average.

Freshman guard Louis Lesmond had his fourth consecutive double-figure game against Cornell as he finished with 14 points and five rebounds. Lesmond reached double digits just three times in his first 10 games.

Louis Lesmond with the smooth step-back three!

ESPN+: https://t.co/X2dpkfrAjy#OneCrimson #GoCrimson @espn pic.twitter.com/mqQFCY3TeP

— Harvard Men’s Basketball (@HarvardMBB) November 25, 2021

Sophomore guard Samuel Silverstein added 10 points and three steals while notching his second double-digit scoring game of the season and first since November.

Harvard made just 35.7% (20 of 56) of its shots while allowing Cornell to shoot 57.4% (27 of 47) and the Crimson were outrebounded 39-20. Harvard did force 21 turnovers.

Penn vs Harvard Prediction

Harvard has won four of the last five meetings, including 69-65 on Feb. 22, 2020 at home. Kirkwood had 19 points for the Crimson while Penn got 16 points, five rebounds and three assists from Dingle and 10 points from Martz.

These teams appear pretty evenly matched, so let’s take the points in what should be a close game.

The Pick: Penn +3.5 (-110)