Princeton closed the game on a 21-9 run and ended Penn's season on a sour note by capturing a 71-58 victory at the Palestra.
The win gives the Tigers (17-11, 10-4 Ivy) a season sweep over the Quakers (9-22, 6-8) for the third time in the last four years.
Penn's Tony Hicks dropped a game-high 22 points, grabbed five boards and dished out three assists. Ian Hummer led the Tigers with 18 points on 5-for-13 shooting from the field and 8-for-9 shooting at the line.
First half
A back-and-forth game featured six lead changes and four ties, and the two teams went into the break deadlocked at 32.
No player other than Hicks made a field goal for Penn until the 8:33 mark, when Greg Louis got a steal and slammed it home at the other end to give the Quakers a 16-15 advantage.
The freshman Hicks led the way at intermission with 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting in 19 total minutes on the floor. Will Barrett was a perfect 4 for 4 on shots and paced Princeton with 11 points.
Inside the box score
• After opening the game 1 for 8 from the field, Penn went on to make 11 of 16 attempts to close out the first half.
• Turnovers made the difference -- Penn choked the ball up 17 times, while Princeton surrendered it on just eight occasions.
• Other than Hicks and Henry Brooks, no Penn player made more than two baskets.
Turning point
Princeton's T.J. Bray nailed a dagger of a three-pointer to extend the Tigers' lead to 56-51 with 5:04 remaining only moments after Penn had what could have been a momentum-changing basket out of a timeout.
Following a Penn miss on its ensuing possession, senior Ian Hummer -- playing in likely his final game -- took the ball quickly down the other end and got an and-one layup to go, forcing Penn coach Jerome Allen to call a timeout. As Hummer completed the three-point play, Princeton's lead increased to 59-51.
Last time
In the Ancient Eight opener for both teams on Jan. 12 at Jadwin Gymnasium in Princeton, the Tigers shot 49 percent from the floor and a deadly 50 percent (11 for 22) from three-point range to hand the Quakers a 65-53 defeat.
Penn's starting five totaled just 21 points. Hicks led the team in scoring with 16 points on 8-for-18 shooting off the bench. Bray led all scorers with 23 points, most of which came from distance, where he was 6 for 11 on the night.
Oddities
The final home game of the season typically means it'll be Senior Day, but Penn -- one of three Division I teams without a single senior on its roster -- didn't have a player to honor.
The annual Penn-Princeton matchups are almost always the only Ivy conference games to take place in the middle of the week -- thanks to the schools' close proximity -- and the March 12 date is the latest regular season meeting between the two squads since 1952, when they played on March 15.
The series
In one of the oldest rivalries in college basketball, Penn and Princeton have met 228 times, with the Quakers holding a 123-105 advantage in the all-time series.
Recently, however, the Tigers have dominated, having won eight of the last nine contests.
Did you know?
The 2012-13 season marks the sixth straight campaign Penn has finished without an Ivy League title. It's the school's longest drought since the formation of the conference in the 1955-56 season. Penn claimed its first Ancient Eight crown in 1965-66 and won 24 more after that, its most recent coming in 2006-07.
That's a wrap
The season comes to a close for the Quakers, who finish fifth place in the conference only a year after falling one game shy of a share of the title.
Princeton, in contention for the league championship until this past weekend, finishes second in the league behind Harvard, who will go dancing for the second straight year. The Ivy League is the only Division I conference that awards its automatic bid to its regular-season winner.