Arena #151: Burr Gymnasium - Howard vs. Pennsylvania

After spending the afternoon at Towson, it was time to cap off my doubleheader day by heading into Washington, DC for a non-conference matchup at Burr Gymnasium between the host Howard Bison and the visiting Pennsylvania Quakers for Arena #151.  Burr Gymnasium was an interesting little venue, holding around 2,500 people even if there were only a few hundred in attendance for the game on this evening.  The setup with the first row of the stands being a few feet above the sidelines and player benches was one of the more unique layouts I’ve seen in 151 stops thus far, but made for a setup where there likely wouldn’t be a bad seat in the building.  The only complaint I had was the joint was hotter than hot.  Normally I’m freezing in most of these smaller venues because there’s not a lot of people in the building and the A/C is turned up for the players, but here at Howard, it had to be 100 degrees walking into the seating bowl and it was brutal as a fan so I can’t imagine what it was like for the players.  It didn’t seem to affect the teams much though, especially the Quakers, who spent the majority of the night lighting it up from 3.  The Bison kept it reasonably competitive for 30 minutes or so, especially in the middle of the second half as they cut the Penn lead from 18 to 9, but Howard was unable to sustain that run and Penn exerted their will to close the game and take home a sizable win to Philadelphia.

Main entrance to Burr Gymnasium on the campus of Howard University

Inside the extra warm seating bowl of Burr Gymnasium

Opening tip between the Bison and Quakers

Press box reppin' that Bison Pride

One of the many 3-point attempts from the Quakers on this evening