The Palestra in Philadelphia has long been way high on my list of must-see sporting venues. So now that my pal Marc lives in Philly, I finally made it to a game there.

It was the conference opener for Penn and Princeton on Saturday afternoon. Neither team is expected to dominate the Ivy League this season but we were treated to a really thrilling, see-saw contest between longtime archrivals with rich basketball traditions.

The Palestra opened in 1927 and looks every bit its age. It’s an urban on-campus barn built for hoops. In its hey-day, it was considered the nation’s premier place to watch basketball. It has a capacity of 8722. The court is set below ground level. The seating area rises at a steep but reasonable gradient to give one the feeling they’re on top of the action.

The seats are flat benches without backs throughout much of facility. It’s old school all the way.

It was only a little better than half full for this contest but the level of enthusiasm from those who were there was exceptional. It was the best basketball crowd I’ve been party to in a long time. The fans did not sit on their hands. They reacted sharply to bad calls and cheered loudly for effort and execution in a way you don’t see from your average current-era hoops audience.

The Palestra is Penn’s home floor and the crowd was pretty much all Penn fans with a smattering of Princeton boosters. Both sides had pep bands on hand. Alternating evenly, they chimed in during breaks in the action.

It was an excellent atmosphere aided in part by the evenness of play.

We didn’t know it as we sat there, but just a day before Penn announced it had lost starting guard Antonio Woods for the rest of the season and perhaps beyond because of academic problems. Penn coach Steve Donahue had already been tinkering with backcourt combos the last few games but the absence of Woods further opened the door to a greater role for freshman two guard Jackson Donahue (no relation to the head coach). Marc and I were actually dumbfounded at how little Steve Donahue (the coach) required his squad to feed the ball to Jackson Donahue given the young man’s clear hot hand. In warm-ups, Jackson Donahue was draining everything in sight. And when the game started, he remained deadly from beyond the arc. Wide open in the corner throughout the contest, it seemed as if Jackson Donahue was being deliberately left out of almost all the set plays. At least let him miss a few before you ignore him.

A six-point underdog going in, Penn was up 11 with 3:38 left in the game. They tried to wind down the shot clock on each possession. They got tight and blew the lead. Even so, Penn had the ball with chances to win at the end of both regulation and OT. Both times, they failed to get the ball to Jackson Donahue and failed to score. 73-71 Princeton was the final. No upset but it was close. ’Ya gotta let Jackson Donahue take a big shot in one of those spots with the game clock about to expire.

Admission was 15 bucks. We sat behind one of the goals but had a great view of the action on both ends. No complaints about the venue although it was hot and stuffy inside because of the abnormally warm temps outside. The acoustics were such that the P-A announcer was inaudible.

Marc and I both enjoyed watching the frenetic movement of Princeton’s student manager. The young woman handled multiple tasks simultaneously and even contributed coach-like support gestures as she went along.

Earlier in the day, Marc bought sandwiches from Paesano’s on South 9^th. The “Diavlo” was delish. It’s a chicken breast with salami, roasted tomatoes, broccoli rabe, herb cheddar spread – and of course – the secret Philly ingredient: sharp provolone.

I took the Megabus down early Saturday morning and returned Sunday morning via the Septa/New Jersey Transit train combo with the transfer in Trenton.

It’s basically a three-hour trip Queens to Philly. With all the great food, sports and live music going on in the City of Brotherly Love, I hope and expect to visit Marc and his family a lot as long as they’re living there.

There’s no rational eligibility standard that can be applied to a public high school athlete charged with attempted murder. But in New York City’s Public Schools Athletic League, you’re allowed to suit up and play as long as your grades and attendance are up to snuff.

Grand Street Campus of Brooklyn won Sunday’s PSAL City Conference Championship 28-26 at Yankee Stadium and wouldn’t have got the W without leaning on a ball carrier who likely faces serious jail time by the time next year’s city title is settled.

It’s not clear who tipped them off, but NY1 broke the story. Grand Street star running back Rahmel Ashby has been forced to make bail twice in the last 18 months after two separate serious incidents which should have kept him off the football field. He’s charged with firing a gun into a crowd in Fort Greene in May 2014. Three people were struck and injured. And then while awaiting trial on attempted murder charges in that case, he was caught five weeks ago with a gun he had no legal right to carry. I know we’re tough stuff here in the big city, but we’re talking about a high school kid playing on an undefeated football team and nobody from his school or the PSAL had the sense to deny Ashby the privilege of participating in athletics?

And then – when the lid got blown off the school’s ruse – how can both Grand Street’s athletic director Johnny Chavez in concert with the PSAL close ranks and let the kid play?  What possibly could lead one to believe presumption of innocence is the proper course after the second bust for packing heat?

I mean, you can understand why Grand Street’s coach Bruce Eugene wants Ashby to play despite the young man’s more pressing life concerns. Ashby (pictured above running the ball on Sunday in the title game) is a great player. He’s elusive and fast. He certainly doesn’t need a gun to run. And Grand Street would not have won its first city title on Sunday without him. Ashby gave Grand Street’s offense great balance with a legitimate ground threat. Grand Street’s QB Sharif Harris-Legree set up the pass with heavy doses of Ashby who moved up the field most effectively to the left side.

But at this level – or in any league really – Ashby cannot be allowed to participate. It’s embarrassing to the PSAL and Grand Street Campus that he was out there. Even the NFL would have found a way to keep him at home.

It seems outrageous. Especially in a week with so much discussion about gun madness.

Most disconcerting to me is that Julian Garcia of the Daily News tried to get the other side of this story and was met with a whole lot of stonewall. Garcia wrote that he called Eugene for comment and the Grand Street coach hung up on him. Garcia also reached out to two top PSAL officials and neither returned e-mails.

At some point in the next couple days you’d think the Mayor – or perhaps schools Chancellor Carmen Farina will be asked to explain how this went down under their watch.

It’s too bad, but the focus in the papers the next couple days may be on Ashby when Harris-Legree (pictured above) should have been the story. He’s so accurate with his throws – and so composed.  Legree would seem likely to enjoy a bright career at the next level.

This game was played at Yankee Stadium. It’s a really cool venue for this event but only if you’re willing to jump through the hoops necessary to gain entry. First, the PSAL makes you apply for a ticket during a limited time window and then they ask you to pick up your ducat at an out-of-the-way office just off the East River on the Queens side. After fulfilling the initial e-mail query approval process to gain clearance to attend the game, I took the train and made the hike over to PSAL HQ and signed three separate clipboards at desks manned by needless city government bureaucrats to finally get handed a free ticket.

The PSAL is so freaked out about the scrums outside the hoops title game at MSG more than a decade ago and can’t stage a big game without going overboard on the restrictions.

At the venue Sunday morning, members of the city’s school safety patrol yelled at young attendees who jumped redundant barriers at the entrances. Supporters for the two schools were completely barred from mingling. The sun beamed bright on the Erasmus Hall side. It was cold on the Grand Street section. If you were neutral – like me – and assigned to the Grand Street side – you were stuck. I don’t know. It seems like the PSAL always expects trouble when there’s none to be had.

The PSAL really should get a clue and let people go to public high school games unencumbered and without undue restrictions. Let TSR and some pals run the PSAL for less than what this crew is burning through and I can personally guarantee New York City will have a better public school athletics program by a mile.

I’d say there were probably 6500 in the house for the game. Both sides had mascots. Only Erasmus had a cheerleading squad. Free game programs were distributed at the door. The P-A announcer was bad, misidentifying players and mischaracterizing penalties.

When the sound system played No Sleep ’til Brooklyn during a first half timeout, the crowd (almost all from Brooklyn) paid no attention to the song.