Penn hung on in a slugfest, Mark Zoller stepped up, and the Quakers got their first Big 5 win of the season, beating La Salle 73-65. For Penn coach Fran Dunphy, it was his 300th win in his coaching career, and it came against his alma mater. For full coverage, check out tomorrow's Daily Pennsylvanian.
9:40 -- GAME OVERLa Salle took a good 15 seconds to take a shot, missed it, and then stole the ball. But Jaaberstole it back, found Grandieri for a layup, and Dunphy has his 300th win. 9:36 -- Danley is fouled, and hits the first but misses the second. Zoller grabs the rebound, misses a layup, but Jaaber comes out with the ball and is fouled. He hits both, and the Quakers are ahead by six.
9:34 -- La Salle does not foul, leading to a Penn bucket. But Harris hits a three, drawing La Salle to a one-possession game.
9:33 -- Smith picks up his fifth foul on the offensive end, and then angrily takes off his jersey, drawing a technical. Of course that is the rare sixth personal foul.
But Osmundson misses both technical free throws, so the Quakers do not capitalize on Smith's mental error.
9:31 -- Zoller picks up his fourth foul as Smith holds his position to not pick up his fifth.
9:28 -- One of my favorite Penn fan chants of the season so far -- "NBDL" -- for Smith.
Osmundson picks up his fourth foul.
9:25 -- La Salle coach John Giannini is now subbing Smith in the old offense-defense game to stop him from getting his fifth foul.
9:23 -- Zoller hits another three, I think his third. He has by far been Penn's best player tonight.
9:19 -- Smith picks up his fourth foul, which happens to be his third offensive foul of the game.
9:14 -- Darnell Harris picks up his fourth foul for La Salle, as the Explorers are now over 10 fouls in the half. Penn's good foul shooting (by its standards this year) has really gone a long way to keeping the Quakers in front.
9:10 -- St. John has just picked up his fourth foul, and sits down. The Quakers retake the lead with some tough defense and an offensive rebound and putback from Grandieri, who got away with a push-off on the board.
9:04 -- Sherman Diaz brings the La Salle crowd to life with a ferocious dunk. He then steals the ball and draws an intentional foul call on Osmundson and hits both shots. Off the foul shots, Smith hits a running layup to give La Salle the lead again.
8:59 -- Steve Danley needs to finish better in the post. Several times tonight, he tried to take layups and headfake instead of just going up with the ball and dunking it.
8:56 -- The injured cheerleader was removed in a stretcher, as the crowd applauds.
The game resumes after about a five-minute delay.
8:54 -- There is currently a delay in the game as one of the Penn cheerleaders suffered an injury, apparntly after doing a flip. She was shaking her legs and appears to be bleeding. We'll try to get an update as soon as we can.
8:49 -- This game is going to be close the rest of the way. The pace has slowed, and no one can get a real spurt going.
8:43 -- Seven fouls so far in the first five minutes of the half -- the play is getting choppy and sloppy.
8:40 -- Penn's first field goal of a half is the front end of a four-point play from Osmundson, hitting the three from the same spot -- the corner in front of the Penn bench -- that he hit a four-point play from last year to start Penn's miraculous comeback against Princeton.
8:38 -- So far, all of Penn's points this half are from the line, but the Quakers are still clinging to their lead.
8:35 p.m. -- Penn starts the second half just like the first, by forcing a turnover. But this time, Penn does not score.
Halftime stats -- La Salle is shooting 13-of-26 from the floor, 2-for-6 from deep, and 2-for-3 from the line. Penn is 12-for-32 from the field, 5-of-15 from three-point land, and 3-for-6 from the foul line. Smith leads all scorers with 13 points, Jermaine Thomas and Darnell Harris have six, and Lewis Fadipe has five for all of La Salle's scoring. Penn is led by Osmundson's 11 points. Zoller has 10, Danley and Jaaber have four, and Ebede has three. Penn is being outrebounded 21-12, but has only three turnovers, to La Salle's 11.
8:15 -- HALFTIME -- Penn holds on to is lead at half despite the chilly shooting at the end. Stay tuned for halftime stats.
8:11 -- Osmundson hits yet another three, as Penn goes on a 6-0 mini-run to take the lead back.
8:08 -- Smith hits a step-back three to give La Salle its first lead of the game with a 9-0 run in just over two minutes, but Ebede has a one-and-one coming after the media timeout.
8:06 -- Penn's cold shooting has finally caught up with it, as the Explorers are running out in transition and using a couple of turnivers to cut the lead down to two.
8:04 -- Danley's break had to end because Smith dominated Ebede and Zoller while he was on the bench. But Penn is now in a semi-zone, and Smith picks up his second foul, going for an offensive rebound.
8:02 -- La Salle switches to a 2-3 zone. So far, Penn is 2-for-3 over the zone, with Zoller scoring five points.
7:58 -- Jaaber just made a phenomenal lefty layup in traffic, but committed a silly foul on the other end, leading to a potential three-point play.
7:56 -- The cool shooting has gone ice cold, but Ibrahim Jaaber makes his presence felt with a layup and a steal, leading eventually to a Zoller jump hook.
7:51 -- Attendance update: The Palestra is a couple thousand short of capacity, it looks like, with the corners and even some of the student section notfilled up.
Also, while Danley is guarding Smith and Zoller is guarding Mike St. John, the Explorers are doing the reverse on defense, and Danley has twice beaten St. John in the post.
7:50 -- Osmundson's shooting woes have been cured for now. The senior is 3-for-3 with eight points. Sophomore David Whitehurst enters the game for the first time and blocks a jump shot.
7:47 -- Penn's shooting has cooled down, but the Quakers defense is still playing strong, with Danley doing a more than adequate job on Steven Smith so far.
7:42 -- Osmundson hits another three and Zoller also connects from deep. Hot Penn shooting is not good for La Salle.
7:38 p.m. -- Eric Osmundson starts the game off with a three after a La Salle turnover. Then Steve Danley scores in the lane off another turnover to give the Quakers a quick early lead.
Welcome to the Palestra, where the Quakers are about to take on the La Salle Explorers.
Here are the starting lineups:
Penn (9-5, 0-2 Big 5): G - 2 Ibrahim Jaaber, Jr. G - 1 Brian Grandieri, So. G - 14 Eric Osmundson, Sr. F - 3 Steve Danley, Jr. F - 24 Mark Zoller, Jr.
La Salle (10-6, 0-3 Big 5) G - 14 Tabby Cunningham, So. G - 11 Darnell Harris, So. F - 1 Paul Johnson, Fr. F - 30 Steven Smith, Sr. C - 21 Lewis Fadipe, Sr.
