CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Quakers fans were braced for the worst going into Penn's season opener against No. 1 North Carolina.
What they got wasn't Penn's best, but still a respectable 86-71 loss to the Tar Heels.
"It was a good game for us," Penn coach Glen Miller said. "I thought our team got a lot out of it."
The final score would be the Quakers' best showing against UNC in the last three years. The Tar Heels won by 35 points last season and by 38 in 2006.
But on Saturday, Penn (0-1) hung with the Tar Heels (1-0) at the game's start. UNC's shots from distance wouldn't fall while Tyler Bernardini hit a trifecta of threes, finishing with the same 26-point total he put up against UNC last year.
"He is a really good player, but he would be all-world against us," North Carolina coach Rory Williams said of the Penn sophomore.
Freshman Zack Rosen got the start in his first collegiate game and showed promise as Penn's new floor general, despite a less-than-attractive line in the box score.
"Zack Rosen is a very good player," Miller said. "He was 0-for-6 from the floor, 0-for-5 from three and he had some good looks. You knock down a few of those, and it's a little tighter game."
Miller reached for some of his other freshmen early in the game, getting Rob Belcore, Larry Loughery and Mike Howlett minutes before the mid-point of the first half. With forward Andreas Schreiber injured and Cameron Lewis logging only six minutes, Miller kept his freshmen in the rotation as Penn narrowed the gap on UNC down the stretch.
"We're going to play what we think is our best players through out the game, and to this point they've earned the playing time," Miller said.
UNC began to work the ball inside and the Tar Heels' big men were no match for Penn's forwards, even with reigning Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough nursing an injury on the bench.
"You look at that seven-minute mark through three minutes into the second half - that was our demise right there," Miller said. "It was a two-point game at the seven minute mark."
The Tar Heels closed out the first frame on a 21-8 run, hitting 10 of 12 in the paint.
But Williams didn't start to empty his bench just yet, and the Dean Dome's usually thunderous fans got a little quieter with four minutes remaining in the contest as Penn mounted a comeback.
Quakers forward Jack Eggleston hit a three-point shot after stealing the ball from senior Bobby Frasor, who played despite rumors he would sit out while recovering from a sprained ankle. All of a sudden, Penn had closed the gap to 10 points.
"We got sloppy on the offensive end," Tar Heels junior forward Deon Thompson said. "We got sloppy with our passing and let them stick around."
Eggleston, Bernardini, sophomore Harrison Gaines and senior Kevin Egee all hit double figures for the Quakers, who collectively shot at a 40 percentage clip in the game, a number that disappointed Williams.
"The shots were falling for me," Bernardini said. "Jack and a lot of the bigs set really good screens and Zack Rosen makes a lot of good passes, so they make it easy. All I have to do is shoot it."
