Penn-St. Francis in-game updates

FINAL: PENN 86, ST. FRANCIS 56
It's over. A deserved win for Penn leaves them 1-2 with their home opener against Florida Gulf Coast looming next week. Goodbye from the Carrier Dome, and thanks for looking to The Buzz for your in-game updates.

2:52 left, 80-56 Penn: Adam Franklin makes his first appearance this year, and promptly drains a three.

3:13 left, 77-54 Penn: Danley for three again. Timeout St. Francis, as the Syracuse band is trickling in for their game against UTEP.

7:35 left, 68-46 Penn: Penn's shooting in the double bonus again. Zoller is probably finished for the day, as he picked up his fourth foul a couple of minutes ago. Miller will probably be looking to the backups in the last few minutes of a blowout.

11:19 left, 67-41 Penn: This is more like it for Penn. Brennan Votel has a good couple of plays, fighting for an offensive rebound before draining a three on the next Penn possession.

13:53 left, 59-38 Penn: Zoller is asserting himself now after his quiet game last night. He's got 22 points, the majority of them from the interior. And he's 6-7 from the line.

15:30 left, 54-38 Penn: My favorite Penn scoring play - a Danley three. Hopefully the first of many.

16:40 left, 51-38 Penn: Offensive foul on Egee, and with four fouls he sits down as quickly as he got up. Glen Miller loses his jacket again, which I'm quickly discovering is Miller's equivalent of saying that he's pissed. Zoller hits a three to stem the Terrier tide.

16:53 left, 48-36 Penn: McMahon throws a careless pass and Miller takes him out in favor of Egee. Penn is losing its grip a little bit here: they could do with a little run.

A few more notes: Brian Grandieri leads all scorers with 13 - his career high is 17. The way he's been shooting (5 of 6), the only way he doesn't make it is if he doesn't play much this half. Grandieri does have five turnovers, though. Meanwhile, Jaaber and Zoller both have 8. And the St. Francis cheerleader/coach, for anyone who's wondering, is Robert Blackwell, who's in his first year.

HALFTIME, Penn 41 St. Francis 25: Ibby just missed a halfcourt buzzerbeater - that one looked destined for the net.

This has been by far the most enjoyable of the three games, if only for the St. Francis bench. Presumably because there aren't a lot of fans, the benchwarmers all chant "DE-FENSE" *clap clap* like cheerleaders. One of the assistant coaches even acts as the Coach Lake of the team, sitting on the bench and coaxing out the cheers from the bench players. Meanwhile, on the court, the Quakers have lost a little of their mojo but still have a comfortable double-digit lead.

5:44 left, 36-15 Penn: Not that the teams aren't into the game. Grandieri gets whistled for a 3-second violation, and Nash (the St. Francis coach) yells "Three seconds? [More like] eight seconds!" Grandieri responds with a very audible "Come on!"

6:58 left, 36-12 Penn: Media timeout. The Terriers have thirteen (13!) turnovers after 13 minutes. The small Penn contingent responds with healthy applause. If this was the Palestra, they'd be on their way to singing Rock and Roll Part 2.

8:06 left, 34-12 Penn: The refs are calling everything and then some, and the Quakers are in the double bonus. Maybe we need the practice, too - Grandieri just airballed a free throw.

9:16 left, 29-12 Penn: Newsflash: Penn is the better team. The Quakers are having their way inside and out, and they're dominating the Terriers more than even Syracuse did. It's been an ugly game, though, as both teams are in the 1-and-1 with more than 9 minutes left in the half.

12:24 left, 24-7 Penn: A layup by Zoller, a steal by Egee, and a short J by Grandieri makes it a 17-point lead. St. Francis coach Brian Nash looks like a child who's lost his favorite toy.

13:13 left, 20-7 Penn: Andreas Schreiber is on for Danley, and Kevin Egee has just relieved McMahon. Will there be a lot of time for the young guys today?

14:19 left, 17-5 Penn: It's not often that Ibby has a 5-inch height advantage on his man, but St. Francis starts a 5'8" point guard, Jamaal Womack. He's got one foul and no points thus far.

15:50 left, 13-3 Penn: Tommy McMahon has had a brilliant start. With the score at 4-3, he penetrated and dished to Brian Grandieri for three. Then he got two threes of his own, with a St. Francis timeout sandwiched in between. McMahon is one guy who seems to have improved with each game this year.

Pregame: We thought for a minute that Jaaber wasn't starting, but the scoreboard was giving us the wrong information. It'll be the normal starting five of Jaaber (or as Jim Boeheim calls him, "juh-BEER"), Zoller, Danley, McMahon and Grandieri.

We're about 10 minutes from tipoff in Penn's third game in three days. They'll take on St. Francis, also 0-2, on the last day of the BCA Invitational. Syracuse doesn't play until 6, so right now the Carrier Dome is holding about 150 fans tops. It's even more pathetic than it sounds when you're playing in an arena that can seat 49,000.

Ibrahim Jaaber looks to be favoring his ankle a little bit - he rolled it late in the first half last night. At the press conference, he told us with a smile that it was "great", and he's participating in the layup lines with the team, so there's no reason to believe he won't be out there this afternoon. Stay with the Buzz for online updates all game long.