FINAL: PENN 74, CORNELL 56

Final, 74-56 Penn

With a healthy lead, Miller was able to empty the bench in the final minute giving Cohen, Franklin, and Gill some garbage time. For most of the second half, Miller had a tight leash on his bench, playing only the starters along with Kach and McMahon.

3:03, 70-51 Penn

The defense has really clamped down for Penn, forcing turnovers and disrupting Cornell's offensive attack. The Quakers have navigated Cornell's zone defense well in the second half with a steady dose of sharp crips passes while keeping the turnovers to a minmum (5 vs. Cornell's 15).

7:39, 64-49 Penn After the refs blew off a Cornell dunk for offensive goaltending, Kevin Egee nails three point shots on consecutive posessions and Penn opens up its largest lead of the night at 15 forcing Donahue to take his second timeout of the half.

11:24, 53-47 Penn Zoller appears to be hobbling a bit in the last four minutes and the game has started to slow down and get a lot more physical.

15:25, 49-45 Penn Penn left the lockerroom running and quickly built up a 9 point lead, forcing Cornell coach Steve Donahue to call time out. After a Jaaber steal, Ibby got sloppy on the transition missing the shot, and setting up a transition three for Cornell.

Halftime, 40-36 Penn Miller got a chance to use his bench in the first half. Ten players saw time (Danley, Zoller, Jaaber, Egee, Grandieri, Kach, McMahon, Votel, Reiley, Schreiber). Despite Jaaber's struggles (2-7 from the field), the team as a whole shot very well putting up a 53.1% shooting average in the half. However, Cornell has shot about as well against Penn's man defense, shooting 44.0% (11-25) in the half. Penn has not made a lot of mistakes though, and committed only two turnovers in the first twenty minutes. However, again, Cornell has done rather well themselves with Penn only forcing the Big Red into four turnovers. The game has gone back-and-forth, but Penn especially has shown some resilience. After Conor Mullen's three point shot put Cornell up five, Jaaber cooly nailed his only three point shot of the night (1-3) to bring the game back to within two. Zoller, despite sitting late in the half with two fouls, leads the team with ten points. Grandieri has eight. Cornell forward Ryan Wittman leads all scorers with 11.

2:34, 1st, 34-31 Penn What an up and down two minutes for Justin Reilly. The freshman came into the game and promptly gave up an easy layup that should have been a dunk. On the next posession, Reiley was blocked setting up a three point shot to put Cornell up five. Reiley turned things around though with a layup and a block in consecutive posessions before returning to the bench.

7:07, 1st, 25-22 Penn Kach's three point play, a block by Zoller, and a layup by Grandieri on consecutive posessions puts Penn back on top. Penn just committed its 8th foul of the half, however. Cornell has only three. So, the Red will be in the bonus for the rest of the half.

10:05, 1st, 19-16 Cornell Jaaber's having a tough night shooting. Already, the senior has missed two layups and a wide open three point shot. As a result of the poor shooting, Penn has been unable to use its speed to its advantage. Penn's man defense has been porous as well. Louis Dale's drive down the lane from the top of the arc for an easy layup put Cornell up 5. Zoller's nifty reverse layup brought the margin down to 3 at the timeout.

15:58, 1st, 8-7 Penn Penn jumped out to a 4-0 start thanks to a layup by Jaaber and a tough shot around a pair of defenders under the basket by Zoller. Ryan Wittman, fouled on a 3-pt shot, hit all three of his free throws to give Cornell a 6-4 lead.

For the second straight game, Darren Smith will be watching from the sidelines. The freshman sat out with an injury against Elon and did not participate in pre-game warmups this evening. Tip off in just a few minutes.

ITHACA, N.Y. --

Welcome to Newman Arena on the campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY for this evening's game, as Penn (7-6, 0-0 Ivy) opens up its conference schedule against Cornell (7-7, 0-0 Ivy).

Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. No TV coerage tonight, but the game will be broadcast online at pennathletics.com with Brian Seltzer (Play-by-Play) and Vince Curran (Color) making the calls.Make sure you check out The Buzz throughout the day for updates.

Here are tonight's projected starters:

Penn (7-6)

G- (2) Ibrahim Jaaber, Sr., 6-2, 170

G- (21) Brian Grandieri, Jr., 6-4, 190

G- (15) Kevin Egee, So., 6-3, 175

F- (24) Mark Zoller, Sr., 6-7, 220

F- (3) Steve Danley, Sr., 6-8, 225

Cornell (7-7)

F- (20) Ryan Wittman, Fr., 6-6, 200

C- (42) Andrew Naeve, Sr., 6-10, 242

G- (3) Graham Dow, Sr., 6-0, 190

G- (12) Louis Dale, Fr., 5-11, 177

F- (31) Jason Mitchell