FINAL: Penn 83, Cornell 71

FINAL: Penn 83, Cornell 71

The Big Red could not stop Penn for much of the second half, but as their threes couldn't keep up in the final minutes, they go down 1.5 games in the Ivy race. It's all Penn (8-1) and Yale (8-2) at the top.

As Penn is up 14 with under a minute, I can safely say Steve Donahue is now 0-14 against his former team.

Penn 79, Cornell 69 0:59 2nd half

Zoller's back in the game with four fouls. He's still having a a fantastic game on scoresheet - his six assists and six steals are career highs. Grandieri's steal and layup, plus Jaaber free throws, and Penn has its first double-digit lead in a while, at 10.

Band busts out the Hey Song

Penn 74, Cornell 67 2:59 2nd half

The crowd goes nuts as Grandieri blocks Naeve from behind, and Jaaber scores. Another Cornell three keeps it at five, but a nice move by Danley makes it seven.

Dow now goes for a steal and pays by allowing a layup, but an easy two the other way cuts it to three. Kach is an unlikely candidate, but he hits a three to make the lead six.

Two good chants: 'na-na, nana-na-na, hey hey hey, goodbye' and 'left-right-left-right...sit down!' celebrate Tyler fouling out.

Zoller takes a bad miss off of a front end of a 1-and-1 (Penn has been terrible on these this weekend) and scores to take an eight-point lead. Reeves' three cuts it to five real quick.

A block is four fouls on Zoller. But on the other end Dale fouls out, and he joins Tyler on the bench.

Penn 62, Cornell 56 7:11 2nd half

Jaaber splits the zone with a cut, and then spins off Naeve for a nice layup to take the lead.

Cornell turns it over yet again, and Zoller makes them pay on the next possession with a strong layup. Kach surprisingly has a sweet free-throw stroke, but only hits the one.

Jaaber makes Cornell look stupid, as he throws it off the back of Naeve to himself for a layin, and the lead is six.

The Big Red are now in a 3-2 zone (3 guards up top), as they are really mixing it up on that end. As Zoller goes for (and misses) a steal in the open court, Naeve gets a tip-in.

Penn 53, Cornell 53 11:20 2nd half

Egee just had a rollercoaster last 16 seconds. He ties it with one FT, then gets his own o-reb, then turns it over, and then gets a beautiful strip on a wide open layup to save two points.

Penn 52, Cornell 53 11:36 2nd half

Cornell's 2-3 zone can't box out Grandieri, who gets an o-reb and then finds Jaaber for a layup to take the lead.

Big Red take the lead on a jumper, and then build on it with an Ihekweazu layup.

Wittman finally misses a three though, Zoller scores, and Egee goes to the line.

Penn 46, Cornell 47 14:41 2nd half

Wittman goes on a nice spurt (a jumper and a three) to cut the lead to one, and a Naeve jumper takes the lead. The big man is en fuego.

Penn 46, Cornell 40 15:55 2nd half

Zoller picks up his second foul, but for once neither him nor Danley is in foul trouble.

Just as I say this Zoller picks up an unnecessary foul. He'll argue, but it's going to be his third, committed while lying on the ground. Meanwhile Dale miss- no drains a three. It goes in and out, and then back in.

Smith loves that corner three, but he's missed two from right around there already this half. However, he takes a nice pass from Danley for two. Cornell has kept the Penn lead at six, though.

Governor Rendell is once again in attendence, working the referee on the other side, so Glen Miller doesn't have to yell.

Halftime stats

At the break, Zoller leads Penn with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Jaaber has three turnovers already, but has scored nine.
For the Big Red, Naeve has torn up Penn for 12 points on four shots, and he has yet to miss. The 6-10 forward does have three turnovers as well though.
Cornell is out-shooting Penn 58% to 50%, but has attempted a measly 19, while Penn has attempted 32. Cornell has one offensive rebound. Wow.
Zoller's six steals are pretty impressive, as Cornell has 14 TOs in all.

Tug of war:

In the Sorority tug of war contest at halftime, Chi O takes care of business, and Alpha Phi pulls out a tough one over Phi Sigma Sigma in first-round action of the eight-competitor event.

Don't-even-try-delt throws the game against Alpha Chi Omega, the Vegas favorites. A Chi O then destroys SDT, and Alphi Phi is no match for Chi O.

In the championship bout, it's a stalemate to start. Chi O takes a lead after about 15 good seconds of dead-even fighting for position, and then gradually pulls one out. The championship lived up to its billing, as it was the closest matchup yet.

Penn 40, Cornell 30 Halftime

Zoller continues having a great half with a floater, and as a steal turns into two more the crowd gets insane.

With the final seconds ticking off the clock in the half, Zoller calmly pump-fakes and drains a three.

Penn 31, Cornell 28 1:54 1st half

Danley hits Jaaber on a backdoor cut... but he was fouled first. He hits one free throw, and Jaaber turns the trip into three points and a tied game with an offensive board and bucket.

Jaaber does it again with a big three to take the lead. Zoller's been creating a lot of turnovers lately, and draws two in two possessions, tipping a ball for a steal and drawing a charge.

Penn 25, Cornell 26 3:49 1st half

Jaaber throws a soft pass to Smith that Dale easily takes the other way, but a missed front end of a 1-and-1 keeps the deficit at 1 for Penn.

Sign from the Red and Blue: 'OFSA loves Cornell' in honor of the Sorority tug of way at tonight's halftime.

Penn 25, Cornell 26 4:47 1st half

Egee hits a three to end an 11-0 run by Cornell. Jaaber bites on a pump fake and Geoff Reeves makes him pay with a short jumper. The Big Red are back into a zone, and both teams are sometimes trapping and doubling downlow. Jaaber gets a pull-up jumper to go.

Egee nails another three, this time off a screen, and the Quakers get to within one.

Penn 17, Cornell 24 7:25 1st half

Jaaber's picked up two quick fouls, something to watch out for. The crowd tonight is huge, over 6,600 here. There were huge lines outside right up until gametime and now that it's filled up it's getting loud. Even some Cornell faithful have made the trip down to warm Philadelphia

Penn 17, Cornell 24 8:20 1st half

Ihekweazu ties the score up at 17 with a layup. A five-second call on an inbounds pass turns it over to the Big Red, and Wittman nails a three to take the lead. Votel misses a hook off of an offensive rebound grabbed by Kach. Both men leave the game, Kevin Egee now in for the first time along with the four starters besides Smith.

Jaaber called for a charge with the shot clock winding down, gets pissed and steals it back from Jason Battle.

Donahue is real animated, he's the most pumped of anyone on the bench to be leading Penn at the Palestra.

Naeve gets the Big Red bench even more fired up as he goes flying down the baseline for a dunk, as Penn calls a timout.

Penn 17, Cornell 15 11:43 1st half

Penn's back in a man defense, so is Cornell. Going for a loose ball, Zoller gets to it first and Naeve hits him hard, throwing the tri-captain to the court. Zoller has some fighting words for him.

Kach goes hard for a dunk, but gets partially blocked and the ball gets stuck between the rim and the backboard for a jump ball

Penn 17, Cornell 13 13:15 1st half

Penn finally getting it going, as Ibrahim Jaaber gets a sick put-back off a Mike Kach miss to go. After a turnover, Zoller comes back with a three from the top of the key, and a little kiss from five feet.

Penn 10, Cornell 13 14:24 1st half

The Quakers get a nice start as Louis Dale throws a pass into the second row, and in transition going the other way Mark Zoller gets an and-1, but misses the 1. After two free throws, Wittman misses a layup off a steal, but Naeve quickly follows with a dunk.

Cornell is really upping the tempo, pressing Penn on defense and pushing the ball, while still getting the ball inside to Naeve for easy baskets. Alex Tyler, a quick sub for coach Steve Donahue, goes over Zoller to take a four-point lead, but a nice feed from Zoller to Brian Grandieri inside makes it 8-6.

The Cornell zone press causes another turnover as Danley throws it away. Penn responds with a 2-3 zone, and Cornell picks it apart for a layup.

Donahue has already played eight players, making subs every few minutes.

Starters:

Cornell
G Graham Dow
G Louis Dale
F Ryan Wittman
F Ugo Ihekweazu
C Andrew Naeve

Penn
G Ibrahim Jaaber
G Darrun Smith
G Brian Grandieri
F Mark Zoller
F Stephen Danley