FINAL: Penn 71, Navy 67

FINAL: Penn 71, Navy 67

The Quakers eke out a second win of the season, as the offense clicked in the game's final 35 minutes and the Navy offense couldn't seem to finish around the basket. In-game updates can be found after the jump.

0:01 2nd Half; Penn 71, Navy 67

Kach almost makes it interesting by missing the first, but the second makes the lead six. Grandieri gets the rebound, and Penn can start the celebrations.

Navy hits a desperation three, but with a second to go, Eggleston's one FT makes this one over.

0:16 2nd Half; Penn 69, Navy 63

Grandieri hits two, but Bernardini shoots his team in the foot, getting beat, and then fouling for an and-1.

Kach gets grabbed around the neck, but no flagrant is called. He gets the shooter's roll on the first, makes the second.

Like in the Seton Hall game yesterday, Navy allows a small lead, and then hits a few threes in the final minute.

Wow, Eggleston turns over the inbounds pass, but Sprink misses from point blank range, would have made it a 1-possession game

Kach collects a few misses, and Penn almost has it wrapped up...

0:57.6 2nd Half; Penn 64, Navy 58

Reilly gets stripped, though, and Kina scores the other way. But Bernardini hits a runner to keep it at five. That is real big.

Navy for some reason fouls Gaines with 1:08 to go, and Penn is up seven. A foul the other direction, though but the Middies only convert one. Grandieri now is at the line.

2:14 2nd Half; Penn 60, Navy 55

Harris hits both, and takes the lead. But Gaines makes a great skip pass to Bernardini who hits a long two. The freshman then gets some help from a fellow first-timer Eggleston: pressuring the ball, Eggleston intercepts the pass and goes coast-to-coast to put Penn up three.

Then Grandieri gets a great steal and throws it ahead to Bernardini for another layup.

3:14 2nd Half; Penn 54, Navy 53

Now Penn is starting to get some solid execution on offense. Reilly hits Grandieri on a seal in the post, and the captain hits two from the line. But Sprinks takes the lead right back with an easy two.

Reilly absolutely rejects Kaleo Kina, and Gaines takes that for a nice finish. Right before he travels, Gaines tosses it up from a few feet away and gets all nylon.

Kach misses two tough layups, and the lead is still one. Navy goes to the line for a one-and-one.

5:33 2nd Half; Penn 50, Navy 51

Gaines misses badly on a J, and Navy gets a nice pass inside for two.

Reilly gets fouled on the other end, and hits two from the line. Navy is going crazy with the fouling, mist not even on jump shots. Sprink hits on a nasty hook on the other end. Can't play much better defense than that.

7:05 2nd Half; Penn 44, Navy 47

Gaines gets blocked, but muscles up a fantastic layup to cut the lead to three. That, as you can see by the scores, ends a 12-0 run by the Midshipmen. Ouch.

7:57 2nd Half; Penn 42, Navy 47

Richards scores over Reilly, and it's a four-point game.

Eggleston now gets beat on a drive, and Navy cuts it to two. Grandieri is back in for Eggleston, and Navy picks up the three-quarter defense. A Cohen turnover, and Navy has a chance to tie.

That's ugly. Kach seemingly turns it over, but gets it back while falling out of bounds, only to throw it off of a Middie's leg, and right to another guy for a wide open layup. A foul later and Penn has officially blown this lead.

Kach misses a three, that turns into a triple on the other end, and an eruption from the Navy contingency as well as a timeout for Miller.

10:21 2nd Half; Penn 42, Navy 35

After going 0-3 from the line last night, Grandieri hits both from the line in the one-and-one situation. Navy has been one of the most hacking teams Penn ever sees. Two years ago at the Palestra, fouled the Quakers 35 times. It's not quite that, but we're well clear of 20 tonight.

There are so few Penn fans here that there isn't even an "airball" chant. Sad.

Eggleston gets rejected badly off of an offensive rebound, but makes up for it with a three.

12:37 2nd Half; Penn 35, Navy 28

Bernardini forces one up, but Navy's Adam Teague commits an offensive foul (his third) and they can't cut the lead.

Votel can't get out on a corner three, and all Miller needs to say is "Jack!"

15:03 2nd Half; Penn 35, Navy 28

(After an internet delay)

I don't know what it is about the second half, but once again the Quakers come out of the gates with some blistering offense. But this time they play solid on the other end as well. Justin Reilly starts it off with a three, and the Red and Blue have a lot more up their sleeves.

Bernardini takes a kick and hits the wide open three in the corner. Gaines takes a nice drive to the basket, a Bernardini finger roll in transition, and the Quakers are up seven just like that.

HALFTIME; Penn 23, Navy 26

Bernardini makes a great feed to Grandieri under the hoop. Grandieri takes a feed for a corner three from Gaines driving the baseline, and puts up one of the ugliest airballs I've ever seen. You have to hope that slipped out of his hands, that was a good foot or two short.

1:01 1st Half; Penn 21, Navy 26

A bad turnover by Cam Lewis leads to a fastbreak opportunity, but Gaines nicely plucks Scott Brooks, and takes it coast-to-coast for a tough layup.

Grandieri is so elusive, driving on the baseline, but can't convert the layin.

2:40 1st Half; Penn 19, Navy 23

Brian Richards misses a wide open layup for Navy, as each team trades layups. Grandieri hits a transition J to close the gap to four. The pace and the scoring of this game has really picked up lately

3:57 1st Half; Penn 15, Navy 21

Huh, Conor Turley is in the game for Penn.

Reilly calmly handles the press and hits a J, but that's sandwiched by a three by Navy and jumper.

Grandeiri takes a near-turnover and makes a great shot over a defender. He probably should have passed that up for a layup on the other side, but apparently not.

Last night was sparse, but this Penn crowd is sad. I can't remember a time the cheerleaders represented the majority of the noise for the Quakers.

5:02 1st Half; Penn 11, Navy 16

Chris Harris for Navy hits a midrange J, but on a two-on-one break (off of a terrible Egee turnover)

Egee gets caught on a forward off of a switch, but boxes him out real well as the Quakers grab the rebound. That didn't happen much last night.

Navy has committed three fouls in what seems like under a minute, and Cofield heads to the line after getting fouled on a reach-in. He makes one of two, about Penn's average tonight.

I had thought Navy was a good shooting team based on its performance early against Seton Hall, but the Middies are a horrible team at finishing around the basket. On the other end it's the same thing for Penn. Nine points in 15 minutes is pretty sad. Bernardini hits two though to make it 11.

7:56 1st Half; Penn 8, Navy 12

Penn gets beat baseline, and Navy goes to the line. Remy Cofield, now in the game, drops the entry pass, and Navy goes the other way. After a rough minute, good to see Miller keep him in the game.

8:34 1st Half; Penn 8, Navy 10

There is no one here at this game. Can't be more than 2,000 people. Even the band is absent for Penn.

Some nifty dribbling by Gaines gets him past the trap, and he hits Reilly, who gets fouled. He's been a good free throw shooter lately, but only hits one of two.

A Navy forward takes a great feed past Reilly while cutting to the basket but misses the layup.

Gaines gets fouled and shoots one-and-one, hitting one. He's now out for Kevin Egee, who has been in at times, but is rarely playing point guard as he is here.

The Middies hit a bank and a jump shot, and have a four-point lead.

11:28 1st Half; Penn 4, Navy 4

Glen Miller is subbing like mad for Penn, as Brennan Votel is in now for Penn. He makes a nice spin move to the hoop, but can't finish, now getting fouled though.

Navy is a very good passing team, and is getting a lot of opportunities from three because of it, but hasn't hit any yet.

With the shot clock winding down Gaines puts up an ugly three, but Mike Kach gets on the floor for the tie-up.

13:04 1st Half; Penn 4, Navy 4

A mixup on defense and Navy has its first points off of a wide open layup.

Reilly misses a finger roll off of a nice drive and a good feed from Eggleston. Penn has to finish.

Navy forces a turnover in the 3/4 press, and takes the lead, but a Kach layup knots it at 4.

15:32 1st Half; Penn 2, Navy 0

Navy starts the game off with a travel. The Midshipmen start off with a three-quarter court press, but Penn does alright against it.

Gaines misses a long two, is slow running the offense and Aron Cohen subs him out. Miller tells him to "wake up".

Justin Reilly, also in the game (for Schreiber) gets off a nasty block inside, and a Grandieri turnover later and it's 0-0 3 minutes in.

The offense is stagnant, but Grandieri penetrates with the shot clock winding down for a sweet layup to break the nil-nil draw.

This will be an interesting game to watch because Navy really is like a good version of an Ivy League basketball team. The Middies have some muscle, but not necessarily height, and yet are tough on the boards. They are not very fast though, and shoot fairly well from the outside. The Quakers must box out, Virginia had 25 offensive rebounds last night, and Navy could rack up a good amount itself.

____________

I'm successfully connected at the Palestra, and ready to bring you the consolation game from the Philly Hoops Classic between Penn and Navy.

Last night the Quakers fell in a valiant effort to Virginia, in which they matched the Cavs in the second half, but still fell by 15 points. Navy lost by a few to Seton Hall after leading for much of the night.

Man, the person in control of this music is insane. During the warmups they go from trash rap like "A Bay Bay" to good rap from Clipse to pump-it-up music to tachno at the opening tip.

Penn has maintained the same starting lineup for the last few times:

C Andreas Schreiber F Jack Eggleston F Tyler Bernardini G Brian Grandieri G Harrison Gaines