FINAL No. 1 North Carolina 106, Penn 71

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FINAL: UNC 106, Penn 71. In-game updates are after the jump.

Box score

Gill gives a great pass to Monckton, but he gets rejected on his layup. Looks like the Quakers won't reach 80 again against an ACC team. The Quakers sure looked great in the first half, for a change the second was the one that killed them. Bernardini was unreal tonight, but the Red and Blue were killed by turnovers and to an extent rebounding.

2:31, 2nd Half: Penn 65, UNC 104

Finally the subs come in for UNC, and Penn sends in Joe Gill and Dan Monckton.

Nice rollout "Do we still get cheesesteaks?"

3:50, 2nd Half: Penn 65, UNC 101

Grandieri gets an and-1 to go and the lead is 32. Roy Williams is still coaching, and UNC breaks triple-digits.

Respect to the Penn fans for not leaving, the house is still packed.

5:45, 2nd Half: Penn 62, UNC 97

Turley misses a one-and-one, and Green nails a three.

A fan behind me yells "Carolina you can run it up all you want, it won't change '79!" when Penn beat them in the NCAA Tournament.

7:41, 2nd Half: Penn 58, UNC 88

Gaines is having a rough night, misses the and-1 there. It's Lawson's fourth foul though, UNC only has six players on the bench to replace him

Remy Cofield and Conor Turley are now in the game for the first time, as Grandieri hits one from the line.

Governor Ed Rendell keeps his 100 percent attendance record up tonight, getting out of his chair once or twice to yell at the officials.

8:38, 2nd Half: Penn 57, UNC 88

Hansbrough makes Cam Lewis look silly on a turnaround fade. Bernardini makes a tough drive go down, but the lead isn't shrinking.

Ellington eludes Lewis for a sweet layup, and the lanky big man is subbed out. Bernardini is finally looking human, here with a turnover and then a missed finger roll.

Hansbrough takes a rare Green miss for an and-1. Penn can't keep marking Green with a forward - he juked the pants off of Reilly there.

11:45, 2nd Half: Penn 53, UNC 77

Ellington hits what is UNC's fist three of the game (1-for-5), but Penn turns it over twice more.

Reilly fouls Stepheson, but it looked clean to me. It seemed as if Hansbrough got fouled by three guys, but it's called a jump ball. Then the far ref overturns the call, giving him the foul.

The zebras give Penn a makeup call though, as Bernardini gets bailed out, makes 2 FTs.

Penn's in a zone, and Thompson makes it pay down low. Bernardini dives again, and gets "fouled". Hansbrough, once again, throws it down. I think I heard a "send it in!" from Bill Raftery.

14:42, 2nd Half: Penn 48, UNC 71

Roy Williams shouts at his team to run back on D, as they then give up a Bernardini three. Still, UNC always has an answer. Gaines is out, and Egee again is left as the point guard.

Williams subs a bunch. The scoring line is in for the scoring line.

15:53, 2nd Half: Penn 0, UNC 0

Penn can't inbound it again, and it's slowly getting ugly. Egee is getting a lot of minutes, now back in the game.

The Palestra is getting quiet as UNC is taking over.

16:51, 2nd Half: Penn 43, UNC 65

Gaines may start to show up now that it is the second half, as he connects on an open layup, but fouls his man who hits two from the line.

Ellington gets a mid-range J to finally go down. Bernardini actually misses a shot, but causes a travel. He went 8-for-9 in the first half, no turnovers and 16 points. The printer works and the stats are out. Penn shot 56.7 percent from the field in the first half, but had 14 turnovers. Eight players have given away the rock thus far. UNC was way ahead in the rebounding battle, grabbing 21 to Penn's 14, including 12 on the offensive glass. Hansbrough has 17 points (now 19) and six rebounds. UNC has a whopping 10 steals, Green with four.

19:20, 2nd Half: Penn 37, UNC 55

Reilly starts the second half with a missed three, and Thompson scores. The Palestra has gone silent.

The ball is loose, but Hansbrough gets it back and gets an and-1 to go.

HALFTIME: Penn 37, UNC 50

Bernardini is having the game of his life, scoring yet again on a tough jumper. Hansbrough's just a little bit better, as he sinks one going into the half.

I'll get some stats up when they pass them out.

In not as important news, Lee Stetson is here, sitting in the front row behind us. I'd interview him, but I don't read the news section, and don't know what's going on really.

1:05, 1st Half: Penn 35, UNC 48

Ellington connects on the one-and-one, and it's back to 10. Carolina presses and Penn can't handle it. Bernardini gets a transition basket real quick though. Votel makes a horrible pass, and UNC has a legit lead.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, two more turnovers. Ugh. All without Hansbrough in, but now he's back.

Three fouls on one possession and Penn still isn;t in the bonus. Egee gets to the line on the third foul, but makes only one.

3:44, 1st Half: Penn 32, UNC 40

These Penn TOs are getting to be a major problem. Ellington finally gets a basket. Bernardini destroys Hansbrough on the drive, but Thompson keeps the lead up at 8. A turnover by Grandieri and it's up to 10 now with a Hansbrough.

Bernardini is straight up nasty, here nailing a highly-contested pull-up jumper.

Penn must have 12-15 turnovers so far, and not from aggressive backdoor cuts, by getting plucked or just making a terrible feed into the post or swing along the perimeter. There are a ton of offensive rebounds, by both teams so far, mainly by UNC though.

6:17, 1st Half: Penn 26, UNC 34

Grandieri finally starts the cuts again as he scores for two, Green hits, and Kach, who had the assist before, tips in an easy Eggleston miss. Kach then blocks Ellington from behind, but it's a foul.

Green is killing Penn. He takes a steal for a two, here. He and Ellington must have 20-25 of UNC's 34 points.

7:58, 1st Half: Penn 22, UNC 27

Kach misses a tough drive, and then Schreiber can't convert. Hansbrough scores again.

Bernardini almost turns it over, but gets it back and somehow gets through two guys to convert the layup.

Green is killing Penn from the short corner, hits another J. Schreiber hesitates, but then nails a three from the corner. Then Kach's three goes in and out.

Ellington gets blocked in the lane, but Grandieri now can't hit. Hansbrough was out for a minute, but is quickly back in as Penn closes the gap to five. Thompson misses an easy two, but Carolina gets it back.

11:36, 1st Half: Penn 17, UNC 23

These backdoor cuts are open all day against this aggressive defense.

Egee gets whistled for a charge on what would have been a deuce, but on the other end Lawson is out of control and it goes the other way.

I didn't have time to mention it before because this game is so fast-paced, but the Red and Blue Crew is really taking some shots at Hansbrough. When he shoots free throws they have a poster of him modeling. They then bust out the rollout: "Tyler, can't you put the mask back on?"

13:22, 1st Half: Penn 13, UNC 21

Grandieri gets plucked by Thomas, who gets rejected by Eggleston, but a foul is called. Frasor, now in the game, gets burned by Grandieri for a two. A Thompson offensive rebound, and Carolina has a nice lead going now. Penn just can't do anything in transition or on the boards.

14:23, 1st Half: Penn 15, UNC 11

Cohen draws a charge and the crowd is pumped, but Penn turns it over once again. Reilly, on Hansbrough, gets taken into the air and fouls the big man. Schreiber's in now.

Bernardini hits a jumper past Lawson, but Penn can't get back in transition as Green gets a layup to go, though he definitely travelled.

Grandieri hits a monster three from the corner, but Hansbrough gets an o-reb and dunks it.

Eggleston turns it over now, and Penn's down four. A tough two from Schreiber over Hansbrough, and another Hansbrough two in close makes it 15-11. I swear that was a walk, but seeing as this is an NBA team Penn is playing, they don't call those sort of things.

So far, I overhear that Penn is 5-for-6, with six turnovers. Ouch.

17:55, 1st Half: Penn 4, UNC 6

UNC almost turns it over, and Thompson misses a J. Penn scores first with a nifty pass from Grandieri to Bernardini for a layup, but a Lawson drive and a Hansbrough steal and dunk and it's 4-2.

As the shot clock winds down, Bernardini drains a jumper as the shot clock winds down. He misses a three though, and Hansbrough FTs make it a two-point lead for UNC.

Gaines looks like he gets beat by Lawson, but then blocks him on a pull-up jumper. Gaines then turns it over on a five-second inbounds call, and he's subbed out for Cohen.

20:00, 1st Half: Penn 0, UNC 0

I know it's bad to switch up your starting lineup, but three freshmen against UNC isn't a great idea. They usually only show up until the second half in big games.

The Red and Blue crew start an "overrated chant." Could not be more false.

Aron Cohen, after spraining his ankle against Villanova, is in the lineup and not even wearing a brace.

I knew he was a big boy, but Hansbrough is ripped.

Some Penn fans spell out "ESPN2" on their backs.

Penn:

F Justin Reilly F Jack Eggleston G Tyler Bernardini G Harrison Gaines G Brian Grandieri

Carolina:

F Deon Thompson F Tyler Hansbrough G Marcus Ginyard G Ty Lawson G Wayne Ellington

________

It's finally here, No. 1 North Carolina visits the Palestra. It may be early in the season, but this team is absolutely stacked. They lose forwards Brandan Wright and Reyshawn Terry, but retain Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, Danny Green, Alex Stepheson, Deon Thompson and, of course, Tyler Hansbrough.

The Quakers do an interesting mix of threes and dunks, you can probably tell who generally attempted which. Meanwhile, Carolina doesn't really know how to miss.

T-minus 20 minutes now, and Penn is still in the locker room. Has been for about 15 minutes now.

I'm pretty star-struck right now - sitting three seats away from the legendary Bill Raftery. I'm sure the Guv will be here shortly, I don't think he's missed a home game so far this year.

Oddly enough the Red and Blue Crew is all here, but the rest of the Penn crowd isn't. There are a lot of Carolina fans here, none of them seem to be making any noise yet, though. The UNC players seem to be having a good time so far, some players serious, but others joking around a bit. They go back into the locker room T-minus 12 mins and finally get a nice cheer from their travelling fans.