FINAL: St. Joe's 82, Penn 42

FINAL: St. Joe's 82, Penn 42

The Quakers got beaten by a much better team, although I had no idea it'd be like this.

2:01 2nd Half: St. Joe's 78, Penn 40

St. Joe's fans chant "this is our house!" This chant is pretty trite as well, but the Hawks deserve to say this because they actually play their home Big 5 games here, and will play every home game here next year.

Fan favorite C.J. Brown, who looks like he's 5-9, comes in.

4:26 2nd Half: St. Joe's 71, Penn 40

Egee hits a couple threes now, but Penn is still down 31. If Penn shut out St. Joe's in the second half, it would still be a two-point game.

5:22 2nd Half: St. Joe's 70, Penn 37

Penn's offense is getting going a bit, but not only is it way too late, but the Red and Blue can't stop the Hawks.

7:51 2nd Half: St. Joe's 64, Penn 32

The Hawks get whistled for a travel, and the St. Joe's fans are pissed.

Penn fans roll out a banner: "Nova's still better." Villanova did beat Syracuse today, but when Tasheed Carr comes back that might not be a given.

8:12 2nd Half: St. Joe's 64, Penn 30

St. Joe's is lobbing it all day over the Penn defense. Nivins seals his man, and the Quaker defender has no chance.

Bernardini passes the ball to Eggleston off of a rebound, but the forward looks away at the last minute, and almost turns it over.

Turley is on Nivins, and this just isn't fair. Nivins was held scoreless in the first half due to foul trouble, but is tearing it up now.

Kach hits a three, but Penn is still getting doubled-up. With Calathes resting, Nivins is scoring at will. He gets an and-1 here.

11:09 2nd Half: St. Joe's 59, Penn 25

Nivins decides to beast Turley this time.

Penn is just attempting and missing threes. It's such an attractive thing to do, take a wide-open three, and St. Joe's is loving it.

"Living on a Prayer" makes its daily appearance from the Penn band, and St. Joe's fans are just as excited as the Penn ones.

13:11 2nd Half: St. Joe's 55, Penn 23

The Hawks fans start an "up by 30" chant. Then roll out a banner saying: "The smartest person ever to leave Penn was Fran." Penn fans come back with the over-used "Nova rejects" chant, only to get a response of "Nerds! Nerds! Nerds!"

Penn actually runs an offensive play, but misses. Monckton gets an offensive board and goes to the line. Nivins powers his way through Reilly on a nice give-and-go and gets an and-1

2nd Half: St. Joe's 49, Penn 19

Grandieri makes a great pass to Lewis, but he botches it.

Penn's lineup isn't a good one to contend with this team - it has Egee on Calathes. Just as I say this, Monckton comes in to guard him.

In transition, Eggleston decides to pick up his own man still running down the floor, instead of getting Ferguson right under the basket. Luckily for him, though the pass is tipped out of bounds.

Stats:

Like a few other Penn games so far this season, the first-half stats are fairly ridiculous:

Penn is 1-for-12 from three, and seven players have attempted, but not made one. In addition, nine Quakers - Turley, Reilly, Cofield, Kach, Monckton, Schreiber, Cohen, Egee and Lewis - have attempted a shot, but not made one. The Penn bench is 0-for-10, with one point.

Also, Penn's assist-to-turnover ratio is 0.25 (3 to 12). Oddly enough, Penn is out-rebounding St. Joe's by three, even a crazier stat considering seven more have come off of Penn's offensive glass than defensive.

HALFTIME: St. Joe's 38, Penn 14

Monckton was on Calathes. Not a good idea. With Penn's three-guard system, someone small is always on the star, 6-8 swingman. Ferguson, this time, scores inside.

Monckton rejects Calathes' fast-break dunk, that was pretty nasty.

Eggleston throws up prayer, and it swishes. Still, Egee gets mixed up on D and leaves Calathes open for a three in the corner. That's not a very good decision.

3:38 1st Half: St. Joe's 32, Penn 12

Grandieri gets two transition layups right before the last timeout, and it's down to 20. Schreiber, though, gets called for a moving screen and it's going the other way.

4:23 1st Half: St. Joe's 32, Penn 12

Usually Calathes and Nivins share the burden of the scoring, but tonight's battle as one-sided as the game.

Grandieri hits a layup with 6:10 to go, and Penn has 7 points, and will have officially not set its own first-half NCAA record of six.

Dan Monckton, now in the game, gets a transition pass and goes to the line. It wasn't before D.J. Rivera went swooping for an easy layup, though.

Wow, Penn gets a big break when Nivins pushes Egee and picks up his third foul. If the Hawks have a weakness, it's depth. Moody gets to the line, though, as coach Phil Martelli yells "bailing you out!" referring to the fact that it was a soft foul call on a bad shot.

7:21 1st Half: St. Joe's 23, Penn 5

Penn's inbounds plays, once again, are useless. Aron Cohen calls probably his 30th timeout of the year, as the other four players go nowhere after their initial move. It is the equivalent of if a quarterback

Cofield, now in the game, gets an offensive board, but misses a three. Now, so does Justin Reilly.

The Hawks actually end a little scoring drought, and are back up 18.

Grandieri drew a charge on Calathes earlier, but Andreas Schreiber couldn't do the same. The Quakers are playing much better, but it certainly isn't enough.

10:57 1st Half: St. Joe's 21, Penn 3

Lewis travels, Bernardini misses, Grandieri throws it into the stands and Penn is struggling.

On the other end, it's quite the opposite. Williamson blows by no one (looked like a mix-up) and flies in for a dunk

Conor Turley spins into Ferguson and gets rejected. Bernardini gets an offensive board, but misses the layup. bernardini is getting absolutely burned by Calathes, who must be in double-figures by now.

1st Half: St. Joe's 13, Penn 3

Eggleston gets rejected by Rob Ferguson, and then nails a wide open three on the other end. Bernardini hits an open three to get Penn on the board, but Govens comes right back with a trey, and Calathes hits a running layup and it's a 10-point game.

Welcome to a sold out crowd at the Palestra. As I might have expected, the Saint Joseph's crowd is just as big, probably bigger than Penn's contingency. The internet just started working again, sorry for the delays.

Starters:

Penn: G Kevin Egee G Brian Grandieri G Tyler Bernardini F Jack Eggleston F Cameron Lewis

St. Joe's: G Darrin Govens G Garrett Williamson F Pat Calathes F Ahmad Nivins F Rob Ferguson