Columbia 74, Penn 58 FINAL

Final: Columbia 74, Penn 58

In-game updates can be found after the jump.

A couple more scoreboard malfunctions (what is with this place?), and this one is over. Penn may be able to blame a great deal of its troubles on the mysterious absence of Tyler Bernardini (more to be explained shortly, hopefully), but it is difficult to pin a deficit this big on just one factor like that. Mostly, the Quakers struggled on D, and it is doubtful that Bernardini would have helped so much on that front.

I apologize, but due to the lack of power outlets on press row here in Levien Gym, the battery on my computer is about to run out. Sorry to cut out like that..

????, 2nd half

The only thing that could have interrupted Penn's downward spiral in this one has just happened. The scoreboard system has malfunctioned, with the buzzer sounding continuously and the scoreboard showing 00s. An impromptu media timeout, I guess, while they get this sorted out. Under a minute left, though, and Penn down big.

3:47, 2nd half: Columbia 70, Penn 52

One of Columbia's male cheerleaders can do splits, and the crowd loves it.

Oh, right, there's a basketball game going on; but not much of one at this point, with Grandieri now on the bench and Kach getting called for travelling.

5:07, 2nd half: Columbia 69, Penn 50

This one has pretty much gotten out of hand, and the Columbia student section isn't far off the mark with their "warm up the bus" chant. Penn's press has been largely ineffective, leading to more easy buckets (like the most recent dunk for Baumann) than turnovers (0).

7:07, 2nd half: Columbia 62, Penn 46

Matsui has been hot all night from beyond the arc, and the last couple minutes have been no exception. He has staked the Lions to their biggest lead of the night with three-pointers on two out of three possessions. On the second, he faked Cohen out of his shoes, took a dribble as the Penn senior flew by, then drained the shot.

8:50, 2nd half: Columbia 57, Penn 43

Miller has called another timeout with Columbia building its lead and Penn doing nothing on offense to speak of, apart from turning the ball over. On one possession, Eggelston gave Lewis a bounce pass that was a little too hot to handle (much too hot to handle for Lewis), and on another possession, Cohen simply lobbed the ball out of bounds looking for Schreiber down low.

On defense, Reilly allowed Nwachuwku to wriggle along the baseline for an easy bucket, prompting his immediate substitution by Lewis.

11:49, 2nd half: Columbia 52, Penn 43 Oh, and one more thing -- Jack Eggelston came crashing into the press table (unnecessarily, if you ask me) a couple minutes ago trying to keep possession. The table went flying, and nearly cleaved my colleague, Rob Gross, in two. He looks a little shaken up, but I think he'll be alright.

12:38, 2nd half: Columbia 50, Penn 39

Columbia has strung together some possessions without a turnover, and that can account for the widening of their lead. Matsui, the second part of the deadly three-point shooting tandem for the Lions (at least tonight..), hit another three.

Grandieri looked more like himself from last season on a Penn possession, where he hit an awkward fall-away layup on which he was fouled.

Miller has turned up the pressure, and it looks like Penn will look be employing a little full-court press for the time being.

Both teams will be in the bonus for the remainder of the game (Columbia, 8 fouls; Penn, 7 fouls).

15:44, 2nd half: Columbia 43, Penn 36

A real frantic, end-to-end stretch there. For Penn, Brian Grandieri missed a chippy layup off of one of his patented backdoor cuts, then Schreiber committed a silly foul on Baumann on defense. Baumann missed both shots, though. On offense, Harrison Gaines drove for the layup, looked to have drawn contact, but missed the shot. When Matsui saved it, the entire Penn cheering section (which only now announced its presence, and relatively impressive size) screamed that he was out of bounds. Instead, Matsui drove on the next possession and was rejected emphatically by Egee.

Media timeout.

17:01, 2nd half: Columbia 43, Penn 36

It seems Cam Lewis saw Justin Reilly waiting to sub him out. After a nice pass from Eggelston set him up down low, he delivered by getting the hoop and drawing a foul on Baumann. But he missed his shot when he got to the line, preventing Reilly from coming into the game. Penn is hanging in there, though, despite another three from Scott, who has been flawless.

18: 40, 2nd half: Columbia 40, Penn 33

Penn is clawing back into this one. Cameron Lewis just drew the third foul on Nwachukwu down low and will go to the line for two (brace yourselves!).

On a gutty possession, Grandieri drove but missed his layup, then tipped the board out to Egee. Egee then missed a layup of his own, but Grandieri got the board once more and put it in himself.

Halftime: Columbia 38, Penn 29

It was a difficult half for the Quakers, in their first Ivy road game and without their top scorer in Bernardini. But while the offense is producing very little (2 assists total on 29 points), the defense has been even more concerning. The Lions are lighting it up from downtown, almost all of them on wide open looks. Over all, they shot 7-of-14 in the first half from three-point range.

If not for the turnover numbers, this game might be over already. Columbia is shooting 52 percent from the field, but turned it over 12 times in the first half to limit their output a bit. The Quakers haven't been much better in that department, with 11 turnovers of their own.

No one stands out in the stats department for the Quakers. Brian Grandieri has six points in a tie for the team lead, but he missed a couple open jump shots that could have padded those numbers more. Gaines had a strong half for Penn with six points of his own, but didn't have any dimes.

Niko Scott leads the Lions with 10 points on perfect shooting from the field, including 2-for-2 from downtown.

1:27, 1st half; Columbia 38, Penn 27

Penn's lack of a perimeter game without Bernardini in there is painfully obvious right now. One one possession, Penn had numbers and Brian Grandieri got the ball wide open on the flank. Instead of jacking it up, he kicked it out to Eggelston, also wide open, at the top of the key. Eggelston shied away as well, handing it off to Gaines to see if he wanted a go. By this time, the Columbia defense had recovered and there were no more open shots to be had.

3:32, 1st half: Columbia 36, Penn 23

Last media timeout before the half, and Columbia has widened its lead behind the home crowd.

Grandieri got another bucket inside, while Eggelston came up with a steal and took it hard on the fast break. Nwachuwku fouled him, and he hit both.

That progress was wiped out on defense, though, with another wide open three being drained by Scott.

5:32, 1st half: Columbia 31, Penn 19

Penn got two free throws from Cofield, but Baumann has begun to come on for the Lions. He has hit two consecutive buckets inside.

Harrison Gaines has come back into the game for Miller, who called a timeout to try and halt the slide. He was hot earlier, maybe he can make a difference now.

7:47, 1st half: Columbia 27, Penn 17

Penn can't blame the absence of Tyler Bernardini for poor perimeter defense, and that's what's killing them right now. Joe Bova has come off the bench and hit two three-pointers, the second one wide open from the top of the key. Matsui has also hit a couple more over his man, Aron Cohen. Cohen has gotten some measure of revenge, though, with a three of his own and a nice dish to Cofield in transition for two.

Cofield heads to the line for two after this media timeout.

10:34 1st half: Columbia 18, Penn 10

Miller calls a timeout as the Lions widen their lead. Matsui has hit his second three of the game for Columbia, and Nwachukwu got his first bucket inside. The crowd broke out in chants of "Justin Reilly" after the Penn forward missed as wide open a layup as you'll ever see off a nice feed from Gaines.

11:46, 1st half: Columbia 13, Penn 10

Harrison Gaines has apparently been working on his jump shot. He's drained two of them in a row just inside the arc, both with hands in his face and the second off of a nice crossover. Reilly hit another jumper, also just inside the arc. If not for a garbage 3-pointer by Matsui off an out-of-bounds save, this one would be tied.

13:57, 1st half: Columbia 10, Penn 4

A rough stretch for Cam Lewis, he gets subbed immediately by Reilly. On one end, he forces an entry pass to Schreiber, then on the other , he fouls Nwachukwu down low to give up the hoop and the harm. The big guy sinks the free throw to stretch the Lions' lead.

15:26, 1st half: Columbia 7, Penn 4

Niko Scott has all seven of Columbia's points with a three-pointer, two free throws and a transition layup. On the other end, Grandieri got some back for the Quakers after posting up his man and getting the easy deuce.

16:27, 1st half: Columbia 3, Penn 2

Niko Scott is going to the line for two after getting fouled by Kach on a drive. Penn's points came from a nice take by Egee in transition for a bank shot. Starting lineups

Penn: Kevin Egee (g), Brian Grandieri (g), Michael Kach (g), Cameron Lewis (f), Jack Eggelston (f)

Columbia: Niko Scott (g), Mack Montgomery (g), Brett Loscalzo (g), John Baumann (f), Ben Nwachukwu (c)

Also, Bernardini does not even look to be on the bench, meaning he didn't even make the trip.

Greetings from inside cozy (very cozy) Levien Gym on the campus of Columbia University. We're about 10 minutes from the tip off between Penn (2-0) and Columbia (1-3). One quick observation: rumors today that Tyler Bernardini was injured and would not play seem to be true, as the team just came out for some warmups and he was absent. Should be interesting...

More updates to follow.