FINAL: PENN 73, HARVARD 69
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SHAREFinal, 73-69 Penn
Housman air-balls an off-balance three and Penn gets the ball out of bounds. Fitzgerald fouls Grandieri as he accepts the inbound pass. The captain hits one of two, but it’s enough to seal the game for his team.
2ndHalf 14.3, 72-69 Penn
Bernardini commits another costly turnover in a drive to the basket. Harvard calls a timeout after a frantic series where they nearly committed a turnover. Still down by 3, it will be interesting to see whether they go for a 2 or a 3.
2nd Half 43.1, 72-69 Penn
Eggleston gets a put back off a Bernardini missed layup. He then commits a foul away from the ball to give Harris two free throws. He sinks them despite the boos. Penn will have the ball up three following this timeout.
2nd Half 1:24, 70-67 Penn
A Grandieri layup gives Penn a three-point lead and now the Palestra is rocking, certainly the first time since the North Carolina game that there was much enthusiasm in this building.
2nd Half 2:06, 68-67 Penn
Turley misses the front end of a one-and-one, which could prove big as we approach crunch time. Lin continues to get to the basket for Harvard as he draws a foul inside and hits both from the charity stripe. The lead is going back and forth as Grandieri hits two free throws of his own. Turley makes up for his miss from the foul line by drawing a charge on Unger, who has just fouled out.
2nd Half 3:00, 66-65 Penn
Penn comes out of the timeout with a nice entry pass by Eggleston to Grandieri for a layup. The captain then commits a poor foul on Housman as he shoots an off-balance jumper. Unger hits a wide-open three from the top of the key to regain the lead for the Crimson but Harris knocks the ball into his own basket trying to block Egee’s layup, giving back the lead to Penn.
2nd Half 5:24, 62-61 Penn
Harris scores inside after a bad Bernardini turnover. We have out first tie since…well, for a long time. Eggleston breaks the tie off a nice feed from Gaines and Penn extends its lead off a short jumper from Grandieri. Fitzgerald answers once again with an and-one layup. He missed the free throw and two offensive rebounds later Lin hits a three to give Harvard its first lead…in a long time. After two Bernardini free throws that give Penn the lead, Eggleston draws a huge charge against Lin.
2nd Half 7:58, 56-54 Penn
Lewis is finally contributing as he scores on consecutive Penn possessions. He then gets a nice block on Housman inside. Harvard has entered a 2-3 zone for the first time in the game (we think). McGeary continues to kill Penn as he hits another three. He makes a bad play a few possessions later by trying to save a ball that was clearly off of Penn. The crowd has its loudest eruption of the night as the Free-Throw, 3-pointer, Half Court shot competitor sinks all three.
2nd Half 11:26, 51-47 Penn
Bernardini scores on an acrobatic drive to the lane. He has been the best offensive player in this game by a long shot. Eggleston continues to ask for the ball inside and he rewards his teammate’s pass with a nice reverse layup. Kyle Fitzgerald answers for Harvard with a short jumper followed by a layup after a terrible Turley turnover. Every time Penn looks like it will build a substantial lead, Harvard has responded to keep it close.
2nd Half 15:19, 45-40 Penn
Unger scores on a fast break but Penn responds with a beautiful back door play from Grandieri to Egee for the reverse lay in. The crowd erupts as Harris picks up a loose ball foul by undercutting Lewis. Cam continues his struggles as he misses a layup and picks up a foul on the other end, he is sent back to the bench. A Penn turnover leads to a breakaway dunk for crowd favorite Harris. Bernardini hits a huge three to give Penn a five-point advantage but Harvard gets to the free throw line on the next possession. It is starting to look like this one will go down to the wire.
1st Half Stats:
Leading scorers: Penn – Bernardini, 13, Harvard – Unger, 9
FG %: Penn – 12-30 (40%), Harvard – 10-28 (35.7%)
Rebounds: Penn – 22 (6 offensive), Harvard – 18 (6 offensive)
Assists: Penn – 7, Harvard - 4
Turnovers: Penn – 8, Harvard - 8
The half time activities have been more entertaining than the game so far. The sororities are battling it out in tug of war. Alpha Chi Omega prevails in the final thanks to some help from the volleyball team. My tye-dye girls lost and I still can’t figure out which sorority it is, their shirt is hard to read.
At the Half, 35-31 Penn
Lewis finally returns to the game at the 1:34 mark. Penn is exploited inside immediately as McGeary gets in too easily for a layup. Jeremy Lin keeps it a six-point game with a nice block and Housman gets inside again for the Crimson to cut the Penn lead to 4. 1st Half 1:34, 35-27 Penn
Reilly returns to the game wearing a #30 jersey. Mike Kach hits a big three but Harvard answers with some nice ball movement and picks up some free throws for Unger. Penn gets a fast break off a long rebound the next possession and Bernardini finishes with a nice move to the hoop. It gives Penn its biggest lead of 9. Conor Turley puts on a beautiful spin move inside. Too bad he misses the wide-open layup, again.
1st Half 3:51, 29-22 Penn
Egee is playing a nice all-around game so far as he gotten a couple steals and more than his share of rebounds. Aron Cohen finally enters the game at the 4:08 mark. Eggleston gets a nice block inside but Harris recovers the ball and gets fouled. So far my favorite sorority outfit is whoever is wearing the tye-dye shirts. I’ll try to find out which one it is and report back.
1st Half 6:00, 25-19 Penn
The offenses have gotten increasingly ugly since the near fight. Both teams are turning the ball over with offensive fouls. To make it worse, Conor Turley just missed a wide open layup off an inbound pass. He is going to have to step up with Schreiber sidelined. Both Gaines and Lewis have been riding the bench since being ineffective early. Reilly returns to the bench and gets an ovation after the knock he took from Harris.
1st Half, 7:47, 21-19 Penn
Penn looks pretty active defensively but they are turning the ball over as well. The Harris-Reilly incident has created a buzz in the arena and the Penn students are booing every time Harris touches the ball. The energy in here has distracted me from checking out the sorority section, updates on that are coming though.
1st Half, 9:03, 21-17 Penn
Things get heated as Harris and Reilly collide and Harris throws him to the floor. Harris cocks back as if ready to punch Reilly but is held back by his teammates. The Penn bench nearly clears but things are kept under control. Harris is given an intentional foul and Reilly takes a personal. Brennan Votel and Andreas Schreiber are ejected for leaving the bench. Losing Schreiber could prove a huge blow to the Quakers. The Penn students promptly start a “Harris sucks” chant.
1st Half, 11:34 17-16 Penn
Harrison Gaines gets a big ovation as he enters for Egee. Harvard continues to feed the ball inside but it looks like Andreas Schreiber is more capable of defending them inside. Dan McGeary has hit two three’s since coming off the bench to keep the Crimson within one. By the way, it looks like the Greeks are starting to show up, Penn’s student section is alive and very much full.
1st Half, 15:27 12-8 Penn
The back door is working early for Penn as Bernardini and Egee have been able to get behind the Crimson D. Two early exclamation points for Penn as Bernardini gets open back door for a slam and Lewis takes a nice entry pass from Grandieri for another dunk. Even Harris and Brad Unger look to be too much for Penn’s interior defenders so far.
Harvard:
F Brad Unger
F Evan Harris
G Jeremy Lin
G T.J. Carey
G Andrew Pusar
F Jack Eggleston
F Cam Lewis
G Tyler Bernardini
G Brian Grandieri
G Kevin Egee
The Quakers look more pumped up than any game so far this season as they get in a NFL worthy moshpit before warmups. We'll see if it translates to a high level of intensity once the ball is tipped.
Hey it’s Rob Gross here at the Palestra for Penn’s opening Ivy game of the season, against Harvard. Stay tuned for live updates throughout the night.