Game 12 - La Salle: The good, bad and ugly

This one defied logic and thus is tough to sum up. So I'll break it down simply.

The good: The final 3 minutes, 21 seconds of regulation. Penn's absurd comeback started innocently, with two free throws from Tyler Bernardini to cut a 72-59 lead to 72-61. When Jack Eggleston nailed a three and Zack Rosen made a free throw and a layup, things began getting interesting at 72-67 with 1:38 to go. But no one could rationally say the Quakers were doing anything more than making the final score more respectable until Rosen sank two three-pointers in a row to make it 76-73 and set up Eggleston's game-tying free throws. Wow, what a dramatic conclusion to the first 40 minutes.

The bad: The first 36 minutes, 39 seconds of regulation. The game as a whole was not pretty - just ask Rosen or Jerome Allen (coach: "From Tyler to Zack to Dau Jok who played 30 seconds, I didn’t feel like we came ready to defend or rebound or share the ball. It was an incomplete basketball game."). It featured two scrambled offenses weaving through porous defenses and plenty of missed layups, turnover blunders, bobbled balls and uncoordinated falls. Not exactly Big 5 basketball at its best.

The ugly: Overtime. You'd think Penn would have all the momentum after a miraculous comeback brought the game to the extra session. But what many call miraculous, Allen and Rosen call "lucky." So instead of building off the late push in regulation, the Quakers gave way to a re-focused La Salle team in overtime. Penn impatiently launched contested threes, while the Explorers worked the ball around the perimeter to get open looks. Over the final five minutes, they showed that they wanted to win more.

Honorable mentions -

The good: Tom Gola Arena's musical selection. New Kanye and Wiz Khalifa blasted throughout a basketball gym? Can't help but get pumped.

The bad: Ruben Guillandeaux's last name. There's a reason we referred to him throughout our rapid-fire live blog simply as Ruben.

The ugly: Writing on deadline for games like this. Let's just say the 'delete' key got a lot of action tonight.