FINAL: HARVARD 89, PENN 79

Penn played a nice final ten minutes, but in case you haven’t heard there are 40 minutes in a college basketball game. Looks like Cornell has locked up the league with a win over Brown tonight.

2nd Half, 55.3: Harvard 83, Penn 72

Now this one is over, the last minute is a formality. Glen Miller has called his last timeout and Penn is in full-court press/foul mode. We want a Cem Dinc appearance!

2nd Half, 2:39: Harvard 76, Penn 66

A Bernardini 3 made it a single-digit game, but Kyle Fitzgerald stopped the Penn momentum with a huge basket inside, after Harvard worked the shot clock all the way down.

2nd Half, 4:04: Harvard 74, Penn 63

WAIT! It’s not over just yet.

The Quakers have put together a very nice offensive stretch and a Schreiber put-back three-point play made it an 11-point game. Dan McGeary just turned it over with a carry, forcing a Tommy Amaker timeout.

2nd Half, 7:44: Harvard 67, Penn 48

The margin hasn’t changed much, but at least Penn is starting to look respectable on offense. It’s going to be much too little, much too late though.

2nd Half, 10:50: Harvard 63, Penn 44

Every time Penn has shown signs of life Harvard has answered with some baskets. Bernardini finally got back on the board with some FTs, but he then missed short on a 3, which led to a Crimson fast-break score.

2nd Half, 13:44, Harvard 57, Penn 40

Much of the same. Penn is forcing it on offense. The effort is there, but when they have put together some good possessions, it seems Harvard is getting all the breaks and bounces.

Earlier, I forgot to mention that Harris went up for a monster throw down that would have torn off the glass roof here, but a Quaker got in his way and he went crashing to the floor. I don’t know how there was no foul on the play.

By the way, Bernardini only played six minutes in the first half due to 2 fouls. He hasn’t scored since his game-opening 3. Could be a major reason Penn looks so bad on offense.

2nd Half, 15:55, Harvard 52, Penn 33

The teams started where they left off in the first half. Lin has already gotten inside twice for easy layups and Penn continues to struggle from the floor. Unger is killing the Penn D; he just hit another 3.

1st Half Stats:

Leading Scorers: Penn - Grandieri (12), Harvard - Unger (16), Harris (14)

FG%: Penn - 12-36 (33.3%), Harvard - 16-27 (59.3%)

Points in the Paint: Penn - 12, Harvard - 24

FT-FTA: Penn - 1-2, Harvard - 10-11

Rebounds: Penn - 14 (9 offensive), Harvard - 22 (6 offensive)

Assists/Turnovers: Penn - 5/4, Harvard - 9/6

Halftime: Harvard 45, Penn 28

Yeah you read that right. Penn is down 17 at the half against a 2-and-7 league team.

Did they have some bad clam chowder on the way here from Hanover??? After putting up 88 last night, the Red and Blue look like they’re going to give up that much or more tonight. The offense is struggling, but the Quakers’ interior defenders don’t look like they could guard me right now (then again, I am a beast on the low block).

1st Half, 2:58: Harvard 41, Penn 25

Things are getting uglier for the Quakes on both sides of the court. Reilly missed two open 3’s and besides that, they have really struggled to get good looks. They finally put in a nice defensive possession, but Pusar gobbled the rebound and put it in for a new biggest lead.

1st Half, 6:17: Harvard 34, Penn 23

Harvard looks like a well-oiled machine on offense so far. I can’t count the amount of layups they’ve had. Unger, though, just gave the Crimson a double-digit lead by stepping outside for a 3.

1st Half, 7:46: Harvard 29, Penn 22

Penn is doing a better job stopping penetration than they did in the first matchup between these two, but the Crimson are finding other ways to score inside. They extended their lead thanks to and-one buckets by Unger and Harris. Harvard is also winning the free throw battle so far as the Quakers hit the penalty before the 10-minute mark.

1st Half, 11:57: Harvard 14, Penn 12

The Crimson have been working the pick and roll well, the latest time coming when Harris got a mismatch inside and scored on Egee. Justin Reilly, Harrison Gaines and Brenna Votel have all made early appearances for Penn.

1^st Half, 13:51: Harvard 12, Penn 9

Penn started it off with a Bernardini three, which is a great sign for the team. Harvard has taken over since, the best highlight coming on a Harris three-point play.

Penn Starters: Egee, Bernardini, Grandieri, Eggleston, Schreiber

Harvard Starters: G Jeremy Lin, G Drew Housman, G Andrew Pusar, F Evan Harris, F Brad Unger

Early Cofield Update: Remy is in street clothes.

Early Band Update: The Penn Band played “I’m a Barbie Girl” and the Harvard band played “Boom Boom Boom Boom, I want you in my room.”

Penn Band: 0, Harvard Band: 0

Hey it’s Rob Gross here in Cambridge (I think it’s Cambridge, it could be Boston or Allston or Brighton all of them at the same time). Anyway I’m hereto bring you live updates of tonights Penn-Harvard game. Refresh this page for updates throughout the night.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm and is filed under Game Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.