FINAL NORTHWESTERN 10 PENN 6

The game ends with Penn hanging onto the ball for the last six minutes of the game give or take. The dream season is over for the Quakers, but they are the second best team in the nation, still nothing to sneeze out.

NU meanwhile is now the four-time National Champion.

3:31 Penn 6 NU 10
Penn just can’t get the ball. They had a great chance to do so, but they couldn’t come up with the grounball. Instead Nielsen gets the ball, runs around the back of the net, gets hit on the head, yet keeps going and then scores the wrap around. That might clinch it for the Wildcats.
5:22 Penn 6 NU 9

Northwestern calls its last timeout. Can Penn comeback and win? Yes. Will they? It’s not looking too good.

6:43 Penn 6 NU 9

Northwestern is just running out the clock it seems, and a timeout is called. The PA announcer says that tonight’s attendance is 6,125, a new record for an NCAA championship game. In the press box someone just announced that Lanthrop’s 11 saves are a season-high.

8:26 Penn 6 NU 9

One Penn shot sails high, and then another hits off the post. Those two might decide the game.

11:04 Penn 6 NU 9

A Penn goal is called off because of a foul called before the play. Too bad you can’t decline the penalty. Lanthrop saves the ensuing penalty.

11:30 Penn 6 NU 9

Nielsen decides to do some scoring of her own, earning her second goal of the night off a Frank pass.

13:43 Penn 6 NU 8
Lanthrop makes her first mistake of the night. Going for a loose ball, she doesn’t come up with possession, but guess who does? Penn’s Rachel Manson. She shoots it into the empty net, and Penn’s within two.

14:45 Penn 5 NU 8

Manson gets a great stick-check, then she draws a foul, drawing boos from the Northwestern fans. There’s a media timeout, and Penn will get possession once the game get back under way. They really need to score here.

15:20 Penn 5 NU 8
Senior Melissa Lehman gets a free-position for Penn, but the high shot is saved by Lanthrop.

16:00 Penn 5 NU 8

Penn gets that stop.

17:11 Penn 5 NU 8

Penn turns it over after coming close to getting off a shot. A quick defensive stop is their top priority.

18:07 Penn 5 NU 8

DeLuca gets her second goal of the game.

20:21 Penn 4 NU 8

Kocis gets a bouncing goal that’s unassisted.

20:52 Penn 3 NU 8

A media timeout is called, as Penn will have possession from behind the NU goal after the break. Penn hasn’t done any of the things I said it had to do to win. Things just aren’t looking too good.

22:36 Penn 3 NU 8

Before I can even finish writing the previous entry, Kristin Finch scores her second goal of the year for NU. This is Penn’s largest deficit faced all year. They trailed by four twice before this game. Penn coach Karin Brower calls her team’s first timeout.

22:57 Penn 3 NU 7

The nearly-unstoppable combination of Nielsen to Bowen strikes yet again, as Bowen earns the hat trick off yet another bouncing shot. Four goals is going to be a tough margin to overcome with the lack of defensive stops.

24:08 Penn 3 NU 6

Bowen shoots low and Waxman can’t get a save. It’s the Rochester, N.Y. native’s 80th goal of the year. The Wildcats refuse to let the Quakers get within one.

25:25 Penn 3 NU 5

Spiro earns a free-position shot and then scores in the top right corner.

26:08 Penn 2 NU 5

Another save by Lanthrop. She’s got my theoretical vote for MVP.

27:27 Penn 2 NU 5

A crease violation is called against NU, waving off a goal. Penn then does get a clear. About time.

28:40 Penn 2 NU 5
Bowen gets called with a charge, yet Penn can’t get the clear. Uh oh

Halftime Penn 2 NU 5

At least it’s not as bad as it was last year. In last year’s Final Four matchup Penn trailed 8-0 at the half. Well today they’re down only 5-2, and in fact they trailed the Wildcats back on April 27 when Penn eventually won. However, they were only down two at 7-5, and in fact had scored the last goal of the half. Tonight, however, Northwestern is the one with momentum at the break. Lanthrop’s save at the buzzer was critical, as it clearly gave the Wildcats some momentum.

Looking at the stat sheet, Northwestern isn’t quite as dominant as I had thought. Although they are dominating two key stats (they lead in shots 13-7 and draw controls 5-3), they have only one more groundball (7-6), and have equaled Penn in saves (5) and clears (5-7). Furthermore, they have more fouls than Penn (7-5), more turnovers (9-7) and a worse free-position shot percentage (0-1 vs 1-3). Yet the one area that they’re dominating in is time of possession. Unfortunately the NCAA does not track that stat, but I’d venture a guess that Penn has only had the ball for seven minutes out of the first 30.

What must Penn do to win? It’s pretty clear: They must win the draws and keep hammering in shots against Lanthrop. So far the junior goalkeeper has been pretty dominant, but she did give up 11 goals to Penn the first time the two teams played. And on the defensive end, Penn must be consistent at getting clears. Yes they were 5-7 in the first, but both of those bothced clears led to goals. Take those two off the board, and this game clearly could be Penn’s.

That said, Penn can’t give up all hope. In all of Penn’s close games they seem to have a poor half a great one. Considering against NU the first time they were outscored 7-5 in the first, then blanketed the Wildcats 6-0 in the second, Penn clearly could come out here and win (though I doubt they’ll shut out the Wildcats). That said, winning still will be hard. In just 30 (game) minutes we’ll know whether Penn has done this tall task.

:00 Penn 2 NU 5

Here’s another stat Penn has been poor at: groundballs. It seems that any 50-50 ball is going NU’s way, and any that Penn actually comes up with was only after Penn had dropped the ball.

Meredith Frank scores for NU, yet again pushing the NU lead to three.

Penn senior Rachel Manson is fouled as the buzzer sounds, but the refs add a second on. She gets a free position shot. Lanthrop saves it, however. She’s clearly been a top player tonight.
3:41 Penn 2 NU 4

DeLuca shoots but gets shutdown by Lanthrop.

6:08 Penn 2 NU 4
Penn causes another turnover yet can’t capitalize off of a Chelsea Kocis pass that gets broken up.

7:26 Penn 2 NU 4

Penn finally gets a shot off, as sophomore Emma Spiro gets a shot off, but it doesn’t go far, as Sara Harrington hits Spiro’s stick at the release point. After a turnover on either side Penn’s Kaitlyn Lombardo gets a free position shot from directly at the top of the eight meter crease. And she fires a great shot to the top shelf. One-third of Northwestern’s lead is cut.

11:28 Penn 1 NU 4

Penn keeps turning it over/not finishing clears. And this dooms them as Nielsen gets yet another assist by passing to Katrina Dowd. Dowd grabs the pass directly in front of Waxman and rips off a shot. And just like that Penn finds itself down by three.

13:51 Penn 1 NU 3
NU goalkeeper Morgan Lanthrop gets a nice save off an Allison Ambrozy free position shot.

16: 10 Penn 1 NU 3

Bowen gets another goal off a great pass from Nielsen. Immediately following, NU gets yet another draw. Guess what, Penn’s back on defense. They need a stop. Well they get one since there’s an offensive foul on Danielle Spencer.

18:34 Penn 1 NU 2

Nice save by Waxman. Penn’s still playing too much defense. NU’s offensive philosophy has clearly been to shield the Penn defenders by screening a lot of their top options such as Nielsen and Bowen.
20:08 Penn 1 NU 2

Bowen gets a great pass to a wide-open Meghan Plunkett who scorches it straight into the goal. Just like against Duke, Penn has let an early 1-0 lead disappear.

21:36 Penn 1 NU 1 (Media Timeout)

Goalkeeper Waxman makes a great save, but the Quakers can’t get the clear. So far in eight-plus minutes Penn has been on defense for the majority. With the potent NU offense, any more time in the Quakers’ third and the Wildcats are bound to run up the score. Penn must improve on its clears.

25:23 Penn 1 NU 1

NU’s Hilary Bowen gets a free position shot but misses. Good news for Penn, who gave up several free-position goals on Friday. But NU keeps possession. Eventually Hannah Nielsen rips a shot while sprinting around the edge of the crease to avoid Penn’s Tarah Kirnan. Sarah Waxman can’t save it, and Northwestern has now equalized the game.

28:58 left in first half Penn 1 Northwestern 0

Penn got the first draw, which clearly bodes well for this all-important stat. And after turning it over, the Quakers get it back. Sophomore Ali DeLuca sprint down the field and shoot a left-handed shot down low for the game’s opening tally.

Welcome yet again to the 2008 NCAA Division-I Women’s Lacrosse Tournament from Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Md. Today’s final pits the No. 2 Penn Quakers (17-1) against the top-seeded Northwestern Wildcats (20-1). In case you didn’t get a chance to do so already, you can read my preview of tonight’s game right here.

It’s been quite the journey for the women’s lacrosse team, who had a decent 10-6 record in 2006 and then made the Final Four last year with a record of 16-1 before getting demolished by the Wildcats in the national semifinal. This year saw even higher levels of success, as the squad beat the Wildcats 11-7, earned its first ever national No. 1 ranking, and made it to the National Championship game for the first time ever.

In fact they’re the first Penn team to make it to an NCAA final. So this game clearly is one of the biggest games in Penn athletics history. As such the Penn Athletics administration is in full show today. Athletic Director Steve Bilsky shared an elevator with me, even complementing the DP’s coverage of the team. And for the first time this season, all four of the Athletic Communications personnel are in attendance at a Penn sporting event. I’ve also been told that several Penn coaches are in attendance, including volleyball coach Kerry Carr, softball coach Leslie King and women’s track coach Gwen Harris, although I’ll admit I didn’t have time to look for them in the stands.

Of course Penn Athletics representatives aren’t the only ones here. There is quite a crowd, although I’d say Northwestern probably has more fans than Penn does. Even if that’s not actually true, it certainly appears so since Northwestern fans are much better at one thing than Penn: dressing in the same colors. All Northwestern fans are wearing purple, so there’s a sea of purple on one side of the field. Even though the other side of the field is clearly made up of Penn supporters, they’re not wearing a solid blue or red, so it’s not as visually impressive. Regardless, I’m sure it’ll be a loud crowd for both teams.

As I have several times this season, I’ll provide in-game updates of the match, but again I’m limited by NCAA regulations to only six times a half, plus once at halftime. Of course on Friday I was a little lax (no pun intended) about that during the game’s crazy final 10 minutes. So I’ll try to follow the rules better today. But no guarantees, NCAA Media Enforcement Bureau, or whoever it is that monitors blogs.

END OF GAME. DUKE 8 PENN 9
IT’S OVER PENN WINS!!!!! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY PENN IS GOING TO THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. THEY’LL PLAY NORTHWESTERN ON SUNDAY FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

:42 Duke 8 Penn 9

:45 a foul is called on Duke, and Giulia Giordano has a free position. SHE PASSES IT OFF TO RACHEL MANSON WHO SCORES!

End of first OT period Duke 8 Penn 8

Waxman gets a great low save at :25, but takes the rest of OT to get it away. That’s her seventh save of the night.

END OF REGULATION Duke 8 Penn 8

Penn had the ball for the last 45 seconds, but its only shot was wide and high.

Here’s how OT works. There are two, three-minute periods. Both are played to their full length regardless of how many goals are or aren’t scored. So it is not sudden death.

I’ve seen over 20 women’s lacrosse games in my two years covering the team, and this game is without a doubt the most nerve-wracking I’ve ever watched. Regardless of the outcome it’ll be a sweet finish. (This isn’t hurt by the fact that “Baba O’Reily” is being played over the PA system.)

1:00 Duke 8 Penn 8

A delayed penalty called on Penn. On the ensuing free position shot Gilbride scores. 60 seconds will determine this final four game.

1:25 Duke 7 Penn 8

A Duke shot goes past goal. But Duke keeps possession. Davis fumbles it, but they regain possession. Kimel takes her last timeout. 85 seconds to go.

3:14 Duke 7 Penn 8

Penn turns it over. Duke will have plenty of time to tie it up.

5:40 Duke 7 Penn 8

Lehman drives down the center of the crease and scores her third of the game. Penn leads for the first time since 2:52 into the first. A stick check was called on Lehman, but the refs hold it up. Four-thirds of the Duke’s lead is cut.

6:57 Duke 7 Penn 7

A media timeout is called. Penn had lost possession of the ball and Duke started charging up the field. But Ambrozy got some payback, causing Duke’s Christina Germinario to turn it over. A foul is then called as Penn now has possession.

10:25 Duke 7 Penn 7

Chelsea Kocis takes it, shoots, but gets blocked by Imbesi. No foul called, though there was contact.

11:38 Duke 7 Penn 7

An Ambrozy shot goes wide. But soon after sophomore Ali DeLuca takes a low-angle shot, tying the game up. Three-thirds of Duke’s lead is cut. Kimel calls her team’s second of three timeouts.

12:56 Duke 7 Penn 6

On the ensuing draw control Ambrozy gets the draw. Penn’s back on offense, taking its time despite the deficit. Lombardo takes another shot, but it’s off the crossbar. Later on Melissa Lehman takes a bounce shot and it hits the back of the net. Two-thirds of the Duke’s lead is cut.

A media timeout is called.

15:08 Duke 7 Penn 5

Kaitlyn Lombardo takes a Giordano pass and rips it into the goal. One-third of Duke’s lead is cut.

18:05 Duke 7 Penn 4

Davis drives around the lower left side of the field, beats her defender, and gets her fifth goal of the game. Yes there’s plenty of time left, but Duke then gets the draw control. Things just aren’t looking good for Penn.

19:34 Duke 6 Penn 4.

Waxman gets a few saves, yet bobbles all of them as she just couldn’t get possession of the ball. The All-Ivy selection just isn’t looking too sharp today. A media timeout is called, which has to be a relief to these Quakers. They haven’t come out looking to hot here, and Duke has been dominating possession this half. The Quakers must get a stop.

22:34 Duke 6 Penn 4
The refs call yet another foul against Penn. Of the free position shot, Davis scores her fourth of the night, her 60th of the season. Brower takes a timeout.

The foul disparity has now reached 14-5 in Duke’s favor.

23:09 Duke 5 Penn 4
Katie Mazer gets a yellow card and must sit for the next three minutes. However Penn can sub.

25:00 Duke 5 Penn 4

Duke scores, as Davis gets another goal — her third — despite the ball trickling past Sarah Waxman. For a second the refs discussed whether it was a legal goal, but they did allow it.

26:03 Duke 4 Penn 4

Giordano scores off a pass from senior Chelsea Kocis. It’s her 20th of the year. It’s the first goal since 18:54 left in the first.

28:16 Duke 4 Penn 3

Great kick save by Imbesi of senior Allison Ambrozy.

HALFTIME: DUKE 4 PENN 3

Well for only the third time this year Penn find itself down going into the second. So far the Quakers are 2-1 in such situations, overcoming a 4-2 deficit at Cornell to win 7-6 and a 7-5 disadvantage to beat Northwestern 11-7. They couldn’t surpass Stanford’s 5-2 halftime lead, falling 10-8. So for them to come back down one at the break is certainly not unthinkable.

But for them to do so they must do a better job containing the Duke offense. Yes they’ve only given up four goals. But considering they average only six goals allowed, they’re not doing as great of a job as they normally do on the defensive end. They gave up 10 shots, while only getting eight of their own. This includes letting Duke go 2-3 on free position shots. In return the Quakers are getting frustrated, as they’ve committed nine fouls vs. Duke’s three. Finally, I know Coach Karin Brower always stresses draw controls. So she’s clearly not happy her squad has been outdrawn 5-3.

This first five minutes of the second could make or break the game. If Penn comes out strong and scores a few quick goals, they might not relinquish the lead again. But if they come out uninspired and Duke scores first, this Penn squad better shape up quickly, or else they’ll see another great season come to a bitter close. In 30 (game) minutes we’ll find out which scenario it is. Stick around.

0:00 Duke 4 Penn 3.

Right at the buzzer Waxman makes a great save off a Jess Adams shot preventing the Blue Devils from increasing their lead. Maybe the Quakers can use this to get some momentum, as they’ll need to come back in the second if they want to advance to the National Championship game Sunday.

1:52 Duke 4 Penn3

Great save by Imbesi on a Manson shot.

4:28 Duke 4 Penn 3

Kaitlyn Lombardo gets decked by two Duke players. But on the free position she runs away from goal.

6:01 Duke 4 Penn 3

Great save by Waxman, although she doesn’t maintain possession. But Penn gets the groundball.

12:06 Duke 4 Penn 3

Senior Melissa Lehman scores off of a scorcher from about eight feet out. Penn’s now within one.

13:55 Duke 4 Penn 2

Waxman gets a key save, maybe getting back some confidence after giving up four early goals.

15:20 Duke 4 Penn 2

Off a free position shot Duke’s Lindsay Gilbride gets her 38th goal of the year. Penn’s strategy of holding onto the ball for as long as possible to get the best possible shot might backfire if they fall behind by too much more. They need to get a stop right here.

17:30 Duke 3 Penn 2

After a timeout, Penn clears, then holds onto the ball for a solid few minutes. This has been Penn’s standard attack: slow and deliberate offense. Penn finally gets off some shots, but freshman Giulia Giordano is stopped by Duke goalie Kim Imbesi twice.

23:31 Duke 3 Penn 2

Yet another goal by Davis, this time a low-angle shot, one that Penn goalkeeper Sarah Waxman seemed surprise she even took.

25:17 Duke 2 Penn 2

Sophomore Emma Spiro gets an unassisted goal to tie it back up.

26:26 Duke 2 Penn 1

Penn’s Ali DeLuca gets beat by Sarah Bullard, giving the Blue Devils their first lead of the game.

27:18 Penn 1 Duke 1

Carolyn Davis gets a goal off of a free position shot after Penn senior Tarah Kirnan fouls her. The game is all square at one.

29:00 left in the first half Penn 1 Duke 0.

The Quakers win the opening draw, and set up their deliberate offense. And at 29:00 mark senior Rachel Manson scores the first goal of the game. Senior Allison Ambrozy earns the assist.

Welcome back to the second leg of the Final Four from Johnny Unitas Stadium at Towson University, as No. 2 Penn (16-1) takes on unseeded Duke (13-7). The winner will get Northwestern, who dominated Syracuse 16-8, including scoring nine unanswered in the second half. (When asked in the postgame press conference “what if it’s Penn?” in the National Championship game, NU coach Kelly Amonte-Hiller refused to answer the question.)

Penn, as the higher seed is wearing its home whites, and Duke is wearing a mix of its black and blue. Unfortunately, I’m limited on how often I can post Buzz updates, so I’ll only post every five minutes give or take.

Final Northwestern 16 Syracuse 8

The Wildcats dominated the second half, scoring nine straight before Syracuse got two late goals. If it’s any solace, the Orange did do better than their previous game against Northwestern, when they lost 19-7.

7:37 left: Northwestern 15 Syracuse 6.

In some ways you could say this is the opposite of NU’s Final Four game last year. In that game they outscored Penn 8-0 in the first half, and 4-2 in the second. Today they went up 7-6 vs. the Orange at half, but have now gone on an incredible 8-0 run to pretty much clinch a spot in Sunday’s national championship game.

There is a plane flying above Johnny Unitas Stadium that has a message attached to its tail: “DUKE WLAX NEVER NEVER NEVER GIVE IN!” Certain words come to mind, but I don’t think I can post them on this blog.

Halftime of the NU-SU semifinal: Northwestern 7 Syracuse 6

This game has been pretty back and forth. It appeared Northwestern had seized the momentum in the last few minutes as it went up by two, but Syracuse junior Megan Mosenson scored a great goal right as she was hit with 1:53 left.

Looking around the stadium, the south half of the stands are near capacity, with the majority of them Northwestern fans. However, the north side of the stadium is only about half-filled, including the Syracuse fan section. Overall I’d say there’s a smaller crowd then there was for last year’s Final Four hosted at Franklin Field.

If you’re into fight songs/college athletics atmosphere, you’d be happy. Despite none of the bands showing up, the PA system does play the scoring school’s fight song after every goal.

Welcome to Johnny Unitas Stadium in Towson, Md., for the Final Four of the Division I Women’s Lacrosse NCAA tournament. No. 2 Penn (16-1) will play unseeded Duke (13-7) in the second semifinal tonight at 8:30 p.m. Right now No.1 Northwestern (19-1) is playing No. 5 Syracuse (18-2) in the first semifinal of the night, a matchup that pits the first- and third-ranked offenses in the nation.

That game started off to a blistering start, as two goals were scored in the first 2:30 minutes. However the next 15 minutes only saw two goals total. After that the scoring picked back up, and now the score stands at 5-4 Orange with 7:43 to go. Northwestern clearly isn’t going to coast to its fourth straight National Championship.

FINAL PENN 16 COLGATE 7

Even though Colgate scored the last goal, the Quakers are the one advancing. Next Saturday the Quakers will face Boston University although the game will be held at Drexel’s stadium due to graduation festivities at Franklin Field.

A full recap will appear later today on the Buzz.

1:03 Penn 16 Colgate 7

Colgate still isn’t giving up, as they now have a higher total than Penn’s average goals allowed per game (6.00).

1:32 Penn 16 Colgate 6

Seaman gets her second off of classmate Meg Smith’s pass. The goal now makes this game Penn’s highest scoring of the season.

3:04 Penn 15 Colgate 6

With the game well in hand, the Quakers are subbing out most of their starters and giving some valuable tournament experience to the underclassmen. However, this lack of the Quakers’ top tier talent leads to a Colgate goal.

10:50 Penn 15 Colgate 5

Penn reextends its lead to 10, causing the clock to keep running due to the mercy rule, as Spiro gets her second goal of the game.

16:54 Penn 14 Colgate 5
Colgate finally answers back, as Colleen Bubnack gets her second of the game.

18:00 Penn 14 Colgate 4

DeLuca get a crisp pass from junior Hannah Rudloff and the sophomore earns her third goal of the game.
20:18 Penn 13 Colgate 4

Less than a minute later sophomore Barb Seaman off of sophomore Courtney Lube’s pass streaks into the crease and fires a shot past Drexler.

20:51 Penn 12 Colgate 4

Spiro gets fouled and then on the ensuing free position shot nails in a goal. Penn also scored around the 22 minute mark.

HALFTIME

The Quakers were definitely in control in the first half, although when Colgate had the ball they did pretty well. In fact, Waxman only got two saves, whereas Drexler got six. Although of course Waxman has let up four goals vs ten.

And the winner of this game will get Boston University. The Terriers beat New Hampshire 16-8. Looking at the other scores, No. 3 Maryland is leading Temple 8-5 at half. North Carolina is half way to an upset, leading No. 4 Virginia 6-3. And finally No. 8 Princeton is tied at six with Vanderbilt.

The crowd here at Franklin Field isn’t as large as it has been this year, as the Northwestern game clearly had a larger and more vocal crowd. In fact the Penn parents, normally quite vocal aren’t too loud today. Maybe that’s because their vocal and emotional leader, Mrs. Kym the security guard only just appeared.

Despite the slightly smaller numbers, there are a couple of Penn Athletics “bigshots” in attendance, including AD Steve Bilsky and women’s basketball coach Pat Knapp. However they’re not sitting next to each other. Interesting…

0:00 Penn 10 Colgate 4

Colgate got a couple of late chances to cut the lead down, but Penn goalkeeper Sarah Waxman made two key saves.

1:20 Penn 10 Colgate 4

Ambrozy gets her first goal of the game as Manson increases her point total with an assist.

7:09 Penn 9 Colgate 4
Penn’s four-goal run ends with Molly Carroll’s first goal for the Raiders.
8:06 Penn 9 Colgate 3

Lehman gets a nice pass from Giordano and rips off a shot. Colgate goalkeeper Sara Drexler knocks it down, but it still trickles into the goal.

12:04 Penn 8 Colgate 3

The Quakers keep increasing its lead off a free position goal by DeLuca. She had picked off a pass around midfield, sprinted to the Raiders’ goal, yet got fouled before she could shoot.

14:22 Penn 7 Colgate 3

Penn takes a four goal lead after some crisp passing from senior Chelsea Kocis allowed Manson to rip a shot to the upper left corner for a hat trick.

17: 25 Penn 6 Colgate 3

But just as Colgate refuses to go away, Penn refuses to let them come back. Freshman Giordano makes sure of that by getting a feed from sophomore Emma Spiro. It came after a Kaitlyn Lombardo shot ricocheted off the post.

20:10 Penn 5 Colgate 3

Colgate gets another tally, as they refuse to be put away. I should add that there is a sizable Colgate crowd here today, many of whom are more vocal than the Penn supporters.

22:24 Penn 5 Colgate 2

Penn increases its lead back to three off of Manson’s second goal.

24:01 Penn 4 Colgate 2

Another minute goes by and Colgate gets its second of the game. Clearly this is going to be a high scoring affair.

25:02 Penn 4 Colgate 1

Penn rebounds from the Colgate goal with a tally of its own from sophomore Ali DeLuca.

26:13 Penn 3 Colgate 1

But then 18 seconds later Colgate takes the ball off the draw, drives down field and scores its first goal. Clearly when the Raiders have the ball they’re still potent.

26:31 Penn 3 Colgate 0

Then thirty seconds later senior Melissa Lehman gets a feed of off classmate Manson and the Quakers are up by three still earlier.

27:00 Penn 2 Colgate 0

Freshman Guilia Giordano gets a feed off of senior Allison Ambrozy for the Quakers’ second goal

First Half 29:30 left Penn 1 Colgate 0

And just like that Penn is already in the lead. The Quakers took the opening draw, and after almost losing possession senior Rachel Manson got the ball, cut across the crease from the left side and ripped a shot that gave the Quakers quite the early lead.

Welcome to Franklin Field on this gray May day. The Colgate Raiders (11-9) come to town to take on the No. 2 seed Quakers (14-1, 7-0 Ivy League) in the first round of the NCAA tournament. I’ll be providing game updates, although as this is an NCAA championship event I’m limited on how often I can blog. So I’ll post my updates roughly every five minutes (written in bold) even though I’ll give the time designation for all the goals.

The Raiders come into this matchup on a four game winning streak, including wins over American to win the Patriot League championship and over MAAC champion Marist in the NCAA play-in game.

The Quakers meanwhile, are on the nation’s second longest win streak at 12 games, having gone undefeated since a March 9 loss@ Stanford. During the streak the Quakers rose to No. 1 in the nation after beating then-undefeated No. 1 Northwestern.

The winner of this game will get the winner of No. 7 Boston University (who owns the nation’s longest win streak) and New Hampshire.

FINAL PENN 15 TEMPLE 2

That was the most dominating game I’ve seen in my two years of covering Penn Women’s Lacrosse. I’ll throw up the postgame quotes later.

2:22 Penn 15 Temple 2

Sophomore Megan Smith gets her first goal of the year.

3:55 Penn 14 Temple 2

Temple scores again. As a friend of mine just mentioned, this is similar to Penn’s loss to Northwestern last year in the final four when they lost 12-2. NU just came out swinging and never looked behind, leading 8-0 at the break. In the sceond they did give up two goals, but they always looked in charge.

8:07 Penn 14 Temple 1

Rudloff scores off a Lombardo pass, although it was an ugly goal that only trickled in.

13:13 Penn 13 Temple 1

Junior Samantha Bird gets her second goal of the year off a Lehman assist.

18:36 Penn 12 Temple 1

Warren gets her second goal, this one off a free position shot. Manson almost got her fifth assist, but it was waved off since the penalty was called before the goal was scored.

20:45 Penn 11 Temple 1

Speaking of Szelest, the first shot she faces go past her to the lower left, as Temple is finally off the board. The scoreless streak is stopped at an astonishing 69:15.

24:52 Penn 11 Temple 0

Sophomore Bethany Warren scores off a Manson pass after the senior streaked down about 50 yards. That’s now Manson’s sixth point as she has four assists and two goals. Aftewards coach Karin Brower takes her out. Has she played her last regular season minutes? Also, Waxman was taken out during that stretch, and replaced by sophomore Emily Szelest.

Halftime Penn 10 Temple 0

The half ends with Penn dominating, scoring .07 below its season average and shutting out the Owls. With the shutout half, Penn has now gone an incredible 62:35 without giving up a goal. That’s more than an entire game!

During the half a friend of mine was in the men’s room and heard the following conversation from two Temple fans:

-”Rough Game”

-”I didn’t think it would be so bad”

-”Well they’re not No. 1 for nothing”

2:19 Penn 10 Temple 0

Well I guess DeLuca liked scoring instead of assisting. She got her second goal of the game off an assist from Manson. With its next goal Penn will have passed its scoring average for the year.

3:44 Penn 9 Temple 0

DeLuca gets her first goal of the game in addition to her two assists.

8:42 Penn 8 Temple 0

Senior Allison Ambrozy off a junior Hannah Rudloff assist gives Penn its eighth unanswered goal, causing Temple coach Bonnie Rosen to sub in the backup goalie.

13:15 Penn 7 Temple 0

Sophomore Courtney Lube has scored two goals over the last seven minutes. A temple shot did go off the crossbar.

20:00 Penn 5 Temple 0

Sophomore Barb Seaman scores off a Manson assist. Although in the last four minutes Temple did get off their first couple of shots, all saves by goalkeeper Waxman or widely off target.

Lube from Manson

23:59 Penn 4 Temple 0
Manson scores, taking the lead over Lehman, this time with an assist from fellow senior Chelsea Kocis. Temple takes a timeout as their save percentage is still 0%.

25:35 Penn 3 Temple 0

Two different people get in yet again, as freshman Giulia Giordano keeps her hot streak going off a pass from junior Kaitlyn Lombardo. It’s now been three shots, three goals for the Quakers, and 0/0 for Temple.

26:28 Penn 2 Temple 0

And before I finished that last update Penn had scored yet again off senior Rachel Manson’s 26th goal with an assist to sophomore Ali DeLuca. Maybe Manson and Lehman will trade off goals to see who’ll lead the team in goals.

28:42 First Half Penn 1 Temple 0

Before I even finished typing the introduction, Penn had already scored off of senior Melissa Lehman’s team-leading 26th goal.

Welcome once again to Franklin Field for the Women’s Lacrosse team’s last regular season game, a non-conference tilt against 13-5 Temple. The No. 1 Quakers (13-1, 7-0 Ivy) are definitely the favorite in the this game, but Temple is no slouch, having won the A-10 Conference tournament, and the automatic bid to the NCAAs that comes with it. Nonetheless, this game is less important than either the win over then No. 1 Northwestern last Sunday, or the win at then No. 2 Princeton in mid April, so I probably won’t update as often as I did for those games. Nonetheless enjoy.

Welcome to Franklin Field where the No. 5 Quakers (12-1, 7-0 Ivy) will take on undefeated No. 1 Northwestern (15-0).

1st Half 23:51 Northwestern 1 Penn 0

The first six minutes are pretty even, but nine seconds into the seventh minute NU’s Meredith Frank gets an unassisted goal. just over

21:53 NU 1 Penn1

Penn ties it up with a shot by freshman Giulia Giordano. It came after a Rachel Manson pass.

21:44 NU 2 Penn 1

But literally 10 seconds later Northwestern goes the length of the field off the draw control and gets its second goal of the year.

18:04 NU 3 Penn 1
Northwestern works the ball around behind the net, and a quick pass from Hannah Nielsen sets up Frank for her second goal of the game.

16:38 NU 3 Penn 2

After Penn finally gets the ball back in NU territory, a few long range passes leads to a Courtney Lube goal off a sharp Kaitlyn Lombardo feed to right in front of the goal.

12:30 NU 3 Penn 2

Not much has happened since the last goal, although Penn’s Sarah Waxman made a couple of nice saves, including one on her knees.

The crowd is pretty big, I would say the largest women’s lacrosse game turnout I’ve seen save the final four. I’d say upwards of 1,000. I guess Penn athletics’ bobblehead promotion worked. Included in the crowd is the Penn Band, making its second W. Lax appearance this year.

Surprisingly there’s a lot of NU fans. Whether bandwagon or actual Wildcat fans it’s hard to tell, but they do have a handful of players from the Md-NY corridor, so it’s not inconceivable some parents would make the trek to West Philly.

10:46 NU 3 Penn 3

A crisp, sharp pass from Lombardo right to the center of the crease (just like the last one) gives senior Rachel Manson the Quakers’ tying goal. So far the biggest positive has been Lombardo’s passes.

9:52 NU 4 Penn 3

Off a free position shot Alex Bowen drives to the goal, feigns running past it, turns around and puts the Wildcats back on top.

9:17 NU 4 Penn 4

Off a free position shot senior Melissa Lehman rips a shot from pretty far out that goes straight to the upper right corner of the goal. And we have another tied game. Let’s see if Penn can finally take a lead.

7:04 NU 4 Penn 4

Yet again Lombardo has a crisp pass to the middle, but the ensuing shot is saved by NU goalkeeper Morgan Lathrop, leading one fan to say “Now that’s a save!”

6:15 NU 5 Penn 4

Northwestern gets yet another goal Frank off a Nielsen assist.

4:30 NU 6 Penn 4

Bowen gets her second goal, after running around the front of the Quakers D and ripping a shot to the upper left corner. NU was very patient on that possession, passing the ball around several times before Bowen’s run in front of the goal.

2:37 NU 7 Penn 4

Penn gets a penalty for decking a Wildcat player right before she’d shoot. On the ensuing free position shot Bowen wings a hard shot right at the goal, and Waxman is unable to save it. Ok I’ll take responsibility for jinxing the Quakers after saying “let’s see if Penn can finally take a lead” when it was 4-4

Something finally goes right for Penn, as Waxman gets a high save. Penn’s charging down the field and with :37 left gets its fifth goal of the game, this time from Lombardo off a Manson assist.

0:00 NU 7 Penn 5

With zeros showing on the clock, the refs huddle to see if there was a foul before the clock expired. They put a second back give a free position shot to NU who then proceeds to… get saved by Waxman.

Well this half was significantly better than either of the ones against NU last year. In the first game, at Evanston, Ill,, March 9, the Quakers were down 6-3 and even worse, it was 8-0 at the break in the last year’s final four at Franklin Field. The number one thing Penn has to do is keep up the offense. While they were able to hang with NU for most of the half, they couldn’t string enough goals together to take the lead. While keeping up the Wildcats certainly is an improvement from last year, they need to do more if they want to finally beat NU for the first time in five tries.

Penn athletics has really gone all out today. The jumbotron on the west scoreboard actually has video (first regular season Lax game I’ve seen that at). They also actually had some halftime entertainment other than the Penn Band as two teams of young girls played lacrosse on the field.

Second half 29:17 NU 7 Penn 5
Melissa Lehman goes the length of the field, but her one-on-one shot hits the crossbar. Manson recovers and Penn’s still on the offensive.

28:32 NU 7 Penn 6

Less than a minute later on the same possession Allison Ambrozy takes a pass and wings it into the goal. And Penn is within one.

27:19 NU 7 Penn 7

A Giordano shot is nicely saved by Lanthrop at 27:39 , but less than 30 seconds later senior Chelsea Kocis ties it up with a goal at 27:19.

26:29 NU 7 Penn 8

Giordano gets her second goal and Penn is leading Northwestern for the first time since their lone win against the Wildcats in 2003.

24:00 NU 7 Penn 9

Kocis scores yet again, this time off a free position shot, and Penn is up by two. I’m surprised NU coach Kelly Amonte Hiller hasn’t taken one of her two timeouts. I know if I was the University of Maryland grad I certainly would take one to stop the Quakers’ increasing momentum and confidence.

21:54 NU 7 Penn 10

In this recent stretch NU has been fouling a lot, clearly a sign the players are frustrated. Well it doesn’t help them, as Giordano sprints around the goal and rips a shot from an awkward angle into the net. Her hat trick goal gives Penn a three goal lead.

This ties NU’s largest deficit of the season, although the other two times they were down by three was either at halftime or in the first. The 10 goals are tied for the fourth highest total the Wildcats have given up this year.

12:36 NU 7 Penn 10

Waxman gets a nice save, just the second shot of the half for NU. And in honor of Waxman the Penn Band is singing a version of “Dayman” from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with the lyrics: “Waxman. Fighter of Northwestern. Keeper of the goal.”

The Quakers are being uber patient on offense, trying to waste as much clock as possible. Penn’s Tarah Kirnan gets a key groundball after Penn almost gives up a turnover.

7:51 NU 7 Penn 11

Ambrozy shoots high, and it gets saved, but she after it gets knocked around it goes in. Maybe I saw it wrong though, since Manson is given an assist.

6:00 NU 7 Penn 11

A Kocis shot hits the post.

4:42 NU 7 Penn 11

NU misses a free position shot, leading to the same fan who shouted “now that’s a save” to say “Oh My God!”

0:00 NU 7 Penn 11

Well Penn has done it. They’ve beaten the formerly undefeated, three-time national Champion Northwestern Wildcats of 36 game wining streak fame, and a 92-5 record over four plus seasons. This has got to be the Penn athletics highlight of the year so far.

ATLANTIC CITY — It’s over, the Owls are dancing! The Temple fans streak onto the court and the players go berserk. Christmas rips his shirt off and runs to the sideline, and the bench streaks toward center court. I couldn’t see who, but someone has grabbed Clark and is carrying him off the court. Olmos is flipping out as well. Christmas now is hugging a relative while holding back tears and shouting the whole time.

It was a great game, even though the very end wasn’t down to the wire. Carr turned it on in the second half, and Nivins had a great game, but the collective effort of the Owls was too much, all the way in the second half.

FINAL: Temple 69, St. Joe’s 64

Box score 

Owls fans are getting ready to rush the court… They start the chant “The Hawk is dead” and Hawks fans claim again it “will never die.”

0:06.1 2nd Half: Temple 68, St. Joe’s 61

The Temple fans are sensing it happening. Carr cuts it to four with a drive, but Brooks hits two on the line.

Tyndale finally hits from the line and it is just about done.

0:20.3 2nd Half: Temple 64, St. Joe’s 59

Calathes spins toward the hoop, and can’t seem to go anywhere. He gets the ball back and misses a three.

Tyndale misses free throws, and Carr misses another three for the Hawks.

0:48.8 2nd Half: Temple 63, St. Joe’s 59

Calathes drains a jumper over Tyndale, just after Tyndale missed two free throws.

Wow, Christmas strips Calathes going to the hoop, and Clark goes to the line for two.

2:27 2nd Half: Temple 63, St. Joe’s 57

Nivins makes both free throws off of the offensive board, but Tyndale drives the lane and finds Brooks on the outside for a triple.

Finally. Calathes hits a three as Tyndale floated to far in help defense, and Carr capitalizes off of a Tyndale miss hard in the lane.

Clark drives, though, and finds Brooks for an easy two. Carr manhandles Brooks once again, though.

But Tyndale takes it into his own hands, again, stepping through for the and-1 to takes a six-point lead. Tyndale then goes back to beating Calathes, this time dishing to Christmas inside.

8:12 2nd Half: Temple 53, St. Joe’s 46

The Hawks fans chant “airball” as Brooks misses from three, and the Owls fans come back with “scoreboard!” I really don’t think “scoreboard” is a valid chant when you’re up six.
Brooks follows that up with an an-1 from 13 feet out, pumping his fist after. There have been a lot of fouls called, maybe a few too many.

9:41 2nd Half: Temple 49, St. Joe’s 44

Calathes is sitcking to Clark, even on screens. Martelli really wants to keep the little man off his game, but it’s not working - Allen hits again.

Christmas is money on a three on the pass from Clark, and the Hawks are in big trouble. Calathes hits a three of his own, though, and it’s back to a 6-pt game.

Then, Allen’s pass to Clark in the corner gets blocked, and the Hawks get the ball back to Nivins inside, and he makes two from the line.

The crowd for both teams is getting louder as the lead is four….

11:52 2nd Half: Temple 43, St. Joe’s 37

Olmos and Nivins can’t convert, and Christmas misses over two guys.

Allen scores inside, but Carr gets three of those points back with an and-1 layup. Calathes is guarding Clark, though it might just be for a possession. Nope, he’s really guarding him.

As a result, Temple works the high-low, and Olmos scores and and-1. Tyndale clenches his fists. This has truly been a fantastic run for Temple, and an equally-amazing collapse for the Hawks. They have scored five points in eight minutes, and were on a five-minutes scoring drought.

It’s a great atmosphere here, both fan groups have been loud, though it’s been Temple producing the noise as of late.

14:53 2nd Half: Temple 39, St. Joe’s 34

Allen dunks around Ferguson in a play that was a lot easier than it should have been. And after a nice skip pass from Tyndale, Christmas hits a well-contested three over Carr.

Nivins scores a nasty tip-in, but Christmas penetrates the lane effortlessly for a layup.

Clark has missed two threes from the corner, but both have been rebounded offensively. Olmos now gets fouled on that possession, and the Owls all of a sudden have a chance to take the lead.

And Clark does just that. And more.

He has the gravitas to attempt yet another corner three, and Clark drains it to take Temple’s first lead of the game. Then Clark plucks Calathes’ pocket and hangs in the air to avoid Carr’s defense to take a five-point lead.

Stats: With Calathes playing only 13 minutes and taking four shots, Govens and Nivins are taking control of the game, scoring nine and 12 points, respectively. Like Govens, Christmas is 4-for-8, but the guard has netted 12 points. Allen has played well inside again for Temple, getting those two blocks as well as four rebounds.

St. Joe’s has made almost twice as many shots as the Owls (13-of-30 to Temple’s 7-of-25). The teams are equal in rebounding, but Temple has committed eight turnovers compared to only four assists.

Halftime: Temple 25, St. Joe’s 32

Man, Clark just hit a huge three. He’s so fast he was essentially guarded by no one after a jab step, and hits the trey.

Martelli deftly calls a timeout with 5.4 seconds remaining in the half. Unlike the second half, the clock keeps running, and it takes three ticks to inbound the ball, so the Hawks save a possession, but Ferguson misses a three.

0:30.4 1st Half: Temple 22, St. Joe’s 32

Olmos finally slows Nivins down, forcing im to shoot a bad hook, but the next possession Nivins once again scores at will.

Brooks gets the ball over Nivins on the perimeter, but doesn’t realize the shot clock is running down until it’s too late.

Calathes is called for travel, or carry or something. I didn’t see anything. Brooks airballs another shot, and Olmos barely gets a layup off before getting fouled.

Clark was just guarding Calathes, funniest thing ever, 14-inch difference. Well, not funny for the Owls. Calathes gets doubled because of it, and Ferguson is wide open for a three which he of course hits. He just might get one of my five votes for all-tourney team.

3:36 1st Half: Temple 21, St. Joe’s 27

Nivins hits an elbow jumper, and Govens scores yet again on a drive. The Hawks always seem to have someone in double

Christmas makes it look easy, hitting another three over Williamson.

Thanks to a screen, Calathes gets by Tyndale and slaps the backboard for a layup, but Christmas is doing his best Darnell Harris impression, nailing a 25 footer. Williamson’s long arms can do nothing about that.

7:46 1st Half: Temple 15, St. Joe’s 21

My, how the tides have changed.

Christmas simply takes the ball from Arvydas Lidzius at midcourt, and scores. The Owls’ 3/4 press doesn’t work, but Lidzius misses from point-blank range.

Then Dionte pulls up from NBA range and sinks it in Williamson’s eye, and as the lanky guard falls on him, it’s a four-point play.

Calathes is back in the game, surprisingly, and misses a three. Govens helps out with another jumper.

Coming off playing the entire game yesterday, Allen throws Idris Hilliard’s shot away, and then has another spectacular block on Nivins, but he’s whistled for a foul on the rebound, and the Owls fans go ballistic.

11:49 1st Half: Temple 5, St. Joe’s 15

Calathes picks up his second foul already, and is out of the game in favor of Garrett Williamson. That’s about the only thing that’s gone wrong for the Hawks.

Christmas misses two threes on one possession, Tyndale misses, gets his own rebound and then misses again. Even Chris Clark bricks a three. On the other end, Govens and company are draining everything.

15:46 1st Half: Temple 5, St. Joe’s 8

The crowd is now almost full, the most packed I’ve ever seen this building, and definitely the loudest. The chants were tame before the game, but the Temple fans booed Phil Martelli when he walked out. That’s just unnecessary.

Govens connects from the elbow, and as Martelli yells something to ref Joe DeMayo, and immediately Guzman is whistled for a carry. Olmos can’t convert and neither can Allen on a jumper, but Calathes misses a three and Ferguson picks up a bad foul on a rebound.

Allen somehow forgets about Nivins, and he scores on a layup inside. Tyndale gets the ball, maybe for the first time of the game, and gets fouled by Calathes on a three. He hits all of the freebies.

Nivins just beasts Olmos inside, nastily dunking on him from the reverse angle. The teams trade layup, and then Carr drives into the lane and somehow finds Nivins on the other side of the paint, and he’s fouled.

______

We’ve eliminated 10 teams, but the Big 5 rules the Atlantic 10 championship game. After demolishing Fordham and Richmond, the Hawks knocked off top-seeded Xavier to enter the title game, facing Temple for the third time this year. With an RPI of 42, the Hawks may get into the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens tonight. Temple has won six straight games and is undefeated in March. The Owls knocked off La Salle in the first round, and fairly easily took out Charlotte last night to reach the final.

The last time these two teams met it was a fantastic game, and even that didn’t quite live up to what happened in the first meeting. With 3.9 seconds left, Calathes sank a three to put the Hawks up by one, but Mark Tyndale came storming down the court and got off a layup at the buzzer, but at the top of its arc, Nivins swatted it away, and the Hawks won. The second time around, the Hawks led by double-figures most of the game until Tyndale scored the game’s final basket with 20 seconds left and the Owls won the rematch.

___

There is a half-hour until tipoff, and this game already has the feel of a Big 5 game. There aren’t a huge number of fans present, but the student sections have already begun chanting at each other.

Starters:

St. Joe’s:
G Darrin Govens
G Tasheed Carr
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins

Temple:
G Luis Guzman
G Dionte Christmas
G Mark Tyndale
F Lavoy Allen
C Sergio Olmos

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Good evening from the Pizzitola Sports Center at Brown. The Bears(16-9, 8-3) are going for a season sweep of the Quakers (11-16, 6-4) tonight. Penn is coming off a 70-63 win over Yale, and Brown beat Princeton 64-57 last night. Refresh this page for live updates.

FINAL: Brown 75, Penn 43

The Quakers avoided getting doubled up, but this loss was a sign of how far they still have to go if they want to compete for the title again next year. For the second time in a row, Penn couldn’t follow up a Friday win the next night.

Good evening from The Buzz.

2:40, Second half: Brown 73, Penn 34

Warm up the bus, the scrubs are in. As they exit the court, Huffman and McAndrew throw themselves a mini-celebration at midcourt. This is their last home game ever, I understand, but do they really have to show up the other team while the game is still going on?

15:30, Second half: Brown 53, Penn 19

The Bears are doing what they’ve been doing — whipping the heck out of Penn. Huffman’s last three-pointer makes him Brown’s all-time leader in that category. The Quakers are trying ever more desperate means to get shots off, and, predictably, that’s not working. True, the Bears are scoring virtually at will, but most of the credit for this win should go to their defense. Penn’s season-low output of 30 points seems in jeopardy as the year’s worst.

Scratch that. The stats are too depressing to post. Instead, stop what you are doing and read this story, which reports on a trend that sportswriters in the Ivy League had heard rumblings about but that I never thought would actually hit the papers.

Halftime: Brown 44, Penn 14

How does a team with an offense as slow, deliberate and measured as this possibly score 44 points in a half? Your guess is as good as mine. Halftime stats coming shortly. I need a break from this.
1:46, First half: Brown 42, Penn 10

Sullivan hit two free throws, Friske banked in a shot-clock-beating three — the second time that’s happened tonight — and Skrelja cleaned up a miss in transition for the Bears. Not really much more to say. Danny Monckton is in for Penn.

3:50, First half: Brown 34, Penn 8

It keeps getting worse. Peter Sullivan has gotten two more open backdoor cuts, and Huffman hit a three-pointer. Bernardini committed offensive fouls on two straight possessions — one legit, one phantom in my opinion — to take away an chance at momentum. Grandieri took a page out of his opponents’ book with a backdoor layup of his own, but it’s small consolation at this point. A very, very poor showing from the Quakers tonight, especially given how well they played in the first half last night.

7:36, First half: Brown 23, Penn 5

Penn is finally playing some marginally better defense, but now they’re giving up offensive rebounds at an alarming rate. Brown is taking more and more three-pointers and getting every long rebound. The Quakers need to push the pace and get some quick baskets. The half-court game is clearly favoring Brown by a huge margin.
9:40, First half: Brown 21, Penn 5

Can anything go wrong for Brown? McAndrew actually managed to bank in a three-pointer.

11:42, First half: Brown 16, Penn 4

There will be no FGCU repeat. Jack Eggleston managed a dunk and Andreas Schreiber cleaned up an Egee miss. Penn is going with a four-guard rotation; Schreiber is the only frontcourt player in right now. Aron Cohen makes an appearance after Gaines picked up his second foul.

13:51, First half: Brown 14, Penn 0

This is quickly getting out of hand. Brown got four more from McAndrew, who broke loose for a patented Princeton-offense-style backdoor cut, then stripped Grandieri and took it coast-to-coast for a layup. Glen Miller calls timeout. I wouldn’t want to be in that huddle.

15:35, First half: Brown 10, Penn 0

If anyone forgot why Brown was able to win at the Palestra earlier this year, one word: Defense. The Bears are playing a tenacious 2-3 zone, and Penn has done little to work it so far outside of moving the ball around the perimeter. Only one of Penn’s jumpers so far has been uncontested.

16:34, First half: Brown 8, Penn 0

Kevin Egee didn’t seem to have it today. He got pulled after two possessions of indecisive play, and Harrison Gaines is in. He missed an open three, Penn’s best scoring chance so far.

It’s not hard to see why Peter Sullivan is a favorite for Ivy rookie of the year. Tyler Bernardini is having an awfully tough time staying with him. McAndrew also scored in transition, and Brown has raced out to a good lead. Justin Reilly is in for Brennan Votel.

Brown’s Matt Mullery, a sophomore center who leads the Ivy League in blocks, will be out tonight with the lingering effects of a concussion. For Penn, senior Michael Kach did not make the trip this weekend, probably due to the back problems that have given him trouble this year.

Here are your starting lineups:

Penn
Fr. G Tyler Bernardini
Fr. F Jack Eggleston
Jr. F Brennan Votel
Jr. G Kevin Egee
Sr. G Brian Grandieri

Brown
Jr. F Scott Friske
Jr. F Chris Skrelja
Fr. F Peter Sullivan
Sr. G Mark McAndrew
Sr. G Damon Huffman

NEW HAVEN, Conn.–Good evening from the John J. Lee Ampitheater on Yale’s campus, where Penn is almost set to tip off against the Bulldogs. It will be a battle of middle-of-the-road Ivy teams tonight, and we’ll see if the Quakers will be able to shake their Lee Ampitheater woes of the past few years.

Final: Penn 70, Yale 63

The curse ends, and the Quakers pull out a victory at Lee Ampitheater. Yale made it too close for comfort, but Miller will take the victory. So long from New Haven, and see you tomorrow, live from Providence, R.I. where Penn will take on Brown.

1.5, 2nd Half: Penn 68 Yale 63

Eggleston hits both FTs, and Caleb Holmes responds with a ridiculous bank three. A gratuitous foul on Eggleston is just prolonging this one.

9.7, 2nd Half: Penn 66 Yale 60

Grandieri drains the first, and misses the second, but it should sew it up. Egee rejects Braswell out of bounds on the other end. Eggleston comes up with a rebound after a missed jumper, and that should just about do it.
24.5, 2nd Half: Penn 65 Yale 60

Flato nearly drains another tough trey, but Grandieri comes up with the board as usual, and is hacked again. He will shoot two, but first Yale calls a timeout.

39.8, 2nd Half: Penn 65 Yale 60

Pinick can’t take advantage of a huge mismatch against Egee, as he misses a shot in the post. Grandieri will head to the line, and miss them both.
56.4, 2nd Half: Penn 65 Yale 60

Flato responds with a clutch jumper, and sends Gaines to the line a few ticks later after a reach-in. Apparently a good call, as Gaines hits just one.

1:30, 2nd Half: Penn 64 Yale 58

Brain fart by Morin. He starts backing down in the post but doesn’t realize the shot clock is about to expire. Penn ball, and Bernardini drives the lane for a bank shot.
1:57, 2nd Half: Penn 62 Yale 58

The freshman hits both foul shots, pushing the margin to four. Morin finds himself backing down Reilly at the three-point line, causing Yale coach James Jones to call a timeout.

2:23, 2nd Half: Penn 60 Yale 58

Holmes hits them both, and the Bulldogs are fully back in the game. That Lee echo is getting louder in here as Eggleson is sent to the line again to shoot two.

2:42, 2nd Half: Penn 60 Yale 56

Miller and his staff are furious after a bad call by the refs. Gaines is called for continuation after picking up his own loose ball, but he had to have been either fouled or had the ball tipped. Now Yale bangs it inside with Holmes, but he’s hacked by Bernardini.

3:35, 2nd Half: Penn 60 Yale 56

Eggleston can’t get the call on the next possession, and he sends the sharpshooting Flato to the line. But the guard only hits one.
3:43, 2nd Half: Penn 60 Yale 55

Clutch defense by Eggleston as he takes the charge from a driving Caleb Holmes to quiet the crowd, but the silence doesn’t last long. Votel and Bernardini can’t connect on the ensuing inbounds.

3:57, 2nd Half: Penn 60 Yale 55

A pair of Flato free throws after a foul on Gaines will cut the lead to five, and a shot-clock violation is called ont he Quakers after a Grandieri bank attempt misses the rim. The Lee Ampitheater is starting to get loud.

5:08, 2nd Half: Penn 60 Yale 53

After Votel couldn’t get the ball inbounds, Miller draws up a nice touchdown pass play, but Reilly can’t finish. Pinick is sent to the line, hitting one.

Reilly came out for Eggleston while some sort of discrepancy between referees and coaches went on during a long break between free throws. Apparently they were trying to figure out who the foul was on. Let’s get it together, zebras.
5:39, 2nd Half: Penn 58 Yale 52

Reilly responds with a turn-around jumper, but a couple of free throws by Morin brings the margin to eight again. On the Penn end of the floor, Grandieri is hacked, and makes one of two from the line.

Morin will go to the line for the second straight possession, converting on an and-1 to bring the Bulldogs even closer.

6:45, 2nd Half: Penn 55 Yale 47

Eggleston hit them both, but was abused by Morin on the other end. Morin hit two of two after a Grandieri foul.

7:16, 2nd Half: Penn 53 Yale 45

Boy does Flato love that step-back three. He just swished one from the corner to make this a single-digit game. Eggleston is going to the line to shoot two to try to bring the margin back to 10 for the Quakers. Reilly and Gaines are also back in.

8:30, 2nd Half: Penn 53 Yale42

After Votel and Gibson match baskets, Grandieri misses the front end of a one-and-one and Yale’s Caleb Holmes is fouled on the floor.The Bulldogs might be clawing their way back into this one.

10:10, 2nd Half: Penn 51 Yale 40

A Jordan Gibson bucket just cut Penn’s margin. But before that, another three from Nick Holmes from the exact same spot came after Gaines hit one of two free throws. He’s been great running the offense tonight, but another missed jumper from the freshman point guard is showing that he needs to take a few more in practice.
11:24, 2nd Half: Penn 50 Yale 35

Gaines will go to the line after a questionable call on Yale; a Bulldogs defender (I didn’t catch who) seemed to get all ball after the Penn guard pulled up in the lane. Nick Holmes had hit a huge three from way downtown on the other end, but Gaines will have a chance to extend the margin for Penn.

Meanwhile, the Yale cheerleaders continue a mediocre night, as their pyramid crumbles once again.

12:33, 2nd Half: Penn 46 Yale 30

An unusual Reilly-Votel frontcourt was on the floor for Penn before Eggleston returned to the game, and they seemed to be doing a good job of boxing out and playing defense. This rotation has been evolving and developing all season, as two earlier favorites of Miller, Aron Cohen and Cam Lewis, have yet to see a minute of action tonight.

14:39, 2nd Half: Penn 46 Yale 29
Some more Grandierian efficiency, as he hits his fourth trifecta in four attempts. When are the Bulldogs going to start stepping out on that?

15:19, 2nd Half: Penn 43 Yale 27

There’s that efficient passing again. Grandieri passed up a three to feed Votel for a lefty lay-up. Before that, though, Flato drained a fall-away trey, but missed two on the next two possessions. A scrum on Penn’s end that ended up with Votel and Eggleston on the floor turned into a 5-on-3 break for Yale, but it couldn’t convert. Gaines is about to come in after a media timeout here.
18:14, 2nd Half: Penn 39 Yale 24
Penn looks a little bit out of sorts here to start the half. Schreiber and Grandieri each turned the ball over on bad passes, and Votel will return to the game to replace the big Swede. Pinick will open the second-half scoring with a free throw, followed up by a Flato lay-in.
Halftime Thoughts:

The Quakers are really hitting their jump shots right now, which has really been the difference, and what’s more, you can tell they’re really trying to push the ball any chance they can get. Yale, on the other hand, is trying to pound it inside on most possessions, but the Bulldogs haven’t had too much success. Give Schreiber and Votel some credit for knocking people around down there and staying out of foul trouble.
Bernardini leads the way for Penn with 12 points, while Grandieri and Eggleston aren’t far behind with nine and eight, respectively. But try this stat on for size: On 18 field goals, the Red and Blue have 16 assists. They really are moving the ball well, and it has shown up on the stat sheet, especially for Gaines and Grandieri, who have 5 and 4 assists, respectively.

Morin and Holmes are practically the Bulldogs’ only scorers–they each have nine.
0:00, 1st Half: Penn 39, Yale 21

Gaines takes his sweet time at the end of the half, and his short jumper doesn’t count. But Bernardini hit a jumper with a minute to go, so Penn will go into half time with an 18-point lead. And the sparsely-populated Lee Ampitheater isn’t posing too much of a problem for Penn, apparently.
1:09, 1st Half: Penn 37, Yale 21

A nifty little scoop-under is finished by Eggleston as he works around a Bernardini back screen, butCaleb Holmes responds on the other end with a pair of free throws.

After that, Gaines finishes a break-away layup a few seconds after throwing up an ugly shot in transition that caught nothing but backboard. Then, Bernardini drains another two-pointer.
5:12, 1st Half: Penn 29, Yale 17

I guess I jinxed them. Votel, Bernardini and Schreiber all missed jumpers over the past few possessions, and Miller is going to go with a line shift: Grandieri and Eggleston will check back in after a Morin free throw for the Bulldogs.

7:44, 1st Half: Penn 29, Yale 14

Salient question: Can the Quakers miss? Bernardini just hit a nice jumper off the dribble. Meanwhile, Penn isn’t giving up much on defense, and is running the transition offense well, to boot (Votel put in another bucket on a fast break a minute ago).

8:57, 1st Half: Penn 25, Yale 14

Wow, Grandieri has hit two more threes since we last checked in. As usual, he’s moving really well around screens and putting himself in position for Gaines to find him open. Add to that a top-of-the-key three from Votel (2007 NCAA Tournament, anyone?) and Penn has really taken control.

11:48, 1st Half: Penn 17, Yale 12

Pinick can’t throw down a driving dunk, and on the other end Gaines puts up an ugly jumper in the lane. On the other end, Yale keeps banging away down low, going to Morin now that 6-11 Matt Kyle is out of the game. Grandieri hit a trey to push the Penn advantage to five.

Here’s a pleasant surprise: Brennan Votel, who hasn’t seen many minutes this season, will make a first-half appearance. Let’s see if he can quell the Bulldogs’ big men.

13:23, 1st Half: Penn 14, Yale 10

With Justin Reilly and Harrison Gaines making their first appearances, Penn has taken the lead with a couple of trifectas from Tyler Bernardini; one on a nice in-bounds play, and the other with a hand in his face. An all-too-easy Eggleston bucket in transition forces Yale to call a timeout.

16:00, 1st Half: Penn 6, Yale 10

Penn can’t seem to get in the flow of its offense right now; they all seem to be getting in each other’s way. But after a nice take by Schreiber to the hoop, Egee pulls a classic pick-up move and throws it off of a defender and out of bounds. Eggleston hit a couple of layups, and Pinick nailed a three. Holmes and Kyle followed that up with buckets.

17:40, 1st Half: Penn 2, Yale 3

Andreas Schreiber opens the scoring with a nice turn-around jumper with the shot clock winding down, but Yale did some clock-mliking of its own on the other end, with big man Ross Morin stepping out to drain a three. Meanwhile, Kevin Egee launches an ill-advised three on the other end.

The starting lineups tonight:

Penn: G Tyler Bernardini, C Andreas Schreiber, G Kevin Egee, G Brian Grandieri, F Jack Eggleston

Yale: F Ross Morin, F Travis Pinick, C Matt Kyle, G Eric Flato, G Caleb Holmes

WOW. Harris misses the front end of the 1-and-1, but on a drive left, Carr loses the ball and the Explorers recover and call timeout with 1.4 to go.

La Salle throws a risky pass the length of the court, and Green gets fouled with a second to go. He misses the first.

A whistle goes off as Green is about to let the second free throw go. He stops mid-shot, and gets called for a violation. He probably would have missed on purpose, making a last-second three almost impossible.

So St. Joe’s inbounds with one second to go. They throw it long, and the pass for Calathes under the basket is knocked by La Salle to Carr, but he can’t get the shot off in time, and the game is over. I can finally stop holding my breath.

That was, no joke, the most entertaining basketball game I’ve seen this year.

0:09.3 2nd Half: La Salle 90, St. Joe’s 89

Carr hits a quick layup, a real tough one at that, and the Hawks are down one. Harris gets the ball and is fouled.

0:17.6 2nd Half: La Salle 90, St. Joe’s 87

An Explorer misses but Green throws down a monstrous put-back dunk. Williamson hit one from the line, and the Explorers lead by one.

With the shot clock winding down at under 20 seconds left, Barrett hits a tough layup while getting double-teamed. This place is LOUD.

1:22 2nd Half: La Salle 86, St. Joe’s 85

Green hits two from the line and Carr turns it over. Passing around the traps well, the Explorers can’t get off a three like usual, but Mekongo Mbala gets to the line with 1:39 left. He hits the second only to go up 3.

Govens makes a nice entry pass to Nivins, and the big man nails a crucial and-1.

2:39 2nd Half: La Salle 83, St. Joe’s 83

Williams is back in with four fouls, but he gets trapped, and Harris misses the three at the end of the shot clock.

Carr goes streaking across the lane, and hits with zeros on the shot clock. But Johnson answers with his ugly, ugly shot from three. Govens finally misses, and Williams gets fouled on the other end.

Calathes misses, and Green hits a bank to tie it at 81. The La Salle crowd goes nuts, and then erupts when Carr misses, and Barrett hits a reverse layup to take the lead. Calathes answers, though, with a runner with 1 on the shot clock.

Green somehow blocks Calathes, and then gets fouled on a transition layup that he can’t convert. He punches the backboard protector a bunch in frustration.

7:56 2nd Half: St. Joe’s 79, La Salle 75

It’s hard to imagine that a guy who already has nearly 30 points won’t be the player of the game, but Harris hits what I believe is his fifth three of the game. Govens hits a layup, and he’s got 26 points, a third candidate for game MVP.

Garrett Williamson finally makes his presence felt, swatting a Harris three. Calathes goes for a rebound but misses, and angrily sways the ball into the crowd, but he somehow avoids a tech.

The Hawk fans roll out another good sign: “Keep Exploring the bottom of the A-10.” Now “Smiley” the Hatfield pig mascot is shooting hot dogs into the Hawks student section. One goes to the Explorer faithful, and to their delight, the fan throws it back onto the court. The last hot dog of about 20 explodes on its way out of the gun.

The Explorers fans put up a banner: “St. Joe’s has class… Rivera usually cuts it.” referring to the guard who “focused on academics” last semester.

11:39 2nd Half: St. Joe’s 74, La Salle 69

Calathes hits, but so does Guillandeaux on another floater.

Harris, who hit three threes in the first half, is unconscious on this deep one over Ferguson. But once again, Govens returns with a jumper and then a three.

The action never stops. Harris makes Carr fall on the baseline, but misses the three. Then Calathes puts the ball around his back and hits Govens for yet another three.

14:38 2nd Half: St. Joe’s 62, La Salle 63

Carr hits a three to start off the half, but Green turns a steal into two points. Govens converts a nice layup, and now Nivins takes a charge, giving Williams his fourth foul.

Nivins now gets whistled for a charge, and Martelli slams his hand against the scorer’s table. Nice ball-movement gets Gullandeaux an open three, and he connects.

Gullandeaux is taking over now - he hits a jumper in the lane, and then nails a trey in transition. Now Mekongo hits an open three, but it’s answered by Govens. Harris takes back the lead, and Govens gets it right back. Now Barrett gets fouled, and the shot is goal-tended, and the Explorer’s grab back the lead. This has been maybe most electrifying game I’ve seen all year.

Halftime: St. Joe’s 50, La Salle 46

While this section of my post just got deleted, the half ends with the Hawks on top by four. This was an insane first half, not necessarily with bad defense, but the shooting on both sides has been impeccable. St. Joe’s is hitting 67 percent from the field, while La Salle is 47 percent, though 10-for-17 from three.

3:27 1st Half: St. Joe’s 43, La Salle 40

Gullandeaux nails a three off of a nifty pass from Williams, and La Salle takes the lead for the first time.

Calathes comes right back with an and-1 layup (that should have been called on the ground). Giannini disagrees, but spends more time calming down Williams. Calathes then scores again on a sweet baseline jumper from 17 feet.

Harris is nothing but net on a three from NBA range. He is money tonight.

I must give the La Salle fans credit, they are real loud tonight, probably better than the Villanova coningent at the Holy War.

6:05 1st Half: St. Joe’s 34, La Salle 34

Calathes drains a three, but once again it’s answered by the big man, Mekongo Mbala.

Following a Nivins dunk, Mekongo Mbala drains yet another trey, and La Salle has tied it up at 34.

8:21 1st Half: St. Joe’s 29, La Salle 25

Johnson hits a transition layup, and the Explorers are within six, and the teams then trade threes.

Off of a tough offensive rebound, Williams slices through for a layup, and the game is real close now.

Huh, the St. Joe’s staff has a guy walking around the Palestra selling cotton candy.

11:51 1st Half: St. Joe’s 24, La Salle 16

Harris drains a three over Carr, he’s he’s just nasty, has eight points already.

Nivins just made a fantastic and-1, double-teamed in the post but still getting it up.

Wow, Williams cocks it back for a monster dunk, but gets rejected by Nivins, and the crowd goes crazy.

The Hawks fans roll out a sign: “St. Joe’s salutes La Salle fans (Both of them).” A Hawks fan just won a semester of free Qdoba burritos just by hitting a couple of layups and elbow shots. That’s just sad. The Penn Qdoba makes you hit a layup, free throw, three and half-court shot.

15:32 1st Half: St. Joe’s 15, La Salle 10

Both teams are raining threes, as Harris gets the Explorers on the board, Mekongo Mbala hits another, but Calathes nails one from the top of the key to extend the St. Joe’s lead.

Johnson misses a three, but makes a pretty feed (while getting trapped) to Harris, who makes an even prettier finish. But Govens comes back with a ridiculous reverse layup, throwing it off the backboard with great english.

18:44 1st Half: St. Joe’s 6, La Salle 0

On the first possession, Nivins bullys Williams for an easy dunk and then a layup, as Mekongo Mbala completes his team’s second-straight turnover. Calathes adds a dunk and Dr. John Giannini calls timeout.

The crowd is about 75 percent full, and the majority are Hawks fans. The La Salle fans let out a pretty loud chant of “Let’s go ’splorers!”, but it’s drowned out eventually by the “Hawks Are Marching In”

We just had a moment of silence for the Northern Illinois shootings, though that moment lasted no more than two or three seconds.

As the La Salle band plays, the St. Joe’s students try to belt the chant of “Phil Martelli!” over it. We’re just about ready to go at the Palestra, the Hawks wearing the home white, La Salle in blue.

________

With only three games left in the Big 5, nothing is decided. Well, except for that Penn (0-4) won’t win.

Villanova (3-1), Temple (1-1), La Salle (1-1) and Saint Joseph’s (2-0) all have a shot at winning at least a share of the Big 5 title, though the Hawks are the only team that can win the title outright.

La Salle hasn’t been bad lately, going 4-5 in the Atlantic 10, and will likely make the conference tournament, unlike last season. Out of 14 teams, 12 make it to Atlantic City on March 12, and the Explorers sit in 11th place, two games ahead of 13th-place George Washington (3-8).

The Hawks are on the opposite side of the spectrum. Despite recent losses at Xavier and Duquesne, they sit alone in second place at 7-3, though Rhode Island, Richmond and Temple are all one game behind them, chasing those valuable four tourney byes.

An hour before the game, St. Joe’s fans are already here. They aren’t making much noise, but that’s stilll pretty impressive. The Explorers’ student faithful start showing up about 45 minutes early. The Hawks fans do one of my favorite chants “When the Hawks come marching in” replacing “Saints” with their team when their team takes the floor a half-hour before tip-off.

Starters:

St. Joe’s:
G Darrin Govens
G Tasheed Carr
F Pat Calathes
F Rob Ferguson
C Ahmad Nivins

La Salle:
G Darnell Harris
G Rodney Green
F Paul Johnson
F Jerrell Williams
F Yves Mekongo Mbala

Final, 78-65 Penn
Just as it looked like Penn might be in for a repeat of last night, the Quakers snapped out of their funk and went on a 28-3 run, playing the most inspired stretch of basketball they’ve played all season. The key to the game was Penn’s great inside play, which started to free up open looks from the perimeter later on in the game. Glen Miller has to be very pleased with this win against a somewhat talented Yale team. On the whole, a tremendous team effort for the Quakers.

A few quick notes:

• Yesterday I told you that Remy Cofield left the Palestra in a Tom Brady-like protective boot. He was not on the floor for the pre-game warmups tonight and didn’t see any action.
• Cam Lewis, who didn’t play last night, saw 4 minutes tonight.
• Mike Kach did not play.
• Penn got to the free throw line 20 more times than it did last night, going 22-26.
• Harrison Gaines had 5 assists in 12 minutes with only one turnover. For the game, Penn had 18 assists and 12 turnovers.

In-game updates can be found after the jump.

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