Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Men's Basketball vs. Penn

Final: Penn 62, Princeton 55

:27.8 OT: Penn 60, Princeton 53
The masses are leaving Jadwin as the Quakers look to have the game in hand. Finley's 14 rebounds are a career-high, and Patrick Saunders was one rebound from a double-double.

1:10 OT: Penn 57, Princeton 53
Zach Finley's double-double is only his second of his career after he achieved one against Seton Hall last season.

1:47 OT: Penn 57, Princeton 53
Penn only has nine second-chance points tonight, but those three were huge by Zack Rosen off the offensive rebound.

3:49 OT: Penn 52, Princeton 51
As Tyler Bernardini splits his free throws, Zach Finley ended regulation with 10 points and 13 boards, making him the only Tiger this season with a double-double.

End regulation: Penn 51, Princeton 51
Finley isn't iced and Penn comes up empty on the last possession. The Tigers are 0-1 this season in OTs, and four of the last 10 Penn-Princeton meetings have gone to OT.

:23.8 2nd: Penn 51, Princeton 50
Penn will try to ice Zach Finley between his potentially game-tying free throws. He's got 12 rebounds, the most for any Tiger this season.

1:23 2nd: Penn 51, Princeton 49
After Saunders' block, another rookie comes up big as Davis gets a three and a steal.

2:14 2nd: Penn 49, Princeton 45
Saunders makes up for the miscue with a big block, and a clean one too. Marcus Schroeder heads to the line...

2:39 2nd: Penn 49, Princeton 45
Princeton's 18 th turnover comes at a costly time after two free throws made it a two-possession game. Patrick Saunders, under tough defensive pressure, had the ball go off his foot and out of bounds. Down six (or seven) points at this juncture would be tough for the Tigers the way this game has been going.

4:05 2nd: Penn 45, Princeton 45
All that's missing from this Penn-Princeton matchup is the calendar reading March and the teams sitting in first and second place in either order. Intense! Patrick Saunders leads the Tigers with 11 points, matching his career high set in his home state at Dartmouth a few weeks ago.

6:15 2nd: Penn 45, Princeton 43
The ESPNU stat man next to TigerBlog pointed out that the only other game in which Pawel Buczak fouled out this season was also televised on ESPNU. The good news for Buczak is that no more games this season will be on "the U."

7:45 2nd: Penn 45, Princeton 41
Patrick Saunders went to the line to shoot the two lonely free throws with no one around him and converted both. The Penn coaches were protesting that Mavraides' initially going to the line was an uncorrectable mistake. Either way, it's two points for the Tigers.

8:43 2nd: Penn 45, Princeton 39
The foul on Conor Turley of Penn has been ruled a flagrant foul, which is what the referees were determining. Dan Mavraides can't convert on his first free throw with no one around him, but he'll have another try.... after yet another officials' conference. What would they do if the TVs weren't here?

8:43 2nd: Penn 45, Princeton 39
The officials have gone to the monitor again to look at a recent foul. It reminds TigerBlog of an NFL game, except there's no hood for the refs to hide under. Also like in an NFL game, the players (and coaches, thanks to the proximity of the monitor to the Penn bench) are peeking/listening for an early answer to the refs' question.

9:06 2nd: Penn 45, Princeton 36
Princeton calls its one full timeout of the game as Penn has its largest lead at nine. It's still only single digits, but the Tigers have scored just five points this half. Princeton has been whistled for 18 fouls to this point, and the season high is 27 against Lehigh. That, at least, was a Princeton win.

10:27 2nd: Penn 43, Princeton 36
Penn missed the front end of a 1-and-1, but Pawel Buczak was whistled for his fifth foul for pushing on his way to the rebound. It's only the second time Buczak has fouled out this season. The other one was the first game of the seven-game win streak on Jan. 3 vs. UNC Greensboro.

11:01 2nd: Penn 43, Princeton 35
ESPNU just showed highlights from Penn's 90-80 1994 NCAA Tournament win over Nebraska at the Nassau Coliseum. The Tigers, however, remain the last Ivy team to win an NCAA Tournament game, in 1998 in Hartford over UNLV in the first round.

13:00 2nd: Penn 41, Princeton 35
Penn is outscoring Princeton this half 12-4.

14:45 2nd: Penn 38, Princeton 33
For those of you who aren't watching or can't watch ESPNU, the network just did a video pack on Princeton's turnovers, which now number 15. The last one came out of the break and led to a Penn bucket. The Quakers are now up five.

16:40 2nd: Penn 34, Princeton 33
Princeton's lead, once 11, is gone. The last time Penn led was 9-7 in the first half.

Halftime: Princeton 31, Penn 29
It's still very much a game, as Penn has ended the half on an 11-2 run to close it to two. The big stat of the half is Princeton's 12 turnovers. That wouldn't be on pace for Princeton's highest turnover game of the season (that distinction goes to the 26-turnover game vs. South Carolina in December), but it's still many more than the Tigers have had on average during the recent seven-game win streak. And those points-off-turnovers that TigerBlog pointed out before have jumped from zero to seven just since the mention of it with 6:20 to go in the half.

1:00 1st: Princeton 31, Penn 26
Princeton led by 11 at the most, 29-18, and since then it's been an 8-2 run for the Quakers. Princeton's four-game losing skid against rival Penn isn't over yet.

3:12 1st: Princeton 29, Penn 22
Princeton has been scoreless for nearly three minutes.

3:59 1st: Princeton 29, Penn 20
We've reached the last media timeout of the half at the first possible moment, one second inside of 4:00 to go. Princeton still has the lead, but can they keep up the 55.6% shooting from the field and 75% shooting from beyond the arc?

6:20 1st: Princeton 28, Penn 18
No points off turnovers yet for Penn, a stat that plagued the Tigers at Yale last Friday. The Tigers have seven turnovers to Penn's five.

7:37: Princeton 26, Penn 15
Rookie John Comfort has hit two three-pointers in a game for the first time in his career.

9:06 1st: Princeton 18, Penn 14
"The Comfort Zone" as PA announcer Bill Bromberg says, John Comfort, hits a three.

9:45 1st: Princeton 15, Penn 11
Zack Rosen's bucket ends a 13-0 Princeton run.

12:20 1st: Princeton 10, Penn 9
It's an 8-0 run for the Tigers, who have their first lead on a Patrick Saunders three. The substitutions have been frequent for both teams.

14:20 1st: Penn 9, Princeton 7
It's a 5-0 run for the Tigers, who get a Davis three and a Buczak bucket, followed by an offensive foul on Penn's Jack Eggleston.

15:25 1st: Penn 9, Princeton 2
And it stands, a three for Penn's #3.

15:25 1st: Penn 6, Princeton 2 (for now)
We have our first TV review of the Jadwin Gym season. Two of the stripe-shirted fellows are reviewing whether Tyler Bernardini's three-pointer was indeed a three.

17:03 1st: Penn 4, Princeton 2
Pawel Buczak gets Princeton's first basket. Buczak, Dan Mavraides, Zach Finley, Douglas Davis and Marcus Schroeder are starting, making this the third starting lineup Sydney Johnson has used. Finley is in where Kareem Maddox had been.

17:42 1st: Penn 4, Princeton 0
Whew! It's been a busy evening so far for TigerBlog, and it's only just begun. Media members are shoulder-to-shoulder on the opposite side of the court from the Princeton benches, along with all the unanticipated quests that come with them. But, TigerBlog is ready to go.

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