Penn-Yale Live Updates

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- There are cathedrals of basketball, such as the Palestra, and then there are cathedrals where basketball is played, such as Yale's John J. Lee Amphitheater. The Penn men's basketball team finds itself at the latter venue this evening, and The Buzz is here to bring you all the action in this big Ivy League showdown.

I'm joined on press row tonight by fellow Buzz contributing writer Jeff Shafer and Daily Pennsylvanian Senior Sports Editor Matt Conrad, and throughout the evening we'll be letting you know about everything going on between the Quakers and Elis.

Penn wins by the skin of its teeth, 57-55. The Quakers have clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title, and pending the Brown-Princeton result, might have the nation's first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in a few minutes.

0:01 Two big defensive lapses. Morin hits a jumper to make it 57-55 Penn. Yale then steals a horrendous inbounds pass by Grandieri, and the ball gets to Flato, whose desperation jumper falls short as the Yale fans gasp. Game over, and the Penn fans can exhale.

0:11 second half: Danley gets fouled after receiving the inbounds pass. He makes the front end of the one-and-one, and makes the second. For what seems like the first time in years, we have clutch points from Penn near the end of a game, and Steve Danley gets high-fives from his teammates. 57-53 Penn

0:13 second half: Grandieri misses a layup and Zoller gets the rebound. He passes to Jaaber, who is fouled by Hughes. That's Hughes' fifth foul, so he's done for the night, but it's only Yale's sixth foul of the half so Penn doesn't get any free throws. Now it's time for Penn's defense to step up. 55-53 Penn

1:16 second half: After being fouled by Osmundson, Nick Holmes hits two free throws. 55-53 Penn

1:55 second half: Martin airballs a hook shot with a second to go on the shot clock and it falls to Zoller. At the other end, Osmundson misses a three. 55-51 Penn

2:10 second half: A media timeout. More than five minutes have run off the game clock since Penn's last basket. 55-51 Penn

3:02 second half: Fran Dunphy calls timeout after a Martin hook shot cuts the lead to four. That Brown leads Princeton 45-31 with nine minutes remaining in Providence, R.I., is completely irrelevant at the moment. 55-51 Penn

4:03 second half: Morin hits a hook shot and the lead is down to six. 55-49 Penn

7:13 second half: Martin hits a layup to cut Penn's lead to eight. At the other end, Osmundson hits an eight-foot jumper and was fouled by Caleb Holmes. A media timeout is called, and the tension is palpable. Osmundson misses the free throw. 55-45 Penn

8:40 second half: Osmundson makes a backdoor cut and Matin blocks his layup off the backboard. At the other end, Morin hits a jumper to bring Yale within nine points again. Then Osmundson hits a three, and the back-and-forth action continues. 53-41 Penn

10:42 second half: Pinick hits a jumper to bring Yale within nine points for the first time in a long time. Grandieri responds with a three and the Penn fans roar their approval. Caleb Holmes then hits a three and James Jones calls timeout. For the first time all night, there is some electricity in the air among the Yale partisans. 48-39 Penn

11:06 second half: Jaaber is called for an intentional foul after his feet get tangled up with Eric Flato's, and Flato hits the deck. The Yale fans love it, but even from this objective angle there wasn't any intent in the contact. Flato hits both free throws. 45-34 Penn

11:53 second half: A media timeout. 45-30 Penn

15:50 second half: After a block by Zoller, Osmundson takes it the other way for a layup and James Jones calls timeout. 41-21 Penn

16:11 second half: Jaaber takes the ball right out of Kaplan's hands and goes the other way for a dunk, although not a very forceful one. 39-21 Penn

17:25 second half: Mark Zoller now has 14 points, and just pulled down his 10th rebound when Casey Hughes missed an open 12-foot jumper. 37-21 Penn

19:18 second half: Osmundson gets the first points of the half by dribbling around a screen by Danley in the post for a reverse layup. 35-21 Penn

Halftime: Penn leads 33-21. The big stats are as follows: Penn shot 51.9 percent from the field and 4-of-10 from three-point range, while Yale shot a frigid 32.1 percent from the field and made two of five shots from beyond the arc. Penn only has a 18-17 advantage in rebounds, but Mark Zoller has been an absolute force in the post with nine boards to go along with his game-high 12 points.

1:03 first half: Yale finally breaks the 20-point barrier with a Princeton-esque hook shot by ex-Tiger Martin. 33-20 Penn.

2:30 first half: Martin gets free underneath and throws down a dunk. 33-18 Penn

3:42 first half: At the last media timeout of the first half, it's 31-16 Penn.

5:40 first half: Grandieri banks in a turnaround jumper. 31-14 Penn

6:50 first half: We have the answer to the question of who will be the third forward off the bench: senior Greg Kuchinski. We know this because he was just called for a foul, although he came onto the floor without any announcement from the public address. It's good to see Kuchinski get some real minutes, and I dare say he's a good matchup against the man he's guarding, Dominick Martin.

7:20 first half: Another media timeout after Osmundson gets fouled hard for the second time tonight. It's still 27-14 Penn

10:24 first half: Jaaber hits a three with Kaplan right in his face, and the public address man gets his name right. 27-14 Penn

10:24 first half: Zoller hits a three, Yale misses at the other end, and Whitehurst takes it back the other way. His layup falls off the rim, but right into the hands of Zoller for the putback. Elis coach James Jones calls a timeout. 22-11 Penn.

11:30 first half: We hit the second media timeout of the half, and it's 17-9 Penn.

12:14 first half: Yale's Ross Morin clocks Eric Osmundson and the ref judges that it was in the act of shooting, and as he was behind the three-point arc he gets three shots. The first and third are no good, but the second is. 15-9 Penn

14:43 first half: Mark Zoller, who seems to be the object of the 30 or so people in the Yale student section thus far, hits a three. Eric Flato answers with a three of his own at the other end, and before you know it David Whitehurst has two more Penn points on the board with a layup. 14-7 Penn

15:46 first half: Ibrahim Jaaber -- pronounced "Jabbar," as in the former Lakers great, by the Yale public address announcer -- is fouled by Casey Hughes and misses both free throws. Both teams are having a very hard time getting the ball in the basket thus far. 7-2 Penn

15:58 first half: We hit the first media timeout after Sam Kaplan is called for an offensive foul. And we can report that the old Quaker -- or at least the one that attended Penn games prior to last weekend -- has emerged at courtside, much to the delight of the Penn band and pretty much everyone else. 7-2 Penn

17:26 first half: Casey Hughes hits a short jumper and Yale's on the board. 5-2 Penn

18:26 first half: After both teams miss on the first few possessions, Eric Osmundson hits a three to get Penn on the scoreboard first. 3-0 Penn

Starting Lineups: For Penn, it's the usual five -- Ibrahim Jaaber, David Whitehurst and Eric Osmundson at the guards, with Steve Danley and Mark Zoller in the frontcourt.

For Yale, it's Eric Flato and Nick Holmes in the backcourt, Sam Kaplan and Casey Hughes at forward, and Dominick Martin at center jumping for the tipoff. Yale wins the tip.

Pregame notes: Penn takes the floor with just over five and a half minutes to go until tipoff, and Ibrahim Jaaber continues his tradition of slamming the ball off the hardwood near the three-point arc at his team's end of the floor. The seats are pretty empty so far, and at first glance are probably more fans wearing Quakers colors than Elis colors. That could well change -- the often raucous Yale student section has a habit of showing up a bit late -- but as with Penn, Yale's Spring Break began today.