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1st |
2nd |
Final |
| 15 Penn (20-9, 12-2 Ivy) |
23 |
29 |
52 |
| 2 Texas (28-6) |
22 |
38 |
60 |
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| Keys to the Game |
| Key sequence |
Brian Grandieri grabbed Ibby Jaaber’s missed fastbreak layup and laid it in to bring Penn to within one at 41-40 with 6:38 left. P.J. Tucker bricked a jumper at the other end and Steve Danley grabbed the rebound for Penn. But with Texas in disarray after Penn had scored on four of its last five possessions while the Longhorns were coming off three straight fruitless possessions, Fran Dunphy called an ill-advised timeout. The break gave the Longhorns an opportunity to regroup, and — more critically — allowed Rick Barnes to re-insert Daniel Gibson, who had been on the bench with four fouls. Out of the timeout, the Quakers settled for a moving three-point attempt from Eric Osmundson with the shotclock running low, then Gibson made his presence felt with a driving shot that found its way into the bottom of the net. After Mark Zoller badly missed a spinning fadeaway jumper in the lane, Gibson again slipped inside for a layup to make it a five-point game with 4:37 left. Zoller missed 17-foot jumper, and Gibson found LaMarcus Aldridge down low, and the big man was fouled, hitting both free throws to make it a 47-40 game with just 3:49 left. |
| Key sign it was over |
Trailing by seven with exactly one minute left, Osmundson drove and got to the bucket, but couldn’t finish at the hoop. Texas got the ball out of bounds, and after nearly forcing a turnover with its defensive pressure, Penn eventually fouled the Longhorns, but just 35.8 seconds remained. Texas would go 8-for-8 from the line down the stretch to hold the Quakers at bay.
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| Key performance |
Tucker. Despite a big game by Aldridge, who scored nearly every time he got the ball down low without a double-team, it was Tucker who had the biggest impact for Texas. He scored 17 points — 10 in the second half — and grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds, with five coming at the offensive end. The Big 12 Player of the Year added an assist and a pair of steals while playing the full 40 minutes. |
| Key statistic |
You would think it would be Texas’s 58.3-percent offensive rebounding, but the Longhorns only outscored Penn 17-8 in second-chance points. No, the key stat in this one was Texas’s 22-of-26 performance at the free throw line. After shooting just four free throws in the first half, the Longhorns toed the free throw line 22 times in the final 20 minutes, connecting on 19 of those, including the aforementioned 8-for-8 in the final 35.8 seconds. |
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| Notes |
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Jaaber led Penn with 15 points, but had a very rough shooting night, going just 5 of 19 from the floor and 2 of 9 from the arc in the loss. He did play solid defense and did a good job handling the ball, but outside of nailing an early three-pointer and hitting his final three shots of the game when Penn was in desperation mode, the Ivy League Player of the Year couldn’t have been pleased with his shooting performance. |
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Penn shot just 28.0 percent from the field in the first half, but held a 23-22 halftime advantage because of excellent three-point shooting. The Quakers shot 6 of 14 (42.9 percent) from the arc in the first half, including a 3-for-3 performance from distance by Zoller. But Penn couldn’t carry over good three-point shooting into the second half, going just 4 of 13 (30.8 percent) from the outside. The Quakers finished the game 10 of 27 (37.0 percent) from three-point range. |
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Aldridge hit the first four field goals of the game for Texas and found himself with eight points just 8:31 into the contest. The potential NBA lottery pick finished with a game-high 19 points and added 10 rebounds. |
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As predicted, Texas dominated the smaller Quakers on the boards. The Longhorns grabbed 14 of 24 misses at their own end (58.3 percent) and held Penn to 11 of 39 (28.2 percent) boards at its offensive end. In total rebounds Texas doubled up Penn to the tune of a 42-21 advantage. |
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Penn had 10 assists against eight turnovers, while Texas recorded just seven assists to go with 11 turnovers. |
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The Quakers didn’t get their first two-point field goal until Jaaber’s floater in the paint with 4:17 left in the first half. |
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Texas outscored Penn 28-12 in the paint and the Longhorn frontcourt outscored the Quaker forwards 44-13. However, the Penn guards held a 39-16 scoring edge on their Texas counterparts. |
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With the loss, Dunphy set an NCAA record with his eighth-straight NCAA Tournament defeat, according to ESPN. |
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