Gamecenter: Penn 70, Yale 63

1st 2nd Final
Penn (11-16, 6-4 Ivy) 39 31 70
Yale (10-15, 4-7 Ivy) 21 42 63
Lee Amphitheater – New Haven, CT Boxscore
 
Keys to the Game
Key sequence With 11:50 left in the game, Penn led by 18 points, 50-32. But Yale slowly climbed back, and with 2:41 left Caleb Holmes sank two free throws to cut the Quakers’ lead to a mere 60-58. The Lee Amphitheater crowd tried to rouse the ghosts of Penn’s recent struggles in The Church, but Jack Eggleston drew a foul on Caleb Holmes on the Quakers’ ensuing possession, and sank both free throws. James Jones called timeout after his team crossed the halfcourt line, but the Bulldogs couldn’t get a shot off before the 35-second clock expired. Penn took the ball back down the floor, and Tyler Bernardini used the glass nicely on a tough, driving layup to make the score 64-58 with 1:31 to play.
Key sign it was over Penn led 65-60 with 28 seconds left in the game when Eric Flato put up a three-pointer from a few feet beyond the arc. The shot rolled around the rim and out, and Brian Grandieri got the rebound and was fouled. He only made the second of the two free throws, but Yale could not capitalize, as Nick Holmes missed a three on the ensuing possession. Eggleston got the rebound, was fouled, and made both free throws to make the score 68-60 with just 10 seconds to play, making the rest of the game at mere formality.
Key performance In his final trip to New Haven, Grandieri took it upon himself to change his team’s fortunes in the building. He scored 14 points — including a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range — pulled down 10 rebounds and dished out six assists.
Key statistic After not taking any trips to the line at all in the first half, Penn made 18 of 25 free throw attempts in the second half. Eggleston was a perfect 10-for-10.
 
Notes

– Eggleston led Penn with 18 points, while Tyler Bernardini also scored 16 points — but unusually for the freshman, all seven of his made field goals came from inside the three-point arc.

– Ross Morin and Caleb Holmes led Yale with 16 points each, while Flato was the key man behind Yale’s second-half rally, scoring all 13 of his points in the second half.

– The win in New Haven was only Penn’s third in the last seven years.

– The Quakers’ 39-21 halftime lead was the result of some poor shooting by the Bulldogs and some very efficient offense and rebounding by the visitors, who recorded assists on 16 of 18 made field goals, committed only two turnovers, and grabbed all 16 rebounds at the defensive end.

– After a first half that saw just 13 combined fouls assessed, the officials called a very tight game after halftime, whistling 14 personals on Penn and 17 on Yale — though the later figure was inflated somewhat by four fouls intentionally committed in the final minute.

– The Quakers will look for their first Ivy road sweep this season when it visits Brown on March 1 for an early 6:00 pm ET start, while the Bulldogs will try to avoid their second home sweep when Princeton visits Lee Amphitheater for a late 8:00 pm ET tipoff.

Jonathan Tannenwald

Jonathan Tannenwald wrote 29 posts

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