Penn beats Dartmouth

Penn swingman Tyler Bernardini started hitting his jumper right after the opening tip Friday night at the Palestra, where the Quakers took on struggling Dartmouth in an Ivy League contest. And by the time intermission arrived, the 6-foot-6 senior and his teammates had all but shot the Big Green out of the game.

Bernardini had 16 points during the first 20 minutes and provided Penn with a springboard to a 78-47 rout that was the Quakers' fourth win in a row.

"They fell for me tonight," said Bernardini, who had dealt with flulike symptoms all week. "I work hard all the time, so sometimes they're going to fall and sometimes not."

Penn, which opened its Ancient Eight schedule by downing Yale and Brown at home last week, never trailed while improving its record to 9-8 overall and 3-0 in league play. Dartmouth, which has dropped its seventh outing in its last eight, is 5-14, 1-4.

Penn will host Harvard on Saturday night.

"Once the clock hits zeros, that's when I start thinking about the next one," Penn coach Jerome Allen said.

Against Dartmouth, Penn mixed stifling defense with hot shooting to take command of the game. The Quakers had a 14-point halftime lead as Bernardini made 6 of 7 shot attempts, including 4 of 4 from three-point range.

As a team, Penn was 13 of 19 from the floor while Dartmouth went 8 for 27.

With 10 minutes left to play in the game, Dartmouth's deficit was 22 points, 57-35, and it didn't get any better for the Big Green.

Dartmouth's first-year coach, Paul Cormier, was an assistant at Villanova under Rollie Massimino from 1980 to 1984. Cormier, who helped recruit the Wildcats team that won the national championship in 1985, played for Massimino at Lexington High in Massachusetts.

"It was great up until the game," Cormier said about being back in Philadelphia.

While Bernardini finished with 21 points, Penn forward Jack Eggleston had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and point guard Zack Rosen dished out eight assists. Eggleston, a 6-8 senior from Noblesville, Ind., made his 100th career start for the Quakers. The last Penn player to reach that number was guard Tim Begley, who made 113 starts from 2001 to '05.

"All week long we've been talking about sustaining our defense for longer than we have the previous games," Allen said. "For the most part, we had solid defense. All in all, I was pleased with our defensive effort. But we're not satisfied."

Penn forward Andreas Schreiber, who was out with a hand injury, suited up for the first time since Dec. 29. The 6-9 Schreiber checked into the game for the first time with 3:44 to go.