Miller's young squad, which was led last night by sophomore Tyler Bernardini's 23 points, was pretty much taken to school by Giannini's more mature group at Tom Gola Arena, as the Explorers pinned a 79-70 loss on the Quakers in the Big 5 contest. The loss dropped Penn to 4-9, 0-3 in the City Series, while La Salle improved to 10-7, 1-1.
"A couple of years ago, our freshmen and sophomores dominated [playing time] and we really struggled," said Giannini. "But through the years, Rodney [Green] has become a better shooter, he's become stronger. Our guys have become more skilled and we're a little stronger and a little bit better. And they will, too. I know exactly what they're going through and it will be different soon. They'll get better year by year."
Green led the Explorers with a career-high 26 points, while fellow juniors Yves Mekongo Mbala (13), Kimmani Barrett (10) and Ruben Guillandeaux (10) joined him in double figures.
The Quakers got better as the game went on, particularly in the second half. Though, after the kind of first half they had, it would have been hard not to show improvement.
Had it not been for an absolutely horrid first 20 minutes, things may have been different for the Quakers.
Penn missed 14 of its first 17 shots, went almost 8 minutes without a point, and during that time saw a one-point lead (7-6) turn into a 15-point deficit (22-7).
The worst of it was, Penn had a lot of good looks on the offensive end in the first half, but converted just 1-for-12 from beyond the arc and failed to get to the foul line. It all added up to a 31-17 halftime lead for La Salle.
