PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team closed out the non-conference portion of its 2016-17 season with a 77-74 win at La Salle Wednesday night. The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Quakers, who improved to 7-9 overall and finished with a 1-3 record in Big 5 games. La Salle fell to 11-7 overall. This was Penn's second-consecutive win over the Explorers.

*Penn wore its red uniforms for the first time this season.

*This was Penn's first Big 5 road win since a 93-92 win at La Salle on January 18, 2007...10 years and one week, exactly.

*As a team, Penn had 23 assist which was a season high and the most by the Quakers in a game since last year's season opener against Robert Morris (25).

*Penn's 23/11 assist-to-turnover ratio (2.09) was by far its best this season.

*Penn scored 40 points in the first half, a high for the season.

*Penn hit 11 three-point shots, the fifth time this season the Quakers have reached double digits in that category and the first time since UCF on December 12; Penn is 4-1 in those five games.

*Penn had 10 steals, the fourth time reached double digits in that category this season.

*Freshman AJ Brodeur finished with 35 points, the most by a Penn player since Matt Maloney scored 36 in a win at Brown on Feb. 4, 1995. Brodeur's total is a Penn freshman record and also the high for this season by an Ivy League player.

*Brodeur went 14-of-19 from the field, including three three-pointers; he entered the game having hit two treys for the season.

*Senior Matt Howard had his second-straight double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and also added a career-high five assists (against no turnovers) and came up with a career-best five steals.

*Ryan Betley had 13 points, giving him 28 in the last two games, and made three steals.

*Junior Caleb Wood scored all nine of his points from beyond the arc on Wednesday night.

Penn shot out quickly, gaining a 9-2 lead in the game's first three minutes with five of them coming from freshman Ryan Betley. La Salle climbed back into it, and took a 14-12 lead after several minutes of sloppy play on both sides when Saul Phiri hit a pair of foul shots. Down, 16-14, Penn went on a 21-5 run that was spurred by Caleb Wood (two treys) and AJ Brodeur (14 first-half points). That gave the Quakers a 35-21 lead, and it was still 40-27 at halftime.

Thanks primarily to Brodeur, the Quakers were able to keep La Salle at bay for much of the second half. At one point the freshman scored 13 points in a row for Penn, including back-to-back treys near the midway point in the period, as Penn's lead shifted between single and double digits. By the time his run was over, the Red and Blue's lead was 69-59 with six minutes to play.

That's when La Salle made a final push. The Explorers scored seven-straight points over a four-minute span to get within 69-66 with 2:23 left. Penn then pushed it over, but with a chance to tie La Salle turned it right back. With 1:30 left, senior Matt Howard delivered a dagger, knocking down a three-pointer at the top of the key to make the score 72-66. 

Cleon Roberts answered almost immediately for La Salle, and then Brodeur was fouled just inside a minute and hit one of his two foul shots. Roberts missed a trey, but after getting the rebound Penn gave the ball right back to the Explorers and B.J. Johnson dunked a putback to make it 73-71 with 28 seconds left.

Out of a timeout, Ryan Betley got completely free under the basket. Devon Goodman found him, and the freshman laid it in to make it a two-possession game against. La Salle struggled to get a shot off, but Jordan Price rained home a long trey to make it 75-74 with exactly three seconds left. Penn inbounded to Brodeur, who was fouled with 2.1 left and made both freebies to cap his historic night. Down three, La Salle tried a long inbounds but Howard jumped over everyone and caught it to end the game.

Penn has only Ivy League play left and is off until next weekend, when the Quakers travel to Harvard (Friday, Feb. 3) and Dartmouth (Saturday, Feb. 4).