BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team was tied with Fairfield with nine minutes to play, but the Stags scored seven points in a row, stretched that run to 11-3, and never looked back in taking an 80-72 win Saturday afternoon at Webster Bank Arena. The game was the season opener for both teams.
 
Notes
*Penn led by as many as 12 points early, at 26-14, but Fairfield went on a 15-1 run to gain a 29-27 lead.
 
*Sophomore Ryan Betley finished with a double-double (20 points, 10 rebounds) to lead the Quakers. He has now scored in double figures in nine-straight games dating back to last season, and has had double-doubles in his last two outings.
 
*Senior Darnell Foreman scored 17 points and tied for the team lead with three assists.
 
*Sophomore AJ Brodeur scored 13 points and also had three assists, while sophomore Devon Goodman also dished off three assists.
 
*Penn's fourth-leading scorer was senior Caleb Wood, who missed his first three-point attempt of the game but made his next three after that to finish with nine points.
 
*As a team, Penn set a single-game record for three-point attempts with 39. The Quakers made just nine of them, however, a 23.1 percentage that was compounded by a tough day at the foul line (11 of 19, 57.9 percent).

*Penn used 13 of the 15 players who dressed on Saturday, with 12 of them seeing action in the first half.

*In his first game action since January 2, 2016, Antonio Woods got the start and ended up playing eight minutes. He had two assists, a rebound and a steal and missed his only shot of the day.
 
*Overall, Penn committed just nine turnovers and took 16 more shots than Fairfield in the game. However, the Red and Blue shot just 36.1 percent from the field (26 of 72) while the Stags were an even 50 percent (28 of 56). Fairfield also went 20 of 24 at the foul line.
 
*Tyler Nelson led the way for Fairfield with 30 points, including a 12-of-13 performance at the foul line. He also led all players with six assists and snared seven rebounds. Wassif Methnani had 20 points, eight boards and three blocked shots.
 
How It Happened
Penn started the scoring on Saturday, Brodeur getting the opening bucket, and the Quakers burst out to a 9-2 lead thanks to back-to-back three-point baskets by Betley and Foreman. Fairfield got back within two, at 12-10, but Brodeur scored in the paint and was followed by back-to-back driving layups from Goodman (8 points). That was the start of a 14-4 run, one that was punctuated by another Goodman hoop.
 
Fairfield quickly got five points back, as Ferron Flavors Jr. hit a jumper and then Nelson stole Penn's inbounds and converted a layup while being fouled. He hit the free throw on the other side of the media timeout, and the Quakers' lead was down to seven.
 
Penn went cold. Foreman hit a free throw to make the score 27-19, but Fairfield scored the next 10 points from four different players and took a 29-27 lead. Brodeur tied it up with a lay-in—the Quakers' first field goal in more than five minutes—but Methnani knocked down his second trey of the game and the score was 32-29. Brodeur and Foreman combined to put Penn back in front, 33-32, but Nelson hit a pair of foul shots on consecutive possessions late in the period to put the Stags up at the break, 36-33.
 
Penn had the ball to start the second half, but Nelson and then Jonathan Kasibabu scored the first baskets of the period to extend Fairfield's lead to 40-33. It was still 51-44 when Penn made a move. First Betley hit a layup, then Jackson Donahue scored inside (missing the and-1 foul shot). Foreman completed the 6-0 mini-run, and after Nelson hit a pair of free throws Wood drained a three-pointer to tie the game at 53-53 with 9:10 to go.
 
Methnani scored inside, Penn turned it over, and then a charitable foul was called on Max Rothschild when Nelson took a three-point shot and kicked his legs out to create contact. Nelson made all three shots, and then another turnover led to a Methnani jumper that put the Stags back up by seven. The entire sequence took less than a minute.
 
Betley knocked down a three to make it 60-56, but as it turned out that would be the Quakers' only field goal for a nearly eight-minute stretch. Fairfield couldn't full take advantage, but the Stags responded to Betley's trey with four-straight points to make the score 64-56. Penn never got within six the rest of the day.
 
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