ESTERO, Fla. – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team was victimized by a scorching Towson run midway through the first half and could never quite get back on Tuesday night, falling to the Tigers 79-71 in a semifinal game at the Gulf Coast Showcase at Germain Arena.
 
Penn fell to 3-3 on the season with the loss, while Towson is now 4-1 overall.
 
Up Next
The Red and Blue will play UMKC in the Showcase third-place game Wednesday at 5 p.m. The Kangaroos fell to unbeaten Georgia Southern in the other semifinal, 78-75.
 
Notes
*The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Penn, which lost to Towson for the first time. (Of course, the Quakers only had two wins over the Tigers in a series that has now seen just three games.)
 
*Penn continues to shoot the ball pretty well, going 28-of-58 from the field (48.3 percent). Over their last three games the Quakers are 97-of-184 (52.7 percent).
 
*After hitting 28 three-point shots in the last two games—15 vs. PSU-Brandywine, 13 Monday against Northern Illinois—Penn made just six such shots on Tuesday night and shot 33.3 percent beyond the arc.
 
*Sophomore Ryan Betley had a season-high 25 points, three shy of his career high. It is his second game with 20 or more points this season. He also hit four three-pointers, a season best.
 
*Senior Darnell Foreman finished with 16 points, one shy of his season best, and for the third time this season he matched his career high with eight rebounds (including four offensive).
 
*Sophomore AJ Brodeur had his second-straight double-figure scoring game of the tournament, and fourth this season, with 12 points. He also had seven rebounds, matching a season best.
 
*Senior Caleb Wood and junior Max Rothschild led Penn with four assists each on Tuesday. However, Wood had no three-pointers—he entered the contest having hit at least three in every other game against Division 1 competition this sason—while Rothschild had five turnovers.
 
How It Happened
As has become habit recently, Penn jumped right out to a fast start and led by as much as 10 early, at 16-6. The lead was still 21-13 when the momentum turned, though, as Towson ripped off nine-straight points to take a 22-21 lead. Eddie Scott briefly got the lead back for the Quakers, driving and scoring, but Towson reeled off the next 10 points in a row to make the score 32-23. Overall, the run was 19-2 for the Tigers.
 
Penn regained its offensive form the rest of the half, primarily through Betley. He scored the Quakers' final eight points in the period, including a layup just ahead of the buzzer to get the Red and Blue within four at the break, 37-33.
 
Towson never gave up its lead in the second half, although Penn did its best to get back in it. The Quakers were within one possession a handful of times, and even had offensive possessions where they could have tied, but never made it happen. The Red and Blue got as close as two points with 9:31 to play when Antonio Woods hit a jumper to make the score 56-54. However, Towson scored eight of the next 10 points to get back up by eight, a run that eventually became 12-3 for a 68-57 advantage. The closest Penn got after that was five, on a pair of occasions in the final minute.