PHILADELPHIA – For the second-straight night, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team faced a pesky Ivy League opponent and was able to escape with a single-digit win at The Palestra. The opponent on Saturday was Columbia, and while the Quakers held a double-digit lead in the second half the Lions charged back and made it a nervy game down the stretch before the Red and Blue closed it out, 77-71.
 
Sophomore AJ Brodeur had a huge offensive game, knocking down six three-pointers—one fewer than he had for the entire season—and scoring a season-high 30 points. Twenty-two of them came before halftime, and Brodeur also had eight rebounds. Ryan Betley score 20 points to aid the cause, and senior Caleb Wood had a strong night off the bench with nine points and a career-high eight rebounds.
 
Penn improved to 12-5 overall, its best record through 17 games since the 2002-03 team also was 12-5 at this point. The Quakers also are 3-0 in Ivy League play for the first time since 2011-12. Columbia fell to 3-12 overall, 0-2 in Ivy play.
 
Notes
*Penn improved to 5-1 in games decided by six points or less this season.
 
*Penn is now 11-1 this season when leading at the half, and 28-4 in such games in the Steve Donahue coaching era.
 
*Penn is 6-0 when making more free throws than its opponent this season, and 8-0 when taking more foul shots.
 
*Penn made 12 three-pointers, the eighth time the Quakers have hit double digits in that category this season.

*For just the third time this season, Penn took more three-point shots (33) than two-point shots (29). The other games were the opener at Fairfield and PSU-Brandywine on November 18.
 
*Columbia tied an opponent high in the Donahue era with 11 steals, but set an opponent low in the Donahue era with just three assists.
 
*Sophomore AJ Brodeur's 30 points were not just a personal season high, it was the most by a Penn player this season. His previous season high was 25, set against Northern Illinois at the Gulf Coast Showcase, but the performance was five shy of his career high when he set a Penn freshman scoring record with 35 at La Salle last season.
 
*Brodeur had 22 points in the first half. The last time a Penn player did that was last February 17 when Ryan Betley had 23 in the first half at Brown.
 
*Brodeur's six three-pointers were a personal best—he entered the game with seven for the season and 15 for his career—and tied for the most by a Penn player this season.
 
*Brodeur took 22 shots, the most by a Penn player in a game in the Donahue coaching era.
 
*Brodeur also tied a season/career high with three steals and tied a season best with three blocked shots.
 
*Sophomore Ryan Betley reached 20 points for the third time in the last four games and the sixth time this season. He has reached double digits in the last four games (18.5 ppg in that span) and 11 of the last 12.
 
*Senior Caleb Wood had eight rebounds; prior to the game his season high was two and his career best was five. He also scored nine points.
 
*Senior Darnell Foreman (7 points) had six assists, one shy of his season high.
 
How It Happened
The first half was all AJ Brodeur, as the sophomore scored 22 points and knocked down a career-high four three-pointers. In a period that had nine ties and 10 lead changes, with the largest lead at five points, the Quakers needed all of them. Brodeur was 9-of-15 from the field in the first half, and went 4-of-8 from beyond the arc. The rest of the team? 5-of-20 overall, 1-of-10 on treys. Fueled by a personal 11-point run from the sophomore—punctuated by three treys in the final 1:44—Penn turned a 24-22 deficit into a 33-28 lead as the teams went to the locker rooms.
 
Penn then opened up the second half with seven unanswered point to go up by double digits for the first time, at 40-28. The lead was still 51-39 when Columbia made a charge, scoring nine in a row—five from Mike Smith (27 points), four from Quinton Adlesh (15)—to make the score 51-48. Caleb Wood then missed a three-pointer for Penn, but Jarrod Simmons got the offensive rebound and found Ryan Betley open. He hit his trey to push Penn back up by six.
 
Columbia hung around, though, and were within four points three times before Betley hit a layup and then a three-pointer on consecutive possessions to make the score 63-54 with four minutes to play. Another Brodeur trey made it a 10-point game, at 66-56, with two minutes left.
 
Columbia wasn't done. Adlesh hit a trey, and then after Darnell Foreman hit one of two free throws he compounded the miss by fouling Smith as he hit a three-pointer. The free throw was good, making it 67-63 with 1:38 still to play. To its credit, Penn hit its foul shots on this night—in fact, the Quakers were 10-of-10 after that point. Still, Columbia got as close as 71-69 with 49 seconds left, but that was as close as they got as Max Rothschild (2-2) and Betley (4-4) closed it out.
 
Up Next
Penn will close out the non-conference portion of its 2017-18 schedule over the next two Saturdays, starting next weekend when the Quakers host Temple at The Palestra. Tipoff is slated for 2 p.m.