PHILADELPHIA – Needing a win to stay alive for a spot in next week's Ivy League Tournament at Yale, the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team unleashed a 21-5 flurry in the first half and never looked back en route to a comfortable, 77-66 win over Yale Friday night on Macquarie Court at The Palestra.
 
The situation is simple tomorrow: win and in. If Penn beats Brown—a 67-63 winner at Princeton earlier tonight—the Quakers will tie with at least Brown and possibly Cornell in fourth place. In a two-way tie with Brown or a three-way tie with the Bears and Cornell, Penn will win the head-to-head tiebreakers. If Brown wins tomorrow night's game at The Palestra, the Bears will earn the fourth seed.
 
AJ Brodeur poured in a game-high 24 points and Antonio Woods added 22, always seeming to come up big at the most opportune times as Penn put away a Bulldogs squad that entered the weekend tied atop the Ivy League standings with Harvard. (As it happened, the Crimson also lost on Friday night, 72-59 to Cornell.).
 
Notes
*Penn shot a perfect 12-of-12 at the foul line, the first time in the Steve Donahue coaching era the Quakers have had a perfect night at the line; the last time it happened at all was January 1, 2012 (9-of-9 at Duke).

*Penn committed just eight turnovers, one shy of its season low; this was the seventh time the Quakers stayed in single digits in that category.

*Penn won despite Yale hitting 12 three-pointers, tied for an opponent high this season (also Harvard on February 16).

*With 24 points, junior AJ Brodeur moved into a tie for 16th place on Penn's all-time scoring list in program history, matching Tony Price's 1,322 points from 1977-79.

*Brodeur has now scored in double figures in 23 straight games, and this was his ninth time reaching the 20-point mark this season.
 
*Senior Antonio Woods, who entered the night averaging 10.8 points per game in Ivy League play, poured in 22 which was a season high and one shy of his career best.

*Woods knocked down four three-point shots on Friday, matching a season/career high set two other times this season and four other times in his career.

*Junior Devon Goodman scored 14 points, his tenth time hitting double digits in Penn's last 11 games, and tied his season/career high with six rebounds.
 
*Sophomore Jarrod Simmons broke through with a huge game on the glass, relentlessly attacking for seven rebounds, a season high.
  
How It Happened
Yale hopped out to an early 4-2 lead, its only lead of the game, before Penn mounted a quick 11-0 run– the first of two double digit Quaker runs in the first 20 minutes–behind seven consecutive points from Antonio Woods, to make it 13-4. Yale accounted for the next five to crawl within 13-9, but another momentum-controlling 10-0 run exploded the advantage to 14 at 23-9 approaching the midway point of the first half. Jarrod Simmons, who played a pivotal part in the first half by relentlessly pounding the offensive glass, ripped down a pair of rebounds that led to kick outs and knocked down threes by Jackson Donahue and Devon Goodman.
 
That pair hooked up for the next basket for the Red and Blue when Goodman whipped a no-look, right-handed rocket to Donahue in the corner for his second three of the night. After a Yale basket, Silpe slipped through the back door and drew a foul. He made both at the line, Goodman played bully boy for two more points and then Simmons finished at the rim after collecting yet another offensive rebound, pushing the lead to 19, the largest of the first half.
 
Yale scored consecutive buckets to trim its deficit to 14, but Woods hesitated with a deadly stop-and-go drive for an easy two then stepped back for three on the ensuing possession to halt a 7-2 Bulldog run spurned on by a three from Yale's Alex Copeland. Penn's senior led with 15 points in the opening period.
 
Each time Copeland, who put up 12 first-half points, drew Yale closer, Woods seemingly immediately crushed the momentum with a three. The lead reached 19 again when Goodman burst in front of a pass and took it the distance on the other end and Brodeur pumped and then went up strong for two more to end the half, propelling Penn to a 46-30 lead at the break.
 
Silpe hit Brodeur for Penn's first two buckets of the second half and then Max Rothschild hit two at the line to expand the lead to 19 once again. Silpe flared out for a three and, on the ensuing defensive possession, hit the floor and slapped a pass to Goodman for a breakaway dunk, pushing the lead to 21. Five straight Bulldog points lowered it to 16, but the Quakers broke the press easily leading to two from Woods on the other end.
 
Goodman and Woods buoyed the Red and Blue with two more threes making it 65-47 approaching the halfway mark of the second half before Silpe launched a three-quarter court pass for a Brodeur dunk and two of his game-high 24 points.
 
Down the stretch, Penn controlled the clock and managed the game to a comfortable 77-66 win with massive stakes on the line.