PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team couldn't overcome a 16-0 first-half run in an 87-81 loss to Saint Joseph's at The Palestra on Saturday afternoon.
 
The loss is Penn's third in a row and comes despite AJ Brodeur's monster 33-point, seven-rebound, three-assist game. The Quakers trailed by as many as 16 but clawed all the way back to snatch a 61-60 lead at the midway point of the second half, only to hold on to it for 15 seconds. However, at that point SJU's Ryan Daly personally outscored the Red and Blue 11-3 over a four-minute span and the hosts could not answer..
 
Notes
*Penn is now 0-7 when trailing at the half this year and 10-48 under Steve Donahue.
 
*The Quakers lost just their fourth game under Donahue when scoring at least 80 points (24-4), but it was the second time it has happened this season.
 
*Saturday marked the sixth time this season Penn has allowed 80 points or more; the Quakers are 1-5 in those games.
 
*Saint Joseph's hit on 12 three-point field goals, the most Penn has allowed in a game this season.
 
*At the other end, Penn put up 34 treys on Saturday but converted just seven of them, shooting just over 20 percent from beyond the arc.

*Senior AJ Brodeur scored a season-high 33 points, the fourth time he's ventured into the 30-point level at Penn. This was the first time the Quakers lost such a game.

*Brodeur also had seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. His two steals give him 101 for his career, making him the first player in Ivy League history to reach all of the following milestones: 1,500 points (AJ at 1,604), 750 rebounds (AJ at 811), 300 assists (AJ at 312), 150 blocked shots (AJ at 170), and 100 steals (AJ at 101).

*Senior Ryan Betley scored 14 points, knocking down four three-point shots.

*Freshman Jordan Dingle scored 12 points, all of them in the second half; 128 of his 176 points this season have come in the second half (72.7 percent).

*Senior Ray Jerome made his first collegiate start and ended the day with four points, three rebounds and a career-high three steals in 34 minutes.

*Senior Devon Goodman had his eight-game streak of double-figure scoring games end at eight games, as he scored eight points on Saturday.

How It Happened
Devon Goodman opened proceedings with a three from the wing just 26 seconds in, but Saint Joseph's rattled off the next seven points to grab a 7-3 advantage. AJ Brodeur cut the deficit in half with a layup and then Max Martz converted three from the charity stripe to inch within a point. Penn eventually leveled the game when Ryan Betley buried a three and then when he hit another one to tie the game at 14-14 with 15:34 left in the first half.
 
With the game locked up at 14, though, the Hawks broke free with an 16-0 run over the next 4:55 to sprint out to a 30-14 lead at the midway point of the first 20 minutes. The Hawks drilled six of their first 10 shots from beyond the arc to scoot ahead. Betley finally stopped the bleeding with another three from the wing after pump faking to open up a glimmer of space. Brodeur hooked in a basket on the next possession and then the senior big scored again from in close to answer a SJU bucket. The Quakers eventually cut into the lead enough to trim it to single digits at 32-23 with just under eight minutes left when a loose ball scooped up by Ray Jerome led to an easy run out and layup for Goodman.
 
The Red and Blue's momentum halted there, however, and timely long-range shooting from Saint Joseph's allowed the Hawks to extend their advantage up to 16, matching their largest lead to that point, with 4:23 left in the first half.
 
Once more, Penn dug in and mounted another charge of its own with two baskets from Brodeur, the latter by virtue of a silky up-and-under finger roll to make it 44-32 with 3:32 left before halftime. Brodeur finished the first half with a flurry, accounting for 17 of Penn's final 23 first-half points, including 13 of 14 consecutive tallies before Martz canned a corner three at the buzzer to inch within six at 46-40 at the break. The Quakers, on the back of Brodeur's 19 first-half points, ended the opening 20 minutes on a 12-2 run and allowed just one SJU field goal over the final 4:51 to put a dent in what was a 16-point deficit.
 
Brodeur then started the second half right where he left off with three consecutive field goals, including a two-handed flush in transition. The senior's third basket propelled Penn within just two less than two minutes into the half but a pair of Hawk threes, sandwiching a Jordan Dingle trey, pushed their lead back to five with 16 minutes to play.
 
On two occasions, SJU raised its lead to seven, but Brodeur and Dingle kept the Quakers' collective head above water with buckets. Within five, Goodman picked Ryan Daly's pocket in the backcourt and finished the play off with a dunk. After another stop, Martz corralled an offensive rebound and converted the putback to make it a one-point game once again.
 
For the first time since the Quakers' opening basket, Penn snatched the lead with 10:01 left at 61-60 when Brodeur bullied his way to the cup for his 28th and 29th points of the game. Daly immediately answered, though, with a circus layup and then a three to regain SJU's lead at the eight-minute mark. On the other side of the media timeout, Daly scored again to make it 67-61 and eventually put up 11 straight points for the Hawks, helping them build a 12-point lead.

Penn halted the run with dunks from Dingle and Jerome to make it an eight-point game with 2:59 to play. In the waning moments, the Quakers turned a nine-point deficit into six with 47 seconds to play and then forced a turnover. Dingle scored on the ensuing possession, but the Hawks were able to salt the game away from the free-throw line, closing out an 87-81 victory.