PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team scored the game's first 14 points and never looked back en route to a 66-59 defeat of Temple at The Palestra on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Quakers kept the Owls scoreless for the opening 9:33 and, despite a late surge, held Temple at arm's length for the entirety for their second Big 5 victory of the season, snapping a three-game losing streak.
 
Four different Quakers finished in double figures, spurred on by AJ Brodeur's 19-point, 14-rebound, six-assist, two-block stat-stuffing performance and Ryan Betley's double-double, racking up 11 points and 14 rebounds in his final Big 5 contest. Freshman Jordan Dingle scored 15 points—buoyed by three second-half long balls—and senior Devon Goodman finished with 12 in the victory.
 
Notes
*Penn finished the season 2-2 in Big 5 play, and the Class of 2020 finishes with an 8-8 record in Big 5 play which is the best since the Class of 2005 went 10-6 (spurred primarily by a 7-1 start their first two years).
 
*Penn finished the day with 48 rebounds, a season high against a Division 1 opponent. (The Quakers had 57 against Widener on December 21.)
 
*Penn tied a season high with six blocked shots; the Quakers also hit that number twice at the Wooden Legacy, against UCF and Long Beach State.
 
*Senior guard Ryan Betley had his second double-double of the season and the fifth of his career with 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. His previous rebound high was 12, set twice (most recently December 4, 2017 at Howard).
 
*Senior forward AJ Brodeur also had a double-double on Saturday, with a team-high 19 points and 14 more boards; the rebound total tied his season high, originally set in another Big 5 game (Villanova).
 
*This marked the first time this season that two different Penn players had double-doubles in the same game.
 
*Brodeur also finished the day with six assists, his fourth time reaching that number this season.
 
*Brodeur extended his double-figure scoring streak against Division 1 opponents to 39 games.
 
*In four Big 5 games this year, Brodeur finished with 80 points (20.0 ppg), 48 rebounds (12.0 rpg) and 19 assists (4.8 apg).
 
*Freshman guard Jordan Dingle scored 15 points, with 11 of them coming in a 9:47 span of the second half. For the season, 139 of Dingle's 191 points (72.8 percent) have come in the second half.
 
*Senior guard Devon Goodman got back into double digits with 12 points.
 
*Freshman forward Max Martz tied a season high with six rebounds (originally set January 4 vs. Princeton).
 
How It Happened
The Quakers opened in front of a packed Palestra crowd with a flurry, scoring the first 14 points of the game. After nearly two minutes of scoreless basketball, Devon Goodman raced out to a fast-break layup to put Penn ahead 2-0; the Quakers would not trail the rest of the afternoon. Jordan Dingle doubled the lead a minute and a half later and, with more than six minutes into the game, the score remained 4-0. From there, though, the Quakers continued on a 10-0 spurt over the next 3:12 to leap ahead by two touchdowns. AJ Brodeur stepped out to the perimeter, knocked down a three and then converted on a pair of free throws in that stretch, while Dingle scored again and Goodman also hit on a trey.
 
After suffering through 9:33 without a point, the Owls finally scored on a Quinton Rose bucket. Temple and Penn traded four buckets each over the next 5:16 as the Red and Blue maintained its 14-point advantage with just over five minutes to play in the first 20.
 
Ryan Betley banked in a layup to make it a 16-point game, but at that point the Owls made their late kick. On the defensive end, Temple upped its intensity, keeping Penn without a field goal for the final 4:27, while slowly cutting into its deficit. Thanks to four late, consecutive points from Monty Scott, the Quakers' halftime lead was just nine at 25-16.
 
In the second half, consecutive Penn turnovers allowed Temple to inch closer, scoring on a tough fast-break layup to make it 27-20 just over three minutes into the final 20. Outside of the timeout, a set play led to an open three for Ray Jerome to extend the lead back to double digits, but only for a brief moment as Rose scored on the other end just seven seconds later.
 
It felt like every time Temple would inch within striking distance, Penn had an answer. Scott made it a six-point game with 14:34 left, at 32-26, but the Quakers countered with a straightaway three from Dingle and then Goodman raced out in transition and battled through contact for a tough bucket. That widened the advantage to 11, at 37-26, just 50 seconds after the Owls made it a two-possession contest.
 
Back-to-back buckets from Rose shrank Penn's lead to six once more just before the midway point of the second half. After a bit of chaos under the rim, Lucas Monroe answered with a layup. When the lead dipped to six again with less than eight minutes left, Dingle stared down a long ball; and the on the next possession the freshman canned another. His third three of the half jolted a surge of life into The Palestra, forcing a Temple timeout with Penn up, 50-38.
 
Brodeur pocketed a slick bounce pass to a streaking Goodman for the Quakers' next bucket, the senior big's two-handed slam a minute later, combined with Dingle's banked-in runner, shot the lead back to 13 with 4:27 left. Despite some late dramatics, Temple never got closer than five points down the stretch as Penn closed out the victory.