PHILADELPHIA – Senior AJ Brodeur became the first player in program history to record a triple-double as his 21-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance powered the University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team past visiting Columbia, 85-65, on Saturday evening at the Palestra.
 
With their third win in a row to end the regular season, the Quakers (16-11, 8-6 Ivy League) clinched the fourth seed in the upcoming Ivy League Tournament at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion. Penn will face the top seed, Yale, in next Saturday's first semifinal at 11 a.m. Second-seeded Harvard and third-seeded Princeton will meet in the second semifinal, at 2 p.m. The Ivy League Tournament final will take place next Sunday at noon.
 
The Lions suffered their 13th straight loss and end the year 6-24 overall and 1-13 mark in Ivy play. Mike Smith, the Ivy League's leading scorer entering the night, scored 20 points but he needed 24 shots to get there, Devon Goodman blanketing him all night. Ike Nweke and Jack Forrest scored 13 points each, while Randy Brumant had 10.
 
In the final home game for the Class of 2020, it was a night to remember for Brodeur as he also became the program's all-time leader in points—breaking Ernie Beck's 67-year-old record—as well as games played (119) and blocked shots (196). Making the night extra special, Beck was in the building and even helped head coach Steve Donahue with Brodeur's portion of the pre-game Senior Night ceremony.

Notes
*Penn shot a season-best 56.9 percent from the field on Saturday, going 33 of 58.
 
*Penn knocked down 13 three-point baskets, reaching double figures in that category for the sixth time in the last seven games and the 13th time this season.
 
*Penn tied a season high with nine steals; the Quakers also had nine against Long Beach State at the Wooden Legacy on December 1.
 
*Brodeur had 21 points on Saturday night, his fourth straight game reaching the 20-point mark; the last Penn player to do that was Fran Dougherty early in the 2012-13 season.
 
*Saturday was Brodeur's second 10-assist game this season; he and Darnell Foreman have the only 10-assist games in the Steve Donahue coaching era at Penn.
 
*Brodeur shot 69.2 percent overall from the field this weekend (18-of-26), but he was a staggering 83.3 percent on two-point shots (15-of-18).
 
*Brodeur's four blocked shots were a season high, and they gave him 196 for his career which allowed him to pass Geoff Owens (1997-2001) as the program's all-time leader in that category.
 
*Brodeur also moved into sixth place in career assists with 390, passing David Klatzky (2000-03); Paul Chambers (1989-92) is fifth with 396 assists.
 
*Senior Devon Goodman scored 17 points on Saturday night, 12 of them coming in the second half as he finished just two shy of becoming the 42nd player in program history to score 1,000 for his career.
 
*Senior Ryan Betley scored 16 points, giving him 27 for the weekend as he continues to come back from a leg injury suffered February 8 at Columbia.
 
*Betley was 5-of-7 on three-point shots on Saturday, matching his season high for treys in a game; he also hit five triples at Providence on November 23.
 
*Freshman Jordan Dingle came off the bench to score 14 points, and he went a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc to finish the weekend 8-of-10 from distance.
 
*Freshman Max Martz had a four-game streak of double-figure scoring games end on Saturday as he scored eight points, but he also grabbed eight rebounds which was one shy of his season/career high.
 
How It Happened
Over the first four and a half minutes of action, the two teams traded baskets before The Lions reeled off five straight points to take a 9-4 edge. After the Quakers pulled to within two at 12-10 following a trey from Ryan Betley with 13:16 left, Columbia scored the next six points to stretch its lead to 18-10 heading into the under-12 media timeout.
 
Betley's second trey of the game brought the Red and Blue back to within one at 22-21, and after two defensive stops a driving layup from Devon Goodman gave Penn its first lead of the game with 7:10 remaining in the opening half. The Quakers would never trail again in the contest. A Jordan Dingle trey completed a 9-0 run that gave the Quakers a 27-22 advantage with 6:13 to go in the first.
 
Penn closed the first half on a 13-4 run over the final 4:16 to take a 40-30 lead into the break. During the opening 20 minutes, Penn connected on 7 of 16 shots from three-point range, highlighted by Betley hitting four of his five attempts.
 
Penn came out of the locker room with purpose in the second half, quickly stretching its lead to 16 thanks to a bucket from Goodman on a drive with 16:45 remaining in the contest. Up 51-37, the Quakers delivered the knockout blow over the next three minutes with a 12-3 run that swelled their lead to 23 points, 63-40. Brodeur ended the run with a hook shot that tied him with Ernie Beck for the most points in program history.
 
From there, it became a matter of when the next points would come. Brodeur had a chance to break the mark at the foul line with 11:17 left but missed both. However, with 9:46 remaining the mark became his when he screened, slipped, and finished a nice feed from Goodman at the rim. Four minutes later, Brodeur collected his fourth blocked shot of the night which allowed him to pass Geoff Owens' record and become the program's all-time leader in that category.
 
The triple-double arrived with 2:08 left in the game when Brodeur rebounded a Randy Brumant miss to give him 10 boards on the night. He had reached 10 assists shortly before that, feeding Max Martz and Goodman from the right block on consecutive possessions 36 seconds apart.