HOUSTON, Texas – The University of Pennsylvania men's basketball team fell behind No. 3 Houston big early on Saturday and never got back into it, the Cougars cruising to an 81-42 victory at the Fertitta Center.
 
Penn—which was playing just its second game in 19 days—fell to 8-6 with the loss, while Houston remains one of just three unbeaten teams nationally (with Ole Miss and James Madison) at 13-0.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Freshman Tyler Perkins led Penn with 10 points and added a team-high three steals.
 
*Junior Nick Spinoso had eight points, while freshmen Sam Brown and Niklas Polonowski scored six each.
 
*Senior Andrew Laczkowski, playing in his home state of Texas, led Penn with five rebounds and set his season high with two assists (tying his career best) in a career-high 24:14 of game action.

*Junior Reese McMullen played a career-high 21 minutes and tied his career best with three rebounds.

*Junior George Smith and Spinoso had four rebounds each, and Smith tied his season high with two steals.
 
*Houston had five players hit double figures in the scoring column, led by LJ Cryer who had 16 including the 1,000^th of his career. Jamal Shead added 14, Joseph Tugler scored 13, Emanuel Sharp recorded 12, and Temple transfer Damian Dunn had 11. Ja'Vier Francis led all players with nine rebounds.

How It Happened
For the past few days the coaches have preached two things: Houston would be relentless on defense, and the Cougars would be relentless on the boards.
 
By the second media timeout, the Cougars had proven both things to be true. They had a 7-1 lead in rebounds at the first media timeout, and when Brown finally drained a trey—a very, very long trey—for the Quakers' first points UH had already forced seven turnovers on the way to an 18-0 lead.
 
Brown hit another trey on the other side of the under-12 timeout, making the score 18-6. However, Penn went scoreless for nearly five minutes after that and Houston took advantage with the game's next 11 points for a 29-6 lead. The lead was 22 at the half, 39-17.
 
The stats told the story. Penn had nearly three times as many turnovers (13) as baskets (5), had been outrebounded by seven, and was just 1-of-7 on two-point shots.
 
Perkins scored the first three points of the second half, hitting a driving layup and adding a free throw, and then after Smith found Spinoso for an easy layup Perkins hit another trey. Overall, it was an 8-2 run that got Penn within 41-25.
 
Houston was nonplussed. The Coogs scored the game's next seven points, and then after Spinoso scored driving layups on consecutive possessions UH scored eight in a row. Overall, it was a 17-4 run and Houston had doubled up the Quakers, 58-29. Things never got better for the Red and Blue after that, the Cougars' largest lead coming with just over a minute left (81-37) before Penn scored the game's final five points.
 
Up Next
Penn plays its third straight road game on Tuesday night at Auburn, tipping off with the Tigers in Neville Arena at 8 p.m. (9 EST) on the SEC Network.
 
For the latest on Penn men's basketball, follow @PennMBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.