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PHILADELPHIA - La Salle led buzzer-to-buzzer and received 21 points and six assists from sophomore Tyreek Duren to defeat Penn on Tuesday night, 68-57, in Big 5 action at the Palestra. The victory was the sixth straight and the 11^th in the last 12 for the Explorers, who improve to 13-4 overall and 1-1 in the Big 5.

“I'm thrilled,” head coach Dr. John Giannini said. “I think we beat an outstanding team. We played great defense and we had a lot of contributions from different guys. I think it's one of our better wins this year.”

Senior Earl Pettis added 18 points while sophomore Sam Mills had 12. Mills has now made a three in all 16 games he has played in this season.

La Salle's 13-4 record is the best after 17 games since the 1990-91 squad started 14-3 on its way to a NIT appearance. The six-game winning streak is the longest since the 2005-06 squad won seven straight from January 29 to February 18, 2006.

As has been the case all season, the story of the night was the defense. Junior Ramon Galloway clamped down on Penn's Zack Rosen, holding the talented point guard to eight points on 3-of-13 shooting. It marked the 12^th time in the past 14 games that the Explorers have held the opponent's leading scorer under his average.

“We just come into each game trying to hold their top scorer under their average,” Duren said. “If we do that we have great success.”

The Quakers shot just 33.9% from the field and went the first five minutes of the game without scoring a basket. Penn's top three scorers – Rosen, Tyler Bernardini and Miles Cartwright – combined for 9-for-31 shooting from the field for 29.0%.

 “They really want to win and they understand the importance of defense,” Giannini said.

Duren commanded the offense in one of his better all-around games this season. He shot 6-for-8 from the floor, including making both three-point attempts, and was 7-for-8 from the charity stripe. He dished six assists against three turnovers, and added four steals on defense.

Pettis, his fellow Neumann-Goretti graduate, was his usual solid self. Eight of his 18 points came from the line as the two players combined to score the final 10 points to hold off a late Penn comeback.

Fran Dougherty came off the bench to lead Penn with 14 points, while Bernardini added 12.

The historic building continued to treat the Blue and Gold kindly as the Explorers have won seven of their last nine in the building. They jumped out to an 8-0 start and led by as many as 12 points on two occasions in the first half.

UP would get as close as seven points early in the second stanza  but La Salle would lead by double-digits for most of the contest.

Leading by 13 at 60-47 with 6:46 to play, the Quakers (7-9, 0-3 Big 5) went on a 8-0 run over the next four minutes to give life to the Red and Blue faithful. Two free throws from Pettis with 1:51 on the clock and a clutch three-point play by Duren kept the hosts at bay.

The victory was the fifth straight in the series over Penn.

La Salle will remain on the road to visit Dayton on Saturday at 7 PM. The game will not be televised but fans can tune into a free video stream via DaytonFlyers.com or GoExplorers.com.