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*Penn/Texas A&M game will begin 30 minutes after UCLA/Boise St. concludes
PAULEY PAVILION INFO: Facility | Clear Bag Policy
PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania (22-7) women's basketball team has their dancing shoes on and are set for the First Round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament after winning the 2017 Ivy League automatic bid just a few days ago. The Quakers will face No. 5 seed Texas A&M (21-11) on Saturday, March 18 at 9:00 p.m. ET and the contest will be broadcast live on ESPN2.
GAME 30 – No. 12 Penn vs. No. 5 Texas A&M: NCAA Tournament First Round
Saturday, March 18, 2017 * 9:00 p.m. ET | Pauley Pavilion | Los Angeles, Calif.
About the Aggies
Texas A&M received an at-large bid into the field; the Aggies enter the NCAAs with a 21-11 record and finished sixth in the powerful SEC (9-7). Three A&M players were second-team All-SEC: Khaalia Hillsman, Curtyce Knox and Danni Williams. Williams and Hillsman both averaged more than 16 points per game, while Knox led the SEC in assists per game (9.0).
About the Quakers
Let's Dance!
The Quakers were slotted as the No. 12 seed in the Bridgeport Regional, and are set to take on No. 5 Texas A&M on Saturday, March 18 in Los Angeles, Calif at 9 p.m. EST. Fourth-seed and host UCLA and No. 13 Boise State will precede Penn and the Aggies at 6:30 p.m. EST with the winners of both games meeting on Monday, March 20 at Pauley Pavilion. Penn and Texas A&M have never met on the basketball court.
Back to La La Land
The Red and Blue will return to the City of Angels after having previously flown to LAX earlier this season for two games over winter break. The Golden State treated the Quakers well in December, as Penn brought home two wins: first, a 47-36 decision over Cal State Northridge, followed by a 71-55 victory against UC-Riverside.
A First-Round Penn Win Would…
- Be the first NCAA Tournament triumph in program history
- Be the third NCAA Tournament win by an Ivy League school
- Be the first win over Texas A&M and an SEC school in Penn history (0-2 all-time )
- Set a matchup against the winner of UCLA/Boise State on Monday
- Give the Quakers their 23rd win of the season, the second-highest season win total in school history (24: 2016)
A Look at Penn's Recent Postseason Experience
Prior to this school-record stretch of five straight postseason appearances, Penn had never been to the postseason in back-to-back years. In 2013, Penn posted the first two postseason wins in program history with home wins over Howard (65-60) and Fairfield (49-48) in the opening two rounds of the Women's Basketball Invitational. Penn then lost in the semifinals at Detroit, 71-68. The following season, the Red and Blue led fifth-seeded Texas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by as many as 15 in the first half (32-17), and seven at halftime (38-31), but ultimately fell, 79-61. In 2014, Penn earned its first-ever WNIT berth and victory with a home win over Hofstra before a close second-round loss at The Palestra to Big 5 rival Temple. The 2015-16 Quakers earned the No. 10 seed for the NCAA Tournament and fell to the University of Washington, 65-53, in College Park, Md. in the First Round.
Tournament Level Experience
The Quakers went a combined 0-2 against teams in this years' Field of 64, having lost to No. 2 seed Duke to open the season by a score of 68-55 while also dropping a Big 5 contest to Temple (a 7-seed) 63-53 in January.
Ivy League in the Tourney
The Ancient Eight has 25 appearances in the NCAA Tournament dating back to 1983. Penn's five berths are the fourth-highest in the league, but its four appearances since 2004 ranks second behind only Princeton. The Ivies have two NCAA Tournament wins in their history, one by the Tigers in 2015 and the other, historically, by Harvard in 1998. (The Crimson were a 16 seed and beat No. 1 seed Stanford, to date the only win by a 16 over a 1 in either NCAA Tournament.)
Against the SEC
Although the Quakers and Aggies have never battled each other before, Penn has taken the court twice before against teams from the current alignment of the Southeastern Conference. Most recently, Penn traveled to Rocky Top to open the year in 2014, losing 97-52 to the fourth-ranked Lady Vols. Prior to that, the lone SEC matchup for the Quakers came at the Lady Gator Classic in 1993, as host Florida defeated the Red and Blue 80-49.
All-Ivy Honorees
Four Quakers were honored for their performances over the course of 2016-17. Michelle Nwokedi (Ivy League Player of the Year, unanimous First Team All-Ivy), Mike McLaughlin (Ivy League Coach of the Year), Sydney Stipanovich (Second Team All-Ivy), and Anna Ross (Second Team All-Ivy) were all honored on behalf of the Red and Blue. Nwokedi's Player of the Year honors mark the second-straight for Penn: Stipanovich was the 2015-16 Ivy League Player of the Year as well.
Ivy League Champions
For the first time in school history, Penn claimed back-to-back Regular Season Ivy League Championships. The Quakers clinched the outright regular season title at Harvard (March 4) in a 64-46 win. Penn entered the inaugural Ivy League Tournament as the No. 1 seed defeating the 4-seed Brown Bears in the semifinals by a score of 71-60 before taking down No. 2 Princeton for the third time this year, 57-48, in the championship game. Michelle Nwokedi was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while junior guard Anna Ross joined her on the All-Tournament Team.
Record Setter
After becoming Penn's all-time leader in blocked shots in 2015-16, senior Sydney Stipanovich recently made Ancient Eight history, totaling her 306th block at Yale on Feb. 18 to earn sole possession of the women's Ivy League career blocks record, breaking Columbia's Kathy Gilbert's mark last set in 1991. Against Princeton on March 7, Stipanovich became the all-time leader in both men's AND women's when she broke Brown's Cedric Kuakumensah (2012-16) mark of 311. She now sits at 315 blocked shots for her career.
20+ Win Season
Following their March 7th victory over Princeton, the Quakers have now recorded their fourth consecutive 20 win season under the guidance of head coach Mike McLaughlin.
All-Time Wins Leader
Head coach Mike McLaughlin became Penn's all-time wins leader, surpassing Lois Ashley's mark of 128 wins in 12 seasons with his 129th win at Dartmouth (3/3/17). The head man now sits with an all-time record of 133-99 (.573) at Penn.
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