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PHILADELPHIA – There's a first time for everything: The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team is just days away from the inaugural Ivy League Tournament, set to take place this Saturday and Sunday, March 11-12 at the famed Palestra.
The Quakers are the No. 1 seed and 2016-17 regular season champions and will face the No. 4 seed in the Brown Bears on Saturday. Game time is slated for 11 a.m. and marks the first of four games set to tip-off on Saturday, while the championship games for the men and women will be held on Sunday, March 12.
GAME 28 – No. 1 Penn vs. No. 4 Brown: Ivy League Tournament Semifinal
Saturday, March 11, 2017 * 11:00 a.m. | The Palestra
2016-17 Previous Meetings:
Jan. 14: W, 86-60; Philadelphia, Pa.
Feb. 17: W, 71-68; Providence, R.I.
The Quakers earned two wins against Brown during the course of the 2016-17 regular season but the last meeting did not come easy; Penn battled back from a 16-point deficit to win on Brown's home court and the Red and Blue were forced to match the up-tempo, sharp-shooting Bears as they pulled away for the win down the stretch.
*Brown features the No. 1 scoring offense in the conference, averaging 72.0 points per game. They're also tops in the Ancient Eight with a 41.8 field goal percentage.
*Freshman Justine Gaziano ranks second in the Ivy League averaging 17.0ppg, while Erika Steeves is 14th in the NCAA and first in the Ivies grabbing seven defensive boards a contest.
ABOUT THE QUAKERS
*For the first time in school history, Penn has won back-to-back Ivy League Championships and the third in four years under head coach Mike McLaughlin. The Quakers clinched the outright title at Harvard in a 64-46 win on March 4th.
*While Penn sits in first place in the Ivy League, they sit near the top of the nation in several statistical categories including fewest turnovers (2nd, 300) and fewest fouls (2nd, 337).
*The Quakers currently own the third-best scoring defense in the nation, holding opponents to just 52.0 points per game. If the numbers hold, it would mark the seventh-consecutive year the Red and Blue have finished the season holding their opposition to under 60 points each contest.
*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 Ivy League career blocks record, breaking Columbia's Kathy Gilbert's previous mark of 305 in 1991. This past weekend against Harvard, she also tied the all-time Ivy League record holder in the catagory - both men's or women's - with 311 career blocks, matching Brown's Cedric Kuakumensah's mark of 311 (2012-16).
*As a team, the Quakers are 11th in the NCAA in Blocked Shots per Game (5.8) on the heels of Michelle Nwokedi's (17th) and Stipanovich's (55th) efforts in the backcourt in blocks per game. The duo have combined for 120 blocks through 27 games for the Quakers. This season, the duo have combined for 120 blocked shots - that currently ranks ahead of 257 TEAM TOTALS in the NCAA as of March 6th and is 88th nationally if the duo were their own team.
Catching the Games: ESPN3 (Tape Delay ESPNU)
Both semifinal games will be broadcast live on ESPN3, with a tape delay airing on ESPNU. Sunday's championship game will be aired live on ESPNU at 4 p.m.
#FightOnPenn
