PHILADELPHIA - PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team started slow and never quite rebounded against Princeton on Tuesday night, as the Tigers leveled the season series and matched the Quakers at 8-2 for first place of the Ivy League. The loss drops Penn to 18-5 overall.

Princess Aghayere led the three in Red and Blue that finished in double figures with 14 points while Kendall Grasela recorded a career-high 11 points, all coming in the first half.

PENN NEWS AND NOTES
*Kendall Grasela's 11 points set a new career high for the junior. All 11 came in the first half. She finished with four rebounds and three assists.

*Aghayere's double-figure scoring streak moved to 11 with 14 points and five rebounds in 26 minutes of action.

*Eleah Parker scored in double figures for the 19th-straight game, finishing with 10 in 29 minutes.

*Tuesday marked the 17th game this season Phoebe Sterba hit at least two 3-pointers, as the junior finished with six points, fighting foul trouble all night. 

*Offensive rebounds helped Penn throughout the night, as the Quakers collected 18 of their own misses and tallied 20 second-chance points. 

*Princeton moves to 58-30 all-time against Penn. The win for the Tigers marks the first time the two teams have split the series in the regular season since 2014. 

*Bella Alarie led Princeton with 33 points and 10 rebounds. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Two early triples helped Princeton build an early 10-4 lead while Kendall Grasela carried the load offensively for Penn with its first two buckets. Eleah Parker ended the Quakers' scoring drought that lasted over four minutes with a turnaround layup and then another bucket on the ensuing possession, but the Tigers countered with two scores themselves, including Gabrielle Rush's second three.

Parker really began to work down on the block, sinking her third consecutive basket to pull within five and then Penn capped the opening period with Ashley Russell finding Grasela for an easy fastbreak layup. The Quakers stretched their 6-0 spurt into the second quarter when Tori Crawford drove hard down the baseline and banked home a crafty reverse layup to cut the deficit to just one.

Princeton punched back, though, and boosted its lead back to eight, at 24-16 with 6:18 left in the half, as Rush trailed the transition move and drilled her third three of the night, finishing off a 9-2 run and forcing a timeout from the Quakers.

Parker immediately scored for Penn out of the timeout, ripped down a contested board on the defensive end that led to Grasela threading a pass down the court to a streaking Princess Aghayere for a transition bucket, clawing Penn back within four, at 24-20. Phoebe Sterba moved that deficit to one when she knocked down a three from the wing with 4:09 to play, Penn's first trey of the night.

It felt as it the Tigers were going to return the favor with yet another run, but Grasela drew two defenders by pump faking a corner three and knifed towards the right elbow to sink her jumper. After a stop, Aghayere battled on the offensive glass and converted a free throw after drawing the foul.

Five consecutive Princeton points later, Grasela canned a corner three before Aghayere hit a jumper to end the half down 33-31.

Bella Alarie opened the half with eight consecutive points and, in total, Princeton tallied 10 before Russell bounced a pass into Aghayere to stop the bleeding. The same duo hooked up again and then Russell scored herself to pull within single digits again, at 45-37, midway through the third. Alarie moved it back to 10 for Princeton then Aghayere quickly answered with a basket plus the foul after mixing it up on the offensive glass yet again. She converted the old fashioned three-point play to make it 47-40 with under four left.

Penn continued to just hang around, nipping at the Tigers' heels whenever they began to creep away. The Quakers scored six of the third quarter's final eight points, inching back within four, at 50-46 with just the remaining 10 minutes to play.

Princeton delivered its knockout run in the fourth, though, and outscored the Quakers 15-5 through the first six minutes to balloon its lead, leveling the season series and matching Penn at 8-2 for first place.

WHAT'S NEXT?
The Quakers have their final weekend at home upcoming, hosting Harvard and Dartmouth at The Palestra.