PHILADELPHIA – Playing its final non-conference game on the 2022-23 schedule, the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team rolled past the University of Hartford on Tuesday night at The Palestra, 76-30.
 
Penn got scoring from 14 different players and extended its win streak to 10 games—nine of them coming at The Palestra—and improved to 11-5 overall. Hartford remains winless this season at 0-16.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn shot 50.9 percent from the floor, just the second time this year shooting over 50 percent.
 
*Freshman Simone Sawyer led all Penn scorers with 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting, with nine points coming from beyond the arc.
 
*Senior captain Kayla Padilla also had double digits, totaling 10 points to go with four rebounds and two steals in just 16 minutes of work.
 
*Senior captain Mandy McGurk commanded the court with a game-high six assists.
 
*The bench contributed 45 points in the game, led by senior Silke Milliman and junior Michaela Stanfield with eight each.
 
*Defensively, the Quakers held the Hawks to 30 points, the lowest opponent point total this season. They only allowed 13 field goals, holding Hartford to 23.6 percent shooting and 4.5 percent from beyond the arc (1-for-22).

*Penn extends its home win streak to nine games, one shy of tying the program record. 
 
How It Happened
Padilla got Penn on the board to start the game, a bucket that was matched by the Hawks' Tatum Forbes. That would end up being the only points scored by Hartford in the period, however, and Penn took full advantage. The Quakers scored 21 points in a row and held a 23-2 lead after one, then extended the run and the lead to 24 when Saniah Caldwell drained a three-pointer to start the second quarter.
 
Seven different Penn players scored in that opening period as head coach Mike McLaughlin went liberally to his bench early.
 

1Q 4:30 | Penn 10, Hartford 2

Midway through the first frame and the Quakers ahead by eight over the Hawks, led by six points from Simone Sawyer off an and-one and a three!#FightOnPenn pic.twitter.com/VnCsPCoyh2

— Penn WBB (@PennWBB) January 11, 2023

 
Hartford's offense picked up in the second stanza, the Hawks scoring 12 points. However, the Quakers once again put up 23 and the score was 46-14 as the teams went to the locker rooms for halftime.
 
Padilla opened the second-half scoring with a three-pointer, her second of the night and the 170th of her career which put her in a tie for third on the program's all-time list with Colleen Kelly (1994-98). She and most of the other regulars came out shortly after that, but the Quakers' bench players used their opportunity to keep the momentum going. The score was 62-20 after three quarters.
 

And with her second three-pointer of the night, Kayla Padilla has now entered the top three in program history in three-pointers!

She now has 170 for her career (just 2.5 years), tied with Colleen Kelly from 1994-98. The hunt for second is on where Phoebe Sterba sits with 186! pic.twitter.com/7sF20dtaQi

— Penn WBB (@PennWBB) January 11, 2023

 
Hartford played hard right to the end, as the fourth quarter was a tight affair with Penn outscoring the Hawks, 14-10.
 
Up Next
Penn concludes its 10-game homestand on Saturday when it hosts Dartmouth at 2 p.m. The Quakers are then at Princeton on MLK Day Monday, tipping off with the Tigers at 2 p.m.