VILLANOVA, Pa. – A fourth-quarter push had the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team in a close Big 5 battle at Villanova on Tuesday night, but the Wildcats held onto their narrow advantage to take the 68-62 decision.
 
The Quakers move to 5-4 for the season, while the Wildcats improve to 6-2.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Senior captain Jordan Obi led all scorers with 20 points (9-for-15) and posted her first double-double of the season with a team-high 10 rebounds. It marks the second time this season with at least 20 points and her fourth straight game with more than 17 points, now averaging 14.4 points per game. She added a team-best two steals and three assists.
 
*Freshman Mataya Gayle knocked in 17 points for the game, all in the first half, shooting 7-for-18 from the floor. In her first collegiate season, she has started in all nine games, scoring in double figures six of them. It's her fourth straight game in double figures.
 
*Junior Stina Almqvist chipped in 14 points, including a perfect 4-for-4 at the line, while adding a game-high five assists, three rebounds, and two blocks. She was a big part of the fourth-quarter run, scoring six points on 3-for-4 shooting.
 
*Freshman Ese Ogbevire stepped up at the point position in the second half, going 4-for-4 from the floor for eight points.
 
*Off the bench, senior captain Floor Toonders posted the most minutes of the season to this point with 32, pulling in seven rebounds and sending out a game-high six assists. The six helpers tied her career high set last season at Dartmouth.
 
*The Quakers put together a better shooting percentage for the evening than the Wildcats, hitting 48.1 percent compared to Nova's 36.9 percent.
 
*Of the 62 points, 36 were in the paint and eight were on the fast break.
 
How It Happened
The Wildcats built up a quick 5-0 start to the game, and eventually pushed to a double-digit advantage by the midway mark. However, Penn chipped away at the deficit and cut it to four, 16-12, with two minutes left in the first thanks to a Simone Sawyer three-pointer and a Gayle fast-break layup.
 
Gayle continued her 17-point first-half tear in the second frame, scoring the Quakers' first 14 of the 16 points in the quarter to keep Penn within striking distance. At several points, Penn was just two points back, but Villanova carried a 37-30 lead into the locker room.
 
A 9-0 stretch on the restart for the Wildcats pushed them to their largest lead of the game of 16 by the 6:23 mark, but a big fourth quarter was ahead for the Quakers.
 
Penn outscored Villanova, 19-13, in the final 10 minutes, using several runs including a seven-point stretch all scored by Obi to close the gap to seven. Almqvist put together a stretch of her own, scoring three-straight buckets for Penn to give the Quakers momentum and just a four-point deficit, 60-56 with 3:38 remaining.
 
A pair of buckets by Ogbevire and a slice through the defense by Obi for a layup with 33 seconds left got the Quakers within three, but the Wildcats went 3-for-4 at the line to closeout the game.
 
Up Next
The Quakers are halfway through their four-game road trip with their next stop in Andover, Massachusetts. They'll take on Merrimack on Friday night at 7 p.m., the first matchup in program history.