RICHMOND, Va. – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team tips off the 2023 Women's NIT on Thursday night, taking on Richmond in Virginia at the Robins Center.
 
GAME 29: PENN (17-11) at RICHMOND (20-10)
Thursday, March 16, 2023 | 6:00 PM
Richmond, Va. | Robins Center
Watch (ESPN3) | Live Stats | History | Penn Game Notes | Richmond Game Notes
 
A Look At The WNIT Field
The 2023 field features 32 automatic qualifiers, which are teams that are the next-highest finishers in their conference's regular season that were not tabbed for the NCAA Tournament. The other 32 teams are at-large selections, chosen after consideration of a mix of criteria by WNIT officials. Last year's Postseason WNIT champion, South Dakota State, was 28-5 this season, going 18-0 in the Summit Conference.
 
The Quakers are joined by Harvard and Columbia from the Ivy League, as the bracket consists of 64 teams in the 25th edition of the WNIT. The tournament schedule will go as follows:

• Round 1: March 16-17
• Round 2: March 18-21
• Round 3: March 22-24
• Quarterfinals: March 25-27
• Semifinals: March 28-29
• Championship: April 1 at 5:30 p.m. ET (broadcast by CBS Sports Network) 
   

All games are played at individual schools. For the full WNIT release and bracket, click HERE.
 
The Series With Richmond
The Quakers are meeting the Spiders for the ninth time in program history, as Richmond holds the 6-2 edge in the series. However, Penn has won the last two outings in 2016-17 (47-44) and 2014-15 (49-47), and the six losses came back in the 80s and early 90s. In Richmond, the Quakers are 1-3 against the Spiders, winning their first matchup on their court in the past matchup in 2016-17. This is the first time the teams have squared off in the postseason.
 
Last Time We Met
The two teams battled down at Richmond on December 12, 2016, as the Quakers earned a tight 47-44 victory. Michelle Nwokedi had a last-second block to neutralize Richmond's comeback attempt, securing a career-high 20 rebounds to go with 21 points. Sydney Stipanovich added 15 points, eight rebounds, five assists, and two blocks.
 
About The Spiders
Richmond enters the game with a 20-10 record, 8-6 in the A-10 after advancing to the conference tournament semifinals where they fell to top-seeded UMass, 80-60. This is the Spiders' 10th trip to the WNIT with the last time being in 2015. They fell in the second round to Stetson, 67-66. They have an 8-10 all-time record in the WNIT. Richmond is 6-5 this season when playing in the Robins Center. The Spiders rank fourth in the A-10 in scoring offense with 69 points per game, while sitting third in scoring defense with 61.5 points allowed. Grace Townsend ranks fifth in the conference in assists with 4.7 per game. Addie Budnik ranks third in the league in blocked shots with 1.8 per game.  Siobhan Ryan ranks second in the A-10 in three-point field-goal percentage at .397.
 
Moving Up The List
Kayla Padilla has steadily moved up the all-time scoring list in Penn history, currently sitting with 1,334 points through 75 games for seventh in the record book. A few weekends ago, she totaled 23 points at Dartmouth, her fifth straight 20-plus point performance, to move her past Dionne Anthon (1988-92) into seventh. To get to sixth, she'll need to catch 2016 Ivy League Player of the Year and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Sydney Stipanovich (2013-17) who finished her career with 1,386 points.
 
Three-Point Record Trifecta
Last season, she became the single-game three-point leader with nine threes against Memphis.
 
With a five three-point effort at Brown a few weeks ago, Padilla became the program's career three-point leader with 200. She bypassed Karen Habrukowich (2001-05) with 196 on her second bucket against the Bears. With three games since then, her career total sits at 208.
 
Last game in the Ivy Madness semifinal against Princeton, she brought her season total to 79 she finished the trifecta to become the single-season leader, erasing Mandy West's 77 three-point season in 1999-00.
 
She is one of just two players in all of Division I that currently averages at least 17.5 points, 2.8 three-pointers, and 3.5 assists per game. The only other player is Iowa's Caitlin Clark at 27 points, 3.4 three-pointers, and 8.3 assists per game.
 
Defense Wins Ball Games
The Quakers currently sport the second-best scoring defense in the Ivy League, only allowing 58.8 points per game to opponents. The only team better is Princeton at 52.5, while the other six teams allow more than 61. Penn ranks second in the league in rebounds at 37.8 per game (1,057 total), behind Columbia at 43.2. The Quakers have two players ranked in the top five in the league in rebound: Obi (7.6) and Floor Toonders (7.5). Toonders also leads the conference in blocks with 31 for the season, while McGurk ranks 10th in steals with 48.
 
Adding More Accolades To Their Careers
Last week, the Ivy League announced the 2022-23 All-Ivy honors for women's basketball, as Padilla and Obi each earned spots on the team. For the third straight year, Padilla was named to first team, this time as a unanimous selection, while Obi earned her second straight appearance on second team. Following Ivy Madness, Padilla was also named to the All-Tournament team.