PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team put on a dominant showing in the second half, out-scoring Siena 21-7 in the fourth quarter en route to a 78-47 victory Wednesday evening at The Palestra.
The Quakers improve to 3-0 overall, their best start to a season since 2021-22 and 2019-20 against Division I opponents, while the Saints fall to 0-3.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn claimed the sixth meeting against Siena, improving to 5-1 all-time. It's the Quakers' fourth straight win over the Saints since Dec. 29, 2001.
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Stina Almqvist had herself a tremendous performance, scoring a career-high 27 points with nine rebounds and five assists. She converted eight of her 10 free-throw attempts.
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Abby Sharpe did get her career high in points, however, scoring 16 on near-perfect shooting (7-for-8) while converting two of her three three-point attempts.
*Reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week
Katie Collins registered the first double-double of her career, scoring 13 points with 11 rebounds. She got into a bit of foul trouble with four fouls and played 32 minutes.
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Mataya Gayle scored just eight points, but dished out a game-high eight assists with four boards in just 24 minutes of game time.
*Sharpe led the second unit with 16 points, while
Saniah Caldwell (4),
Ashna Tambe (4),
Tina Njike (2), and
Helena Lasic (2) helped the Quakers tally 28 bench points, outscoring Siena 28-10 in that category.
*Penn nearly shot 50 percent from the floor, going 32-for-65 (49.2 percent) while converting nine of its 12 foul shots.
*The Quakers' defense held the Saints to 37.7 percent (20-for-53) shooting overall and 33.3 percent (4-for-12) from beyond-the-arc.
*Siena was just 3-for-7 (42.9 percent) from the charity stripe.
*46 of Penn's 78 points were in the paint, adding 16 second-chance points, 16 fast break points and 27 points off Siena's 24 turnovers.
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Helena Lasic and
Georgia Heine made their first appearances of the season while freshmen
Brooke Suttle,
Reagan Jamison, and
Gabriella Kelley made their collegiate debuts.
*Siena was led by a 17-point performance from Anajah Brown, adding five rebounds and two assists.
How It Happened
Penn struck first and struggled shooting from the field from the start, yet led Siena by five at 12-7 at the under-5 media timeout. The Quakers had a run of 6-0 going in just a minute's time. Siena went on a 6-2 run in the final two minutes of the frame to lead by one, 17-16 at the first break.
The Quakers got their offense going a little more to begin the second quarter as
Stina Almqvist and
Katie Collins scored the team's first two three-pointers of the evening to lead 22-17 with 6:45 to go. Siena spent a 30-second timeout and it became the full media timeout.
Penn found a rhythm to end the second stanza, going on a 14-2 push over the last three minutes to take a 40-27 lead into the locker room. Almqvist finished the half with a season-high 18 points on 70 percent shooting, while Collins added an additional 12 points with nine rebounds.
Siena scored the first two baskets of the second half before Gayle hit a jumper with 8:21 remaining to up the lead back to 11 points at 42-31. A 7-3 run over the next two minutes put the Quakers ahead by 15, 49-34, capped by
Saniah Caldwell's layup. Penn scored eight of the next 11 points to take a 57-40 edge heading into the final stanza.
Abby Sharpe got Penn going to begin the fourth with a jumper in the paint then Gayle scored on the fast break to extend the advantage to 21 points at 61-40 with 9:14 remaining.
A 17-2 run ballooned the Quakers lead to a daunting 34 points at 78-44 with 4:16 to go when
Helena Lasic got her name on the box score with a jumper and then the Saints halted the run with a trey from Aniya Hooker with 2:42 left. Both teams went scoreless the rest of the way as Penn came away with the win.
Up Next
The road to the inaugural Women's Big 5 Classic at Villanova begins Friday as the Quakers open pod play with an afternoon matchup against Saint Joseph's at The Palestra. The first half of a doubleheader with the men begins at 4:30 p.m., airing regionally on NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus and broadcasted live on ESPN+.
For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.
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