PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team kept it close, but ultimately fell to Saint Joseph's, 68-57, Friday evening at The Palestra in the Big 5 opener.
Penn suffers its first loss of the year, dropping to 3-1 on the young season. SJU improves to 3-0 and is now 1-0 atop Pod 2 in the new Big 5 format.
Quaker Notemeal
*It was the fourth straight win for St. Joe's in the all-time series dating back to 2019.
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Stina Almqvist recorded her second 20-point performance of the week, finishing the night with a team-high 21 points (9-for-19) and nine rebounds, adding three assists.
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Mataya Gayle scored all 13 points in the second half, tallying two rebounds and two assists.
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Katie Collins logged all 40 minutes, scoring eight points with five boards. She also had two blocks.
*Penn scored 15 of its 57 points off the bench, outscoring the Hawks 15-6 in that category.
Sarah Miller (6 points) and
Ashna Tambe (5) led the second unit.
*The Quakers had seven total blocks, two each from Collins, Almqvist, and Tambe.
*Penn shot 40 percent (22-for-55) from the floor, as opposed to SJU's 37.7 percent (23-for-61). The Quakers also converted 80 percent (8-for-10) of their shots from the free-throw line.
*The Hawks never trailed, having the lead for the entirety of the contest.
*SJU's Talya Brugler had a game-high tying 21 points (with Almqvist), notching a double-double with 11 rebounds. Laura Ziegler also picked up a double-double with 16 points and 12 boards.
How It Happened
The Hawks scored the game's first five points—all by way of Mackenzie Smith—and led 12-4 with 6:27 remaining in the first quarter. Back-to-back triples from
Katie Collins had the Quakers within two points before Smith answered back with a three of her own.
Saint Joseph's took an eight-point lead with 50 seconds left on two free throws for Laura Ziegler and led 22-16 heading into the first break.
Talya Brugler scored the Hawks' first points of the second period to re-take an eight-point cushion up 24-16 and then notched another bucket to extend the lead to 10 at 26-16 with 7:30 left.
Penn went on a 7-2 run capped by
Sarah Miller's three-pointer with 5:46 remaining to trim the lead back to five points at 28-23. SJU led by as many as 12 points with 3:17 to play and had a 39-29 lead at halftime.
Mataya Gayle answered SJU's opening bucket of the second half with a jumper of her own—recording her first points in the process—to get the Quakers back within 10 at 41-31.
Penn only got back within single digits on two occasions during the third stanza, as
Stina Almqvist's three-point play off a foul and a basket trimmed St. Joseph's lead to nine at 52-43 to conclude the quarter.
Miller notched a triple with 9:17 to play to make it a six-point game again, but that's when SJU went on another push, putting together an 11-0 run to gain some separation up 63-46 with 4:48 on the clock.
Gayle scored six straight points—on a layup, foul shot, and three-pointer—to get the Quakers back within 11 points at 63-52 with 3:48 remaining. SJU took a 16-point edge with 2:48 left, as it was only Penn on the scoreboard the rest of the way, settling for a 68-57 final.
Up Next
Penn continues Big 5 pod play on the Main Line, heading to Villanova's Finneran Pavilion Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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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