FORT MYERS, Fla. – Two giant runs in the first and fourth quarters paid dividends as the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team completed the 2-0 weekend at FGCU's Homewood Suites Classic with a 64-51 win over Cal Baptist Saturday afternoon at Alico Arena.
The Quakers have their second three-game win streak of the season, improving to 6-3, while the Lancers remain winless at 0-8.
Stina Almqvist had a dagger three-pointer late in the final period and finished with a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double to lead the Penn offense and head back to Philadelphia on a high note.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn has won three games in a row for the second time this season. It's the first time since 2022-23 the Quakers have two win streaks of three games or more and the 10th time in the last 11 seasons dating back to 2012-13.
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Stina Almqvist led the Quakers with 20 points and 11 rebounds for her first double-double of the season and sixth of her career tying her with Kennedy Suttle '22 for 25th all-time.
*Almqvist scored 10 of her 20 points in the second half and had a team-high three made three-pointers. She also had six assists.
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Mataya Gayle followed up a tremendous performance on Friday with another on Saturday, scoring 14 points with three helpers.
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Saniah Caldwell was a team-best +25 on the afternoon with six points, six boards, and three assists.
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Tina Njike was important off the bench for the Quakers with seven points and seven rebounds—with three offensive boards—and was a perfect 3-for-3 from the field.
*Penn shot just 34.9 percent (22-for-63) from the field throughout the contest, but shot 57.1 percent (8-for-14) in the fourth quarter alone.
How It Happened
The Lancers won the tipoff and scored the game's first basket to get an early 2-0 lead. Bosch Duran drilled a triple to make it a 5-0 contest, but
Stina Almqvist almost immediately answered back with a three-pointer of her own to put the Quakers on the board.
Picking up where she left off from Friday afternoon,
Mataya Gayle sunk a step-back trey to put Penn up 6-5 with 7:38 left in the first quarter.
Upping the run to 9-0 over two minutes and change,
Tina Njike found nylon and the foul on a layup to extend the lead to 9-5. The run ballooned to 13-0 as Penn had a 13-5 advantage at the U-5 media timeout.
Almqvist recorded her third bucket of the afternoon out of the timeout, when CBU broke the run with a free throw. Njike made the run 17-1 over five minutes when she got the jumper to fall from the Gayle assist.
A three-pointer off the glass for
Saniah Caldwell capped a 19-6 run as Penn took a 22-11 lead into the second stanza.
It seemed like a different ballgame once the second quarter started as Cal Baptist out-scored the Quakers, 17-7, in the stanza and held them to just 2-of-13 (15.4 percent) shooting from the field. Both of the field goals were three-pointers—one from Caldwell, the other from
Katie Collins—shooting a 25 percent clip.
CBU had trimmed the Penn lead all the way down to 29-28 heading into the locker room at halftime.
The first two minutes of the second half were pretty much a stalemate between the two teams, Gayle breaking it with a three-pointer to put Penn ahead, 32-30.
The Lancers took their first lead of the game since the start of the first quarter when converting on a layup with 1:16 remaining and taking a 38-36 edge into the final stanza.
Two free throws from Almqvist to begin the fourth quarter tied game back up at 38-all. Penn had a couple big shots in the ensuing possessions to maintain an edge—a three-pointer from Sawyer, a layup for Gayle and then a triple for Almqvist—as the Quakers led 51-47 with 5:46 remaining in regulation.
CBU tied the game back up at 51-51 with 4:45 to play, but then two crucial possessions for the Quakers made it a six-point game after Gayle drilled a three and Almqvist energized the bench with a step-back triple with 2:43 to play.
Penn ended the contest on a 13-0 run, going from a tie game midway through the final period to a 13-point win as the Red and Blue came away with a 64-51 victory.
Up Next
Penn gets a little bit of rest heading into the new week, preparing for Friday's inaugural Women's Big 5 Classic at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion. The matchup and time are to be determined following the result of Temple-La Salle on Sunday afternoon.
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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