PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team put together a strong second half to take down Merrimack, 64-52, Friday afternoon at The Palestra.
The Quakers open their 2024-25 season with a win, starting the year 1-0 while the Warriors fall to 0-2.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn wins its season opener for the sixth year in a row, improving to 9-6 in the
Mike McLaughlin coaching era.
*The 2023-24 Ivy League Rookie of the Year
Mataya Gayle picked up where she left off, scoring a team-high 17 points on 50 percent shooting (7-for-14), adding four rebounds and four steals.
*Freshman
Katie Collins greatly impressed in her collegiate debut, flirting with a triple double and scored nine points with 10 boards and added six blocks while playing a team-high 38 minutes.
*
Stina Almqvist joined Gayle in double figures with 15 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
*
Simone Sawyer dished out a team-high four assists, chipping in seven points.
*Penn's bench out-scored Merrimack, 13-2, as
Saniah Caldwell scored nine points on the second unit. She drilled both of her three-point attempts.
*The Quakers shot 41.8 percent (23-for-55) from the field, holding the Warriors to 34.4 percent (22-for-64) and 20 percent (4-for-20) from deep.
*The Red and Blue scored 16 points off 21 Merrimack turnovers.
*Penn's margin of victory (12) proved to be its largest lead of the game, while putting together a 10-0 scoring run in the closing stages of the second quarter.
*There were three lead changes, six ties, and Penn held the lead for 30:57.
How It Happened
Penn won the opening tip, but Merrimack got the first basket on a layup following a flurry of offensive rebounds. Freshman
Katie Collins made her presence felt almost immediately, scoring her first bucket to tie the game at 2-2 and then picking up her first collegiate block on the other end.
Both teams traded buckets over the next five minutes, as
Stina Almqvist put together a nice stretch, scoring six of the Quakers' eight points along with a trio of offensive rebounds, trailing 10-8 at the U5 media timeout with 4:33 to go.
Coming out of the timeout, Penn's defense clamped down on Merrimack's offense, holding them without a score for the next three minutes.
Simone Sawyer increased the Quakers' lead to two at 12-10 after she was fouled on a layup, going to the line for an extra and converting.
Merrimack began the second quarter with a jumper that tied the game back up at 12-12, but
Mataya Gayle answered right back with a shot of her own, the first points of the afternoon for the sophomore. With 7:15 to play,
Saniah Caldwell drilled a triple to balloon the Quakers' lead to five at 17-12.
That edge quickly evaporated, however, as the Warriors scored a layup off a Penn turnover to trim the deficit to three points, causing
Mike McLaughlin to spend a 30-second timeout. Out of the break, Mia Fiore sank a triple to tie the game back up at 17 with 5:29 to go.
Under five minutes to play in the half, Merrimack went back in front on a pull-up jumper from Fiore, but 13 seconds later, Gayle converted a trey to go back up by one, 20-19.
Penn ended the first 20 minutes on a 7-2 run, led by two buckets for Collins and another from Gayle to lead 27-21 into the locker room.
Madison Roman scored a layup to open the second half for Merrimack, trimming Penn's lead to four with 9:34 to go, but it was Gayle again just mere 20 seconds after who responded with a layup.
Merrimack scored seven of the next 10 points to get back within two points at 32-30 when Thalia Shepard made a driving layup on the fast break off a Penn turnover with 7:41 remaining. The two teams battled back and forth, keeping it close with under four minutes to go before free throws from
Abby Sharpe, Sawyer, and then Almqvist made it a seven-point Penn lead with 56 seconds left on the clock. Sawyer and Caldwell both converted on layups in the final 27 seconds to give the Quakers a 48-40 advantage going into the fourth stanza.
Several turnovers and missed shot opportunities marred the opening three minutes of the fourth quarter, with the Penn lead remaining at eight.
Caldwell broke the stalemate, netting a three-point jumper with 7:41 to go, increasing Penn's lead to 11 at 51-40. Gayle's triple with 5:04 left gave the Quakers their largest lead of the game at 12 before Merrimack cut it back to single digits at nine with 4:06 on the clock. The Warriors were able to get the deficit down to as few as six points, but the Quakers used free throws late to come away with a 64-52 victory.
Up Next
Penn heads north to Maine for an 11:30 a.m. contest Sunday in Orono. The game will be streamed live on AmericaEast.TV.
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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