PHILADELPHIA – Rounding out both the non-conference portion of the schedule and the 2024 calendar year, the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team heads out west to face Arizona State on Monday and NAIA opponent Benedictine Mesa Tuesday.
 
The Quakers are enjoying their best stretch of the season so far, winners of five consecutive games and holding the second-best record in the Ivy League (8-3) at this point in the year. Meanwhile, the Sun Devils are looking to get off the schneid having lost three games in a row. ASU can take solace in the fact that it is 3-1 on its home floor.
 
A historic matchup on Monday marks the first-ever Arizona State basketball game played inside Mullett Arena, built in 2022 for ASU ice hockey, gymnastics, volleyball, and wrestling, as well as the NBA G-League's Valley Suns.
 
On Tuesday, Penn will take on Benedictine Mesa for the first time as well. The Redhawks are 3-5 on the young season and have dropped three consecutive matchups.
 
GAME 12 – Penn (8-3, 0-0 Ivy) at Arizona State (5-7, 0-1 Big 12)
Monday, Dec. 30, 2024 | 3 p.m. EST
Mullett Arena | Tempe, Ariz.
Watch Live on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Tickets
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Arizona State Game Notes (PDF)
 
GAME 13 – Penn (8-3, 0-0 Ivy) at Benedictine Mesa (3-5, 0-0 GSAC)
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024 | 4 p.m. EST
BENU PEC | Mesa, Ariz.
Watch Live on GSAC Sports Network | Live Stats
Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Benedictine Mesa Game Notes (PDF)
 
The Series History
Monday marks the first-ever meeting between Penn and Arizona State.
 
However, it's the Quakers' 12th matchup in program history against a Big 12 opponent. Penn is 2-9 all-time against the conference and 2-8 against current Big 12 teams.
 
Penn has not beaten a Big 12 opponent since Dec. 29, 1991 against Kansas State at The Palestra. Before that, you'd have to go all the way back to Jan. 8, 1982 for the first win against UCF in Orlando. Back then, the Knights were a member of the Sunshine State Conference in NCAA Division II.
 
Five Straight W's
At five games in a row, Penn is in the midst of its longest win streak since an 11-game streak—the second-longest in program history—in 2022-23.
 
The wins include a tremendous victory over city rival La Salle in the opening game of the inaugural Women's Big 5 Classic and against 2024 NCAA Tournament teams in Chattanooga and CBU.
 
At the start of the streak, Penn scored its most points in a single game in program history (114) and had its largest margin of victory (75) in a 114-39 victory over Immaculata on Nov. 26 at the Palestra.
 
That's Tina's Territory
Emerging as a primary focus off the bench for the Quakers during this five-game winning streak, Tina Njike has shown her prowess since returning from a season-ending injury a year ago.
 
Njike leads all bench players in scoring at 5.2 points per game and is shooting the lights out at 75.0 percent, converting on 22 of her 28 field goal attempts.
 
She led Penn in a 72-45 victory over Delaware State on Friday, notching a career-high 14 points with four rebounds against the Hornets.
 
Phenomenal Philly Phreshmen
Penn has gotten a tremendous amount of success out of its freshman class in the early part of the season, as we get closer to the start of Ivy League play.
 
Sarah Miller had a breakout performance against La Salle in the Big 5 Classic at Villanova three Fridays ago, leading the Quakers with 21 points—18 scored in the first half—on five three-pointers in a win.
 
Her effort brought home Ivy League Rookie of the Week—her first and the program's fourth honor of the year—and she was also named USBWA National Freshman of the Week. In a win over Delaware State last week, Miller had 13 points on three triples.
 
Miller isn't the only Penn freshman to turn heads this season as Katie Collins has put together a special start as well. She's already been named Ivy Rookie of the Week three times, leading the conference.
 
Collins leads the Ancient Eight in blocked shots per game (2.1) and is fourth overall in rebounds (7.4).
 
While Miller and Collins have seen a bulk of the workload so far as starters, Ashna Tambe is right behind them averaging 13.8 minutes per game.
 
Welcome to the 250 Club!
Head Coach Mike McLaughlin became just the fifth coach in Ivy League history to record 250 career wins with a school after the Quakers took down the Explorers in the Big 5 Classic, 74-63.
 
McLaughlin continues to stretch out his lead as Penn's all-time wins leader, surpassing Lois Ashley's mark of 128 wins in 12 seasons with his 129th win at Dartmouth on March 3, 2017. The head man currently sits with a record of 251-165 at Penn.
 
In addition, McLaughlin earned the 650th win of his career last season against Harvard; that ranks him eighth among active Division I coaches.
 
Double Trouble
As the non-conference slate begins the wind down, we are seeing the two-headed tandem of Stina Almqvist and Mataya Gayle emerge, especially during this current five-game win streak.
 
Without a doubt, Almqvist has been the statistical leader of the Quakers so far this year. She's averaging 18.1 points per game, ranked second in the Ivy League and her 8.2 rebounds per game average is good enough for third. In back-to-back games against La Salle and Cal Baptist, Almqvist has recorded a double-double.
 
She's reached double figures in 18 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season, the longest such streak since Eleah Parker scored 10+ points in 26 straight games from Nov. 24-March 22, 2019.
 
Gayle has seen some success, too, as of late. She flirted with a triple-double against La Salle with 11 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds, and while not providing much of a threat in the points column against Delaware State, she still led the Quakers in assists with five, along with six boards. Her 4.3 assists per game average rank third in the Ivy League and she's had eight-or-more helpers twice including her career-high nine vs. the Explorers. Gayle is also tied for the lead in the Ancient Eight in assist/turnover ratio (2.1).
 
Last Time Out
Penn used a game-defining second-quarter performance to out-play Delaware State and earn its fifth straight victory, 72-45, on Dec. 20 at The Palestra.
 
The Quakers outscored the Hornets, 22-5, in the second stanza and held the team without a field goal for the entirety of the period (0-for-13).
 
Three Penn players scored double figures, led by a standout effort from sophomore Njike, who registered a career-high 14 points with four rebounds.
 
Miller added 13 points, while Almqvist had 11 to extend her double-digit points streak to 18 consecutive games.
 
Collins stuck to her status quo by stuffing the stat sheet with eight points, seven rebounds, four assists, and two blocks. Gayle finished with a team-high five assists and six rebounds.
 
As a team, the Quakers shot 42.2 percent (27-for-64) from the field and 80 percent (12-for-15) from the free-throw line. Penn's bench outscored DSU's, 30-13, and the team scored 42 points off 25 Hornet turnovers.
 
Scouting The Sun Devils
Arizona State has struggled so far to begin the 2024-25 campaign, going 5-7 with just one non-conference game remaining before its Big 12 play the rest of the way.
 
ASU dropped its first-ever Big 12 game on Dec. 21 against Utah, 102-82. The Sun Devils are currently on a three-game losing streak following losses to the Utes, San Francisco (67-64), and UC Davis (57-50), all on the road.
 
Four players are averaging double figures in points, led by Tyi Skinner (17.8 ppg), and followed by Jalyn Brown (16.8), Nevaeh Parkinson (10.1), and Jyah LoVett (10.1).
 
Scouting the Redhawks
Benedictine Mesa heads into its matchup with Penn on Tuesday with a 3-5 overall record, having lost three straight games as well. The Redhawks dropped all three matchups Dec. 18-20 in the Cactus Classic at Chandler-Gilbert Community College.
 
BENU's last win came against Lethbridge College on Dec. 16, a 77-58 victory.
 
Alize Ruiz leads the Redhawks in scoring at 20.0 points per game in eight matchups. She is shooting 42.0 percent from the field. In addition, she is the team leader in rebounds by far at 15.5 per game.
 
Preseason Prognostications
Things are certainly looking up for the Quakers as the 2024-25 season got underway in early November. Penn was picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League's preseason poll, earning 75 voting points by a panel of 16 media members.
 
Penn returns a pair of key starters from last year in senior Almqvist (second-team All-Ivy) and sophomore Gayle (Ivy Rookie of the Year).
 
Almqvist and Lizzy Groetsch were named the Quakers' captains for the season.
 
Another Year of Madness
Penn completed another successful season in 2023-24 after qualifying for Ivy Madness for the fifth time in six seasons, narrowly falling to top-seeded and eventual champion Princeton, 59-54, in the semifinals.
 
Gayle dropped a team-high 20 points against the Tigers and was subsequently named a member of the Ivy League's All-Tournament team.
 
The Quakers went 15-13 overall and 7-7 in Ancient Eight play by season's end. In addition, Penn finished Big 5 play with a 1-3 record and a fourth-place finish.
 
Fresh Faces
Six student-athletes make up Penn Women's Basketball's Class of 2028 including four guards and two forwards.
 
Guards include Ashna Tambe, Sarah Miller, Brooke Suttle, and Reagan Jamison.
 
The Quakers have two new forwards in Collins and Gabriella Kelley.
 
Tambe (The Hockaday School), Kelley (SF University HS), and Suttle (Campbell) scored over 1,000 points in their high school careers with Tambe leaving as the program's all-time leading scorer (with over 1,600 points).
 
20-Win Seasons
Penn is the only team in the Ivy League to surpass the 20-win plateau in seven-straight years under Coach McLaughlin after concluding the 2019-20 campaign. With no play in the Ivy League in 2020-21 due to the pandemic, the 2021-22 season was the first under-.500 season for the Quakers since the 2011-12 season when Penn went 13-15 (Coach McLaughlin's third season at the helm) but bounced back last year with a 17-12 tally.
 
Winning Streaks
Prior to McLaughlin, Penn had just one winning streak of more than seven games in its entire history (21). However, in the last six seasons, the Quakers have had nine such winning streaks, including an 11-game win streak that the Quakers were on last season until falling at Princeton (55-40) on January 16. It marked the second-longest stretch in program history only to the 21 from 2000-01.
 
Additionally, two seasons ago, the Quakers sported 12 straight wins in The Palestra from December 2022 to mid-February 2023, a program record that eclipsed the 10 set back in the 21-game stretch.
 
Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 157 of its last 171 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 167-18 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 50-136 (.288) when they've scored less than 60 points under McLaughlin. The trend continues defensively. Over the last 11 seasons, the Red and Blue are 52-100 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more. But when holding opponents under that number, the Quakers hold a healthy winning record of 190-36 (.836).
 
For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.