ITHACA, N.Y. – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team never trailed but survived a late frenzy from Cornell to come away with a 57-51 victory Saturday afternoon at Newman Arena.
Stina Almqvist and
Katie Collins both registered double-doubles, while
Mataya Gayle added 17 points as the Quakers earned their first Ivy League victory of the 2024-25 campaign and improved to 10-6 overall. Meanwhile, the Big Red fell to 0-3 to begin conference action and now have an overall mark of 4-12.
Quaker Notemeal
*Penn earned its 15th consecutive win over Cornell in the all-time series, tied with 1974-1986 for the longest win streak against the opponent.
*Two Quakers—
Stina Almqvist and
Katie Collins—notched double-doubles in the same game for the second time this season. Almqvist finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in 40 minutes, while Collins had 10 points and 10 boards to go with three assists, two blocks, and a steal.
*
Mataya Gayle put together a tremendous second half, where she scored nine of her team-high tying 17 points, adding three steals.
*
Simone Sawyer had a great day distributing the ball with a team-high four assists.
*Penn shot 38.0 percent (19-for-50) overall from the field and limited Cornell to just 33.9 percent (20-for-59) shooting.
*The Quakers finished with nine three-pointers, the team's most since sinking 11 triples in a win over Cal Baptist on Nov. 30, 2024.
*Penn led Cornell in second-chance points, 10-5.
How It Happened
Penn won the opening tipoff and immediately scored the first points of the game courtesy of
Mataya Gayle.
Saniah Caldwell drilled a couple early three-pointers as the Quakers opened the contest on a 13-5 run following the first called timeout of the game at the 5:12 mark.
Cornell seemed to reset after that timeout, scoring five unanswered points to trim the deficit to 13-10 at the end of the first quarter.
Stina Almqvist got the Quakers some separation to begin the second period, taking the ball herself for a three-pointer from the top of the key and then a layup underneath to extend the Penn lead to 18-13.
The Quakers led the Big Red, 20-16 at the under-5 media timeout.
Free throws were important for Penn in the closing stages of the second quarter, scoring four points on foul shots, while Gayle sank second triple of the day to give the Quakers a 29-21 lead at the half.
Penn got the third quarter started with a three-point scoring frenzy, getting treys from both Gayle and Almqvist to cause the Big Red to spend an early timeout trailing 36-23.
With 5:12 remaining in the third, a Clarke Jackson layup had Cornell back within eight as
Mike McLaughlin took a timeout and Penn looking for its first basket in over two minutes of game time.
Sarah Miller ended up sinking her first three of the day to get the Penn lead up to 11 points, but the Big Red ended the period on a 10-5 run to get the score to 43-37 heading into the fourth quarter.
After Gayle scored twice in a 30-second span to give the Red and Blue a 10-point cushion midway through the final stanza, the Big Red began to chip away at the deficit, scoring eight straight points coming out of the U5 media timeout to trim the Penn lead to two points at 53-51.
The Quakers converted four free-throw attempts in the final minute of play to come away with a 57-51 victory.
Up Next
It's a quick turnaround for the Quakers, heading back to Philadelphia to host Harvard at The Palestra. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. and will be aired regionally on NBC Sports Philadelphia+, streamed 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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