PHILADELPHIA – Does it get much better than Big 5 basketball at The Palestra? The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team closes out its pod play schedule on Monday night by hosting Saint Joseph's. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.
 
Both the Quakers and Hawks enter Monday night with identical 4-1 records, as Penn searches for its best start to a season since 2019-20. SJU is coming off a dominant 66-48 road victory at Columbia on Thursday.
 
GAME 6 – PENN (4-1, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. SAINT JOSEPH'S (4-1, 0-0 A10)
Presented by PECO
Monday, Nov. 24, 2025 | 6 p.m.
The Palestra | Philadelphia, Pa.
Watch on ESPN+, NBC Sports Philadelphia Plus ($) | Live Stats | Tickets | 
Digital Game Program | Penn Game Notes (PDF) | Saint Joseph's Game Notes
 
Big 5 Pod Play Continues
This will be Penn's second-and-final Big 5 pod game to determine matchups for the second-annual Women's Big 5 Classic on Dec. 7 at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion.
 
The Quakers dropped their Big 5 opener on Nov. 12 at nearby Drexel, 72-55. The Dragons pulled away early on a 17-1 second-quarter run, keeping Penn away despite a fourth-quarter rally. Mataya Gayle scored a team-high 13 points with seven assists in the defeat.
 
Monday marks Saint Joseph's Big 5 pod play opener. Last season, the Hawks beat Penn (68-57) and lost to Villanova (81-65) before defeating Drexel, 69-47, at the inaugural Big 5 Classic to take third place.
 
The Saint Joseph's Series
Monday will be a milestone meeting, the 50th matchup all-time between Penn and Saint Joseph's.
 
The Hawks have dominated the all-time ledger, leading 44-5 since the first meeting back in the 1973-74 season.
 
SJU has won four straight since Dec. 7, 2021 while the Quakers are looking for their first win in the series since Nov. 20, 2019, a 55-45 win on Hawk Hill. The year prior, Penn took down St. Joe's at The Palestra, 65-45.
 
Five Games Down
It's very early, but Penn currently holds down first place in the Ivy League standings with a 4-1 overall record.
 
The Quakers are 4-1 through their first five games for the first time since the 2021-22 season. A win over the Hawks would help Penn achieve a 5-1 start to the season for the first time since the 2019-20 campaign. That season, the Red and Blue began the year with a 10-1 record.
 
Penn's tandem of forwards—Katie Collins (10.6 ppg) and Tina Njike (10.0)—are both averaging double figures in points. Njike is leading the way by averaging 7.6 rebounds, while Collins is at 6.8. Gayle's 4.3 assists per game is also a team-high.
 
This Wasn't Sparta
Penn picked up a very solid 55-50 victory over Norfolk State the last time out at The Palestra on Tuesday evening.
 
The Spartans entered the matchup with a 2-3 overall record, but all three losses came against nationally-ranked teams including #12 Ole Miss (87-64), #15 Duke (83-32), and #16 Iowa State (98-52). NSU played in the NCAA Tournament last season, playing as a No. 13 seed after going 30-5 overall, a perfect 14-0 in MEAC play, and running the table to win the MEAC Tournament crown.
 
The Quakers never led by more than seven points during the contest, but a strong defensive effort and balanced offensive performances from Njike (12 pts, 6 rebs, 2 blk) and Simone Sawyer (11 pts, 8 rebs) led the way for a tight victory.
 
Scouting The Hawks
Like Penn, Saint Joseph's also enters tonight's matchup with a 4-1 overall record and is coming off an impressive 66-48 road victory against Columbia on Thursday morning. The Hawks own wins over Cincinnati and Maine so far this year, their only loss coming at home against Penn State.
 
Gabby Casey leads SJU in scoring at 16.6 points per game. Her 7.2 rebounds per game average is also a team high. Aleah Snead is averaging 12.2 points over her five games played, while posting a team-best 3.4 assists per game.
 
The all-time wins leader in Saint Joseph's history, Cindy Griffin enters her 25th season as head coach in 2025-26. She's compiled a 470-354 record in 27 seasons as a head coach, including 422-321 over 24 years on Hawk Hill.
 
Despite tons of recent success, St. Joe's has only won the Atlantic 10 tournament crown three times—in 1997, 1999, and 2013. The Hawks are searching for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2013-14 season.
 
 
The Hofstra Recap
Penn overcame an unusual start—trailing 2–0 before the opening tip due to a technical foul—to control the game in a 67–55 road win at Hofstra, improving to 3–1 on the season.
 
Sawyer delivered her best performance since her freshman year with 21 points, nine rebounds, and a perfect 8-for-8 mark at the line, while Collins added 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists. The Quakers shot 39.6 percent from the field, hit 10 threes, and maintained a steady lead after building a 37–31 halftime advantage. Strong contributions from Saniah Caldwell (eight points, five assists) and the bench helped Penn keep the margin near double digits throughout the second half to secure the program's first-ever win on Long Island.
 
A Bright Future
Just like how things finished up last season, the Quakers were picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League's preseason poll, earning 106 points by a panel of 16 media members.
 
Despite losing a pair of key starters—first-team All-Ivy selection Stina Almqvist and Lizzy Groetsch—to graduation, Penn returns three key members of the starting lineup in Gayle, Sawyer, and Collins. Gayle (2023-24) and Collins (2024-25) have won each of the last two Ivy League Rookie of the Year awards.
 
Another familiar face is re-joining her teammates as Ese Ogbevire is set to make her 2025-26 debut after missing all of the 2024-25 campaign with a torn ACL. Ogbevire shined brightly during her freshman season, averaging 4.7 points per game, adding 23 assists and nine steals. She was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice.
 
Things looked promising for Brooke Suttle when the season finished up last season, as she made a tremendous impact late in the year. She played the most minutes (27) of her rookie season at Princeton on Feb. 8 before finding herself getting more playing time by year's end. In the Quakers' 60-54 loss to Columbia in the Ivy League Tournament semis, Suttle poured in six points with six rebounds in 17 minutes.
 
So Many Fresh Faces
Penn has a freshman class of four this season, bringing the team total to 17 student-athletes.
 
Ruke Ogbevire (Houston, Texas/Fulshear), Ari Paraskevopoulou (Athens, Greece/16th General HS of Athens), Kate Lipatova (Moscow, Russia/Putnam Science Academy (Conn.), and Sarah Gordon (Vestavia Hills, Ala./Vestavia Hills) are all eager to make their collegiate debuts this season, maybe as soon as Friday afternoon.
 
Of the four, two (Ogbevire, 1,895 points; Gordon, 2,168) graduated as their high school's all-time leading scorers, while the other two (Paraskevopoulou, Greece; Lipatova, Russia) played for their national teams.
 
In addition to the players, Mike McLaughlin has a new member on his coaching staff in Ryan Weise (pronounced 'wee-see'), who became an assistant coach following two seasons as Holy Cross' Director of Basketball Operations.
 
With the departure of longtime associate head coach Kelly Killion, who took the head coaching job at American University in the offseason, McLaughlin promoted another longtime assistant Ashley Robinson to associate head coach and recruiting coordinator.
 
Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain, Captain
Penn has a program-record tying five captains leading the team in 2025-26.
 
The leadership group is made up of seniors Caldwell, Sawyer, and Georgia Heine, as well as junior Gayle and sophomore Collins.
 
There's only two other occasions in program history that the Quakers had five—2004-05 and 2020-21 (a season that was canceled due to COVID-19).
 
Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 164 of its last 179 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 174-19 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 51-143 (.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 55-108 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more. But when holding opponents under that number, the Quakers hold a healthy winning record of 192-36 (.836).
 
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