PHILADELPHIA — Following a trip to the Lone Star State over the Thanksgiving weekend, the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team is back home in Philadelphia. The Quakers will face Maine Thursday in a game that will tip off at 6 p.m.
The Quakers are looking to get back in the win column after Sunday's hard-fought, 81-63 loss at current No. 2 Texas.
GAME 9 - PENN (5-3, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. MAINE (3-5)
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025 | 6 p.m.
Philadelphia, Pa. | The Palestra
Watch on ESPN+ ($) | Live Stats | Digital Game Program
The Series with Maine
The Quakers and Black Bears are meeting for the third straight season and the fifth time overall. Penn leads the series, 3-1. Maine is making its third visit to The Palestra, the others coming in 2010 (a 69-48 Penn win) and two seasons ago (the Quakers winning, 72-69). Penn won last year's game in Orono, 56-52, as Mataya Gayle scored 11 points, Sarah Miller added 10, and Katie Collins stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, a team-high eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
The Red and Blue gutted out a 56-52 win last year in Orono, Maine behind 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists from Stina Almqvist. The largest margin of victory for the Quakers came in 2010 in a 69-48 win at The Palestra.
Scouting the Black Bears
After a rough start to the season, Maine enters the game after back-to-back wins against Saint Francis and Boston University. Adrianna Smith led the team in scoring in both games with 19 against Saint Francis and 24 against Boston. Smith nearly averages a double-double with 18.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest to go along with five assists. Her sidekick Asta Blauenfeldt also thrives on the offensive end, averaging 13 points and shooting around 40 percent from behind the arc. The Black Bears get after opponents defensively, averaging 8.9 steals per game and converting those turnovers into 17 points per game.
The Eyes of Texas Were Upon Them
The Quakers spent the Thanksgiving weekend in the Lone Star State and gave a great account of themselves in a pair of games, routing Division III St. Thomas (Texas) 78-44 and then falling to then-No. 4 and unbeaten Texas, 81-63. In the loss to the Longhorns—who extended their home winning streak to 30 games with the victory and were coming off wins over No. 3 UCLA and No. 2 South Carolina earlier in the week—Penn led after one quarter, 15-11; tied UT in the third quarter, 18-18; and were only outscored in the fourth, 22-18.
Gayle led all scorers in the game with 24 points and tied Saniah Caldwell for the team lead with three assists, while Collins nearly had a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds. In the win over St. Thomas, Collins was simply spectacular—she scored 18 points on a perfect 6-of-6 performance from three-point land and added eight rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Gayle added 14 points and led all players with six assists and four steals.
The St. Thomas Recap
The Quakers opened the road trip to the Lone Star State with a 78-44 victory over St. Thomas last Friday behind 18 points from Katie Collins. Collins shot the ball at an extremely high clip for the Quakers, hitting six-of-six three-pointers while also collecting eight rebounds. Penn hit a season-high 14 shots from behind the arc. Mataya Gayle had a season-high four steals for the Red and Blue.
The Big 5 Women's Classic
Penn will play in the opener at Sunday's Toyota Women's Big 5 Classic, taking on La Salle at noon. For the second straight year, the Classic will take place at Villanova's Finneran Pavilion. The other matchups in Sunday's tripleheader at "The Finn" include Drexel and Temple meeting at 2:15 p.m., followed by Villanova and Saint Joseph's in the championship game at 4:30 p.m.
Tickets are still available for the Classic and can be found online at Villanova's Athletic Ticket Office (https://villanova.evenue.net/events/BIG5).
Aye, Aye Captains!
Penn has five players leading the team as captains in 2025-26, tying a program record for a single season. The leadership group is made up of seniors Saniah Caldwell, Simone Sawyer, and Georgia Heine, as well as junior Gayle and sophomore Collins. There have been just two other seasons in program history when the Quakers had five captains: 2004-05 and 2020-21 (which was canceled due to COVID-19).
Penn WBB By The Numbers
6.9 • Collins' rebounds-per-game average so far this season; that is tied for third among Ivy League players with Columbia's Perri Page, behind Brown's Alyssa Moreland (10.3) and Princeton's Fadima Tall (8.0).
13.0 • Sawyer's points-per-game average over Penn's last five contests; she has reached double figures in four of them—highlighted by a 21-point day at Hofstra—and scored nine in the outlier game.
29 • Assists dished out by Gayle so far this season, tied with Princeton's Skye Belker for most among Ivy players.
93.5 • Sawyer's free-throw percentage this season (29-31), which was tops among Ivy League players—Dartmouth's Cate MacDonald is second (13-14, .929)—and 14th nationally at the start of the week.
95.2 • Penn's free-throw percentage Sunday at Texas (20-21); Collins was the only player to miss—she was still a solid 5-6—while Sawyer led the way with a perfect 8-8 performance. As a team, the Quakers entered the week shooting 84.0 percent from the foul line, a number that leads the Ivy League and is second nationally behind only Rice (85.5 pct).
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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