NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team secured its second Ivy League victory in a row, dominating Yale Saturday at the John J. Lee Amphitheater, 64-37.

Penn improved to 12-6 overall, 2-3 in Ivy League play; Yale fell to 5-13 overall, 1-4 in Ivy League play.

Quaker Notemeal
*The 27-point victory was Penn's largest over a Division 1 opponent this season.

*On his birthday, head coach Mike McLaughlin won his 269th game at Penn.

*Penn shot 42 percent from the field and held Yale to just 24-percent shooting.

*Penn outrebounded Yale, 40-37, and forced 26 Bulldogs turnovers in leading for nearly 36 minutes on Saturday.

*Senior Simone Sawyer led all scorers with 18 points, shooting 7-11 from the field and 3-3 at the foul line where she leads the Ivy League in percentage (50-55, .909); the senior also had three steals.

*Junior Mataya Gayle (12) and sophomore Katie Collins (10) also scored in double figures for the Quakers, and Collins flirted with a double-double by grabbing a team-high nine rebounds.

*Gayle also led all players with six assists, collected three steals, and grabbed four rebounds.

*Senior Saniah Caldwell hit a trio of treys (on four attempts) to finish with nine points on Saturday; she also led the team with four steals and added six rebounds and three assists.

*Sophomore Brooke Suttle again came off the bench to stuff the stat sheet with six points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists.

How It Happened
The game began with both teams getting off to slow starts as they each started 1-5 from the floor. However, the story of this game made itself apparent on the very first possession as the Quakers forced a Yale turnover and Collins scored the first basket of the contest with a putback layup. Penn forced 11 turnovers in the opening period, converting them into 10 points. Sawyer, Gayle and Suttle set the tone early with disruptive defense, each recording a pair of steals in the opening period.

Caldwell nailed a three-pointer four minutes into the game as Penn took a 7-6 lead and never looked back. Despite a rocky start, Penn shot an efficient 50 percent in the first quarter (7-14) and led 17-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Yale attempted to generate some much-needed offense in the second quarter as Dorka Kastl drove for the Bulldogs' first basket of the period. However, Ashna Tambe quickly responded with an and-1 jump shot for the Quakers and Sawyer began to catch fire as well, stripping the ball and going coast-to-coast for another and-1 layup. A Gayle jumper gave Penn its largest lead of the game at that point, 25-16, with 3:58 left in the half and another bucket by the junior, this time a top-of-the-key three-pointer, gave Penn a 28-21 lead at half.

Sawyer led all scorers in the first half and immediately picked up where she left off in the third quarter, driving baseline and finding Tina Njike for two. Caldwell added another shot from behind the arc as the Quakers came out hot. Both teams quieted down for a few minutes after that, trading misses until Collins went on a heater. Overall, the sophomore scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter as she reached double figures in the scoring column for the ninth straight game.

Penn stretched its lead to 20 in the third period, outscoring the Bulldogs 19-6 to take a 47-27 lead into the final quarter. The offense continued to flourish in the final ten minutes as Gayle confidently knocked down a three from the wing to begin the period. Sawyer scored seven more points in the fourth quarter as the Quakers led by as much as 31 points on the way to the 27-point victory.

Up Next
Penn will continue Ivy League play with a two-game homestand next weekend at The Palestra, hosting Cornell (Friday) and Columbia (Saturday).

For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.