PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team took down Yale on Saturday at the Palestra, 68-52.

Penn improved to 15-9 overall and remains in the hunt for an Ivy League Tournament spot at 5-6 in Ivy League play; Yale fell to 6-18 overall, 2-9 in Ivy League play.

Quaker Notemeal
*Junior Mataya Gayle led all scorers with 22 points and added four assists.

*Sophomore Brooke Suttle had a career-high 16 points off the bench.

*Senior Simone Sawyer flirted with a double-double, finishing with 12 points and eight rebounds.

*As a team, Penn shot 20-25 (80.0 pct) at the free throw line.

*The Quakers committed a season-low seven turnovers.

*Penn had 15 offensive rebounds on Saturday and turned them into 19 second-chance points.

*The Red and Blue led for 38 total minutes, essentially wire-to-wire.

How It Happened
Sophomore Katie Collins opened up the game with a three-pointer from the top of the key off of a Gayle assist. Yale's Kiley Capstraw followed with a layup for the Bulldogs' first basket, and Luisa Vydrova nailed a shot from behind the arc to give Yale its first lead. However, Sawyer quickly responded on the next possession with a three of her own and the Quakers retook the lead on a Njike layup and a Gayle triple as Penn began the game shooting 75 percent from downtown.

As the Quaker offense started humming, the defense began to pick up too as Yale committed a shot clock violation after the first media timeout. Gayle pulled up and drained an elbow jumper as Penn extended the lead to six halfway through the first quarter. The junior guard led the Quaker offensive attack with 10 points in the opening quarter. The Quakers shot three of seven from behind the arc, committed just one turnover and recorded five offensive rebounds in the first 10 minutes that ended with them leading, 22-13.

Penn continued to attack the offensive glass in the second quarter, as Suttle tipped in a second-chance layup to begin the second quarter as the Quakers went up double digits. Ciniya Moore then went on a personal five-point run for the Bulldogs as she cut the lead to six before Head Coach Mike McLaughlin called timeout. After a free throw by Marisa Chapman to cut the deficit to five, Suttle drained a corner three to start a seven-point run for the Quakers as they led by 12 with under three minutes left until halftime. Suttle then knocked down another three and added a pull-up jumper for the final two baskets of the half, giving Penn a 36-23 lead.

Vydrova and Gayle traded baskets to begin the second half as both teams looked to gain momentum. The Bulldogs continued to struggle to box out and allowed the Quakers seven more offensive boards in the third quarter. Collins was the beneficiary of the first one as she laid it up for two of Penn's 11 third quarter second-chance points. Moore did her best to keep the Bulldogs in the game as she scored 10 of her 19 points in the third. However, Sawyer and Gayle combined for 14 of Penn's 19 in the third as the Quakers took a 55-41 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Njike began the final period with an and-1 layup and a free throw as Penn continued to pull away. The Quaker offense went quiet for the majority of the rest of the fourth quarter, however, as they missed their seven straight shots. Luckily, Yale's offense also struggled in the final 10 minutes as both teams combined for just seven made field goals. The Quakers held on with nine made free throws in the quarter and just three turnovers as they went on to win their 15th game of the season and their seventh at home.

Up Next
Penn will hit the road next weekend to take on Harvard and Dartmouth in a traditional Ivy League weekend on Friday and Saturday.

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