PRINCETON, N.J. – The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team gave host Princeton a good run through much of the third period Friday night at Jadwin Gym, but the 23rd-ranked Tigers gained some separation late in the third and salted things away in the fourth on the way to a 69-50 victory.
 
Penn fell to 3-5 in Ivy League play and 13-8 overall, while Princeton remains alone in first place at 7-1 and improved to 19-2 overall.
 
Quaker Notemeal
*Senior Simone Sawyer and junior Mataya Gayle tied for team-high scoring honors with 16 each, and both had four rebounds as well.
 
*Gayle also tied for game-high honors with three steals and dished out three assists, while Sawyer had two steals.
 
*Junior Tina Njike nearly had a double-double on Friday night, scoring nine points and leading all players in the game with 10 rebounds (five on the offensive glass).
 
*Sophomore Katie Collins finished the night with seven points, four rebounds and two steals.
 
*Senior Saniah Caldwell led Penn with four assists and tied Gayle for team-high honors with three steals.
 
How It Happened
Princeton used an early seven-point run to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 9-4 lead, and extended the streak to 13-3. At that point, the Tigers were more than doubling up the Quakers, 15-7, but Sawyer scored the last four points in the period to make it 15-11 after one.
 
Toby Nweke and Skye Belker scored back-to-back buckets midway through the second to give Princeton its biggest lead of the night to that point, 26-17. However, Collins immediately answered Belker's basket with a triple and that set the Quakers off. Gayle and Njike followed with buckets, and then Gayle answered a St. Rose score with six in a row. Her steal and layup with 28 seconds left put Penn in front, 30-28, and the Red and Blue took that lead to the locker room.
 
The teams traded points for the first few minutes of the third quarter, but Olivia Hutcherson scored four in a row on consecutive possessions and that put Princeton in front for good. Penn hung around, and a Gayle bucket along the left baseline made it 44-41 Tigers with 3:29 left in the third. However, the Tigers roared after that with eight points in a row to take a double-digit lead for the first time of the night. Gayle finally ended Penn's drought with a layup in the dying seconds of the quarter, but it was still 52-43 Princeton entering the final quarter.
 
Any hopes of a fourth-quarter comeback were quickly dashed. Finding holes in the Quakers' zone defense, Nweke nailed a trey and Hutcherson got free underneath for a layup. That forced a Penn timeout, and shortly afterward Sawyer hit a triple. However, that would be the Quakers' only field goal for the first seven minutes of the period as Princeton opened things up.
 
Up Next
Penn is back on the road next weekend, traveling to Cornell and Columbia. The Quakers will face the Big Red Friday night at 6 p.m. in Ithaca and then the Lions on Saturday in New York City at 5 p.m.
 
For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com.