The Penn women improved their play but couldn’t improve their record as an impressive Stony Brook team handed them their sixth straight loss, 75-69, Friday night on Long Island.
In easily their best of three games since their juniors and seniors returned from four-game suspensions, the Quakers (4-7) made comeback after comeback behind Kayla Padilla’s 29 points and an excellent performance — 18 points and eight rebounds — by forward Jordan Obi. Mia Lakstigala added 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals.
But they were contending with a strong Stony Brook team that went to the NCAA Tournament last season and extended its record this season to 8-1. Four Seawolves scored in double figures, and the Quakers struggled to find an answer for 6-1 forward India Pagan (20 points, eight rebounds), whose offseason training came as a member of the Puerto Rican Olympic team, and speedy junior guard Gigi Gonzalez (14 points).
The difference was once again the Quakers’ disadvantage in the paint, where they scored 32 points to the Seawolves’ 42. Stony Brook had a 44-38 rebounding advantage, leading to a 15-7 margin in second-chance points.
The Quakers made a game of it, though. The score was tied nine times, the lead changed hands seven times, and though Stony Brook went ahead to stay near the end of the first half, Penn was nipping at its heels the rest of the way. The final margin came on foul shots when Penn had no other way to keep Stony Brook from running out the clock.
There’s no secret that the surest way to stop Penn is to shut down Padilla, but how do you do that? Stony Brook did a good job of getting in the passing lanes to deny her the ball sometimes — barely denying her another 30-point game — but whether it was from beyond the arc or with a floater down the lane, Padilla again had the hot hand, shooting 11-for-23. Jordan, likewise, was just under 50% — 8-for-17 from the floor — but the other Quakers shot a collective 8-for-29 (27.6%).
The Quakers’ six-game losing streak is their longest in 10 years, but they have no reason for hanging their heads after facing Stony Brook. They have 20 days of finals and rest and Christmas cookies before heading to Baltimore for a game at Morgan State (6-4).