The opening 10 minutes Sunday afternoon at Brown may have had Penn fans worried and Brown fans jubilant: Not only were the Quakers again missing top-scoring guard Kayla Padilla, but the game was moving at the Bears’ frenetic pace, and Penn’s shots just weren’t falling.
But the Quakers were on their game after all. They were taking good shots, protecting the ball and harassing their opponents while committing a minimum of fouls. And when those shots started falling more consistently, Penn ran away with the game, 66-37.
In Padilla’s absence, Penn’s frontcourt regulars came through with solid games. Kennedy Suttle had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Jordan Obi had 11 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and three assists. Brown never established its inside game. Penn won the battle of the boards, 53-34, and outscored Brown in the paint, 30-12.
Two women off the bench were responsible for Penn’s outsized margin: freshman Stina Almqvist, a 6-foot guard from Sweden who had been getting regular minutes but earned lots more Sunday with 7-for-12 shooting and 18 points, and junior Silke Milliman, a 6-1 forward from Hanover, N.H, who in just 10 minutes put up 12 points (on 4-for-4 shooting) and grabbed six rebounds. Consider that in her freshman year Milliman had all of seven points, and of course last season she was tied for the Ivy lead with zero; she’ll be back, and not just for her hometown friends and family when Penn travels to Dartmouth.
This was not an exceptional shooting game for Penn, which managed just 34.9% from the field and 20% of its threes; take away those great performances by Almqvist and Milliman and the percentages would have been an anemic 23.4% overall and 10% from beyond the arc. Ouch.
But after a 12-4 Brown run to wrap up the first quarter with an eight-point lead, Penn responded with a 19-3 second quarter in which the Bears committed 10 turnovers. For the game, Brown’s 21 turnovers led to 22 points for Penn.
Brown displayed its potential in that first quarter, shooting 44.4% and pretty much matching Penn in rebounds. We can look forward to future matchups between Penn’s Obi and Brown’s Mya Murray, both first-year sophomore forwards with star talent, quick moves and zeros on their jerseys, but this time around Murray got into foul trouble — notably offensive fouls — and was limited to 18 minutes, four points and five rebounds before fouling out. With the inside game ineffective, starting guards Maddie Mullin and Isabella Mauricio accounted for 20 of Brown’s 37 points.
Penn won with defense and discipline. It pressed effectively in the backcourt, contested shots, committed just nine fouls and drew a handful of charges, including one that sent Mandy McGurk to the sidelines. Even with the Quakers’ shooting troubles, coach Mike McLaughlin has plenty of reason to be satisfied.
Brown (5-8, 0-1) will be back on its home court Friday against Harvard (6-7, 0-1), which lost its Ivy opener Sunday to Princeton. That same evening, Penn (6-7, 1-0) plays at Cornell (6-6, 1-0), which won at Dartmouth on Sunday.