The Penn women put together their most effective game of the year so far Tuesday night at La Salle, building a comfortable lead early and cruising to a 72-59 win.
Freshman guard Simone Sawyer dispelled any doubts that she’s for real. After just getting her feet wet in the Quakers’ first four games, Sawyer got significant time in two games last week in California and scored 18 points in each. Against La Salle, Sawyer led all scorers with 24 points on 9-for-18 shooting and added seven rebounds and four assists.
After playing well in a losing effort Wednesday against a big and impressive Southern California team, Penn was ready to exploit somebody else’s weaknesses, and La Salle suffered. Again and again, forward Jordan Obi got herself open near the basket and scored after a sharp pass from Sawyer, Kayla Padilla or Mandy McGurk — the three starting guards combining for 17 of the team’s impressive 23 assists. Obi finished with 20 points on 10-for-13 shooting, and Penn scored 48 of its points in the paint (to La Salle’s 16).
La Salle, despite its 5-2 record coming into the night, was never going to be mistaken for Villanova, the Big 5 team with the Associated Press Top 25 ranking. And it was hobbled for the Penn game by the absence of injured starting point guard Molly Masciantonio: In the first half, La Salle seemed unable to cope with the Penn press and threw the ball into the wrong hands on possession after possession. Not that Penn’s ballhandling was anything to brag about: In the end, the teams were even on turnovers (22) and steals (13). But La Salle’s awful first half practically handed the Quakers a 43-22 lead at the break.
What Penn did well from start to finish was look for the open player and take good shots. That discipline didn’t pay off every time, of course. The Quakers sank just three of their first 14 shots. But in the same stretch, the Explorers hit on a pathetic one out of eight field goal attempts. And from that point on, Penn had by far its best shooting game of the year, finishing at 42% from the field.
Not that this was a complete success from Penn’s point of view. Its three-point shooting was lackluster (22%), and neither Padilla (2-for-11) nor McGurk (zip-for-6) was connecting. For once, though, Penn didn’t need a 30-point explosion from Padilla to overcome other weaknesses for the win.
For La Salle, senior 6-foot-2 forward Gabby Crawford had 17 points and eight rebounds in 21 minutes on the floor. (La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray tends to sub in players by the bunch, and 10 women had at least 10 minutes of playing time — but none had more than 27.)
Penn (2-5) now begins a remarkable 10-game home stand starting Thursday night against Stony Brook (4-2), which beat Penn a year ago in Long Island. But coach Mike McLaughlin is piecing together a better Penn team this time around.