At this point in her career, Penn forward Jordan Obi doesn’t have to open her mouth to trash-talk. Anywhere inside 15 feet, her body declares: The ball’s right here, the rim’s right there, and you can’t do a damn thing to stop me.
But is it trash talk if it’s true?
Obi started her senior season on the cold side, but she has heated up in recent games and scalded Merrimack on Friday night for 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting plus 13 rebounds, a block and a couple of steals. She has found her range for three-pointers, too, registering a 4-for-7 night from outside. As a result, Penn picked up the road win, 71-62.
This was not going to be easy, despite Merrimack’s 3-7 record. The Warriors were picked second in the Northeast Conference, and Penn is still getting its game together in advance of Ivy play. Of the top six Quakers in minutes played this season, three are freshmen. Of last year’s top six, three have graduated, one is playing a few minutes here and there, and one is working her way back from an injury. The other is Obi.
Obi set the tone with a three just half a minute in. Freshman point guard Mataya Gayle added another, and Obi hit a third and a layup to give Penn the early 11-5 lead. But the Quakers went the next seven minutes without a basket, ending the quarter down 21-14. The Warriors were right on track to match the 84 points they’d scored five days earlier in beating Yale.
But that’s as good as things got for Merrimack. In the second quarter, the Warriors shot well — 6-for-9, in fact. But Merrimack also committed half a dozen turnovers, frustrated by the Quakers’ varied defensive looks, and Penn eliminated the deficit. And in the third quarter, Penn built as much as a 10-point lead on sharp passing and 47% shooting.
A Merrimack triple with four minutes left in the game cut Penn’s lead to three, but a Stina Almqvist layup and an Obi steal and layup pushed the margin to seven. Merrimack could manage just one more bucket and two foul shots the rest of the way.
In addition to Obi, Penn had good games from Gayle (14 points, four assists, three steals) and Lizzy Groetsch (nine points, eight rebounds, five assists, two blocks and two steals). Almqvist had a frustrating night shooting but collected seven rebounds and four of Penn’s eight blocks.
Merrimack was led by Amaya Staton’s double-double: 12 rebounds and 18 points on 9-for-15 shooting — an impressive night but overshadowed by the work of Obi, the other 6-foot-1 senior forward on the court.
Penn returns to Philly for a Sunday afternoon game at Temple (3-5) with some Big 5 bragging rights on the line, but no Big 5 title: That will be decided Saturday night between Villanova and St. Joseph’s.