A dominant 27-point performance from Stina Almqvist led the Penn women’s basketball team to a 78-47 trouncing of Siena at the Palestra Wednesday night.
Almqvist, an All-Ivy Second Team selection last season, is second to none so far in her senior year, tied for the league lead in scoring for Penn (3-0) with Princeton’s Madison St. Rose at 19.7 points per game. Against Siena (0-3), Almqvist scored six of Penn’s first eight points. She was as efficient as ever for the night, hitting nine of 14 shots from the field and eight of 10 from the free-throw line, and added nine rebounds, five assists and a pair of steals.
Siena kept the game close in the first quarter, even pulling ahead in its closing seconds. But an Almqvist three early in the second quarter gave Penn the lead, and it didn’t look back. The Quakers finished the half with a 14-2 run, and its lead only ballooned in the second half.
That gave Penn coach Mike McLaughlin the freedom to loose some players who had seen little or no court time in the team’s earlier games, and no one came through more impressively than 6-foot sophomore guard Abby Sharpe. In 16 minutes, she poured in 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting, including 2-for-3 on threes. Though not invisible before Wednesday, she averaged just 3.1 points per game as a freshman (including 11, her previous career best, against Siena last year).
Freshman forward Katie Collins continued to justify McLaughlin’s faith in her as a valuable contributor. She picked up the first double-double of her college career: 13 points on 5-for-11 shooting (including a cool 2-for-3 from beyond the arc) plus 11 rebounds.
And point guard Mataya Gayle contributed a game-high eight assists along with a modest (for her) eight points for Penn.
Siena was outgunned and outnumbered (with only nine players available for the game, and without star guard Teresa Seppala, who’s been busy on the national team of her native Finland). But forward Anajah Brown, from nearby Norristown, Pa., did what she could to challenge the Quakers, inside and out, and finished with team highs in rebounds (five) and points (17, on 7-for-13 shooting).
Penn’s bigger challenge will come to the Palestra Friday in the form of Saint Joseph’s (2-0). Almost exactly a year ago, the Hawks trounced the Quakers just about as badly as the Quakers beat the Saints on Wednesday night.