The outcome of the Penn women’s first basketball game of the season was decided the moment it was scheduled: The Red and Blue would overwhelm King’s College, a Division III team from Wilkes-Barre, and showcase their new and returning players in a low-pressure tip-off. King’s, meanwhile, would face big-school challenges that could boost its play for the coming season — and get a kick out of playing in front of family at the Palestra. (Every woman on the King’s roster is from Pennsylvania or New Jersey, many from the Philly area.)
So understand what the final score of 105-31 means: absolutely nothing. Not that the game was meaningless: For one thing, it was an exercise in friendship between two programs, and a renewal of connection between Penn coach Mike McLaughlin and the eastern Pennsylvania Catholic school basketball world in which he grew up as a player and a coach. To a lifer like him, all of women’s basketball is a small town, but his deepest ties are to his oldest friends and neighbors.
Friday’s late-afternoon game also gave the 2025-26 Quakers a chance to look like stars against a backdrop — slower, shorter players — that made them shine brightly. It’s not that the Quakers won’t be stellar as the season progresses, but other opponents will make their jobs harder.
Take Tina Njike, who started at center for Penn. The 6-foot-2 Njike has made great strides since she walked onto the Penn campus two years ago with more inches than skills. On Friday, she looked downright comfortable with the ball and made good use of it: 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting, six rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals — all in 17 minutes of play. (No fouls, either.)
How will Njike stand up against the Ivies’ bigs inside, let alone the bruisers on the fourth-ranked Texas team Penn will face at the end of the month? We’ll find out soon.
Other welcome successes on opening night: the return of junior guard Ese Ogbevire, who lost her sophomore year to injury; the arrival of her kid sister, freshman Ruke Ogbevire, who knocked down five of seven shots for 11 points in 16 minutes in her Penn debut; the sharp 3-for-5 shooting of senior Georgia Heine, little used in past years but good for nine points in 10 minutes; the perfect shooting of sophomore Gabriella Kelley, who saw almost no court time last year but went 4-for-4 for nine points in 10 minutes; and freshman forward Ari Paraskevopoulou (pronounced AH-ree), a perfect 2-for-2 with five points and five rebounds in 11 minutes.
Last year’s freshman successes picked up where they left off: Ivy Rookie of the Year Katie Collins led all scorers with 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting plus four rebounds in 16 minutes, and Sarah Miller went 5-for-6 for 13 points in a mere eight minutes.
Next up for the Quakers: a road trip Monday to Delaware State, a Division I team but a likely loser. (It’s been 18 years since Delaware State had a winning season.) Still, Penn and Penn fans should get a better idea of how strong this team really is.