Two teams desperate for consecutive Ivy League wins after both starting 0-3 met at John J. Lee Amphitheater Saturday. Penn easily downed Yale, 64-37.
Yale (5-13, 1-4 Ivy) was leading the league in turnovers at 18 and Penn (12-6, 2-3) toppled that figure by forcing the Bulldogs into 26 turnovers off of a Quakers press.
Penn scored 26 points off the Yale miscues.
“Their press obviously bothered us,” Yale coach Dalila Eshe said. “I think we did not help ourselves either by taking care of the ball.”
Penn grabbed a 17-12 lead after a sloppy first quarter by both teams. Yale, playing again without a true point guard had 11 turnovers after the stanza.
The visitors led 28-21 at the half, capitalizing on 16 Yale turnovers by scoring 16 points.
A junior guard Mataya Gayle trey from the wing gave Penn a commanding 50-27 lead and they never looked back.
Penn was led in scoring by senior guard Simone Sawyer with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting.
Yale sophomore guard Ciniya Moore registered her seventh consecutive game in double figures with 12 points. Junior forward Mary Meng, playing in only her seventh game after injury, grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
“What’s great about having someone like Mary is you can always count on those boards,” said Eshe.
Yale plays at Harvard at 7 p.m. on Friday. Penn hosts Cornell an hour earlier.