Unbeaten doesn’t mean unbeatable.
The Penn women’s basketball team struggled early in a Thursday night game against a hustling young Longwood squad with a harassing defense that pushed Penn into 19 turnovers. But the Quakers rode a 13-0 second-quarter run to pull ahead, sank 55% of their shots on the night and left Longwood in the dust, 72-53, for Penn’s fourth win of the young season.
Freshman forward Rachel Thatcher, the reigning Ivy League and Big 5 Rookie of the Week, had another impressive game. She wasn’t perfect: She missed one shot. But she made a half-dozen others, including all three of her threes, and recorded a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds to go with five assists.
“In the first half, I think I was a little flustered, just making a couple [of] bad passes, not making the best decisions. But I think we as a team bought into each other,” Thatcher told ESPN+ afterward. “I was able to calm down, and we had a really good second half.”
Three other Quakers reached double figures. Center Tina Njike, though a capable three-point shooter, took all of her shots from in close this time and was a near-perfect 8-for-10 for 16 points, along with seven rebounds and a pair of blocks. The threes came from Brooke Suttle, who sank four in eight tries for 12 of her 14 points. And Mataya Gayle had another solid game at point with 11 points.
Penn also held Longwood to 32% shooting on the night. The Lancers met opposition when they tried to penetrate the lane and had mixed success in finding an open shooter outside. Penn failed to box Longwood out — Longwood collected 19 offensive rebounds to Penn’s 10 — but Longwood struggled to convert those boards to points on the board.
In other words, the Quakers have gaps that a better team than Longwood can exploit, and a better team than Longwood happens to be due in the Palestra on Saturday: No. 23 North Carolina, led by former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart. The Tar Heels are 1-2 after starting the season with back-to-back losses against No. 14 Oklahoma and top-ranked South Carolina.