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Stina Almqvist leads Penn women’s basketball past Cornell, 67-54

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Stina Almqvist got a ESPN+ interview after Penn’s 67-54 win over Cornell at the Palestra Monday. (ESPN+)
Stina Almqvist’s career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds propelled the Penn women’s basketball team to a 67-54 Martin Luther King Jr. Day win over Cornell in the Quakers’ Ivy home opener.
Almqvist, the 6-foot-1 junior guard from Sweden, has made the jump this season from dependable role player — with 11 minutes a game last season — to leading scorer and constant presence (37 minutes on Monday). Penn has two other players averaging in double points, but on an afternoon when neither of them had a dominant performance, Almqvist came through, repeatedly weaving to the hoop through Cornell defenders and hitting 10 of 18 shots.
Penn senior forward Jordan Obi had 14 points and nine rebounds, but foul trouble limited her playing time. Junior guard Lizzy Groetsch helped fill the gap and scored 10 points on 3-for-4 shooting. And freshman point guard Mataya Gayle had half of Penn’s 14 assists on the afternoon but was uncharacteristically cold from the floor, shooting 1-for-9.
“Mataya’s awesome, so, like, even though she’s cold she’s such a playmaker,” Almqvist told Ivy Hoops Online afterward. “Even though the ball maybe didn’t go in today, she did so many great things for us. I’m confident every time she gets the ball.”
Cornell kept things close through the first half, leading 14-12 after the first quarter (its biggest lead) and staying close through the half on 10-of-30 shooting. But Penn had the hotter hand, shooting 9-for-23 in the first two periods to take a five-point lead into halftime, and the young Big Red team didn’t sink a three all day. Sophomore forward Summer Parker-Hall and junior guard Kaya Ingram led Cornell with 14 points apiece, and Parker-Hall had seven rebounds.
In the second half, the Quakers’ lead expanded to double digits, the Big Red began to harass them with a full-court press, and the Quakers repeatedly struggled to break it.
“I think we got a little stressed, but then we took some timeouts and we tried to figure it out,” Almqvist said.

In any case, the Big Red couldn’t capitalize on enough of Penn’s turnovers. Although Penn had more turnovers in the game (15 to Cornell’s 12), Penn had more points from turnovers (12 to 10).

Cornell (6-9, 0-3 Ivy) will host a strong Brown team (11-5, 2-1) on Saturday, while Penn (10-6, 2-1) hits the road again to play Harvard (9-7, 2-1).

Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 77-60 loss at Cornell

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There was nary a Cornell player within 10 feet of Tyler Perkins when the guard set up in the right corner for an open three-pointer as Penn looked to get into its offense down just 36-35 to the Big Red with 17:13 to play.

Junior Reese McMullen spotted Perkins as he crossed halfcourt and rifled a pass with his left hand … that bounced just past the freshman and out of bounds.

It was all downhill after that for Penn, which fell at Cornell, 77-60, after the Big Red unloaded for 49 points in the second half after trailing by three at halftime.

Cornell (12-3, 2-0 Ivy) hit 10 threes in the second half after a rough shooting start, and its pressure defense did the rest. Penn (9-8, 1-1) committed 17 turnovers over the course of the afternoon.

The Quakers have plenty to ponder ahead of a pivotal Palestra showdown with Harvard on Saturday. They can start with how …

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 80-51 rout of Dartmouth

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PHILADELPHIA — Penn men’s basketball stormed out of the gates of conference play on Saturday, using strong shooting across the board to pick up an easy win over Dartmouth, 80-51.

The Quakers (9-7, 1-0 Ivy), never trailed against the Big Green (4-10, 0-1) at the Palestra. A flurry of threes from freshmen Tyler Perkins and Niklas Polonowski pushed Penn out to a 23-9 lead, and the Red and Blue never looked back from there.

Playing without the services of leading scorer Clark Slajchert — who is still wearing a walking boot on his left foot after hurting his ankle against Houston last Saturday, Penn merely shot 50.9% from the field and hit 14 threes on 56% shooting from beyond the arc.

Not bad, huh?

The Quakers got contributions up and down the roster on Saturday, which leads nicely into how …

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Columbia women’s basketball bests Penn in Ivy League opener

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Columbia women’s basketball opened its defense of its Ivy hoops title Saturday at home with a solid 79-66 win over Penn.
As if to underline that this isn’t the same Lions team as last year’s, the game’s standout player wasn’t even playing in Manhattan until the fall. Bucknell junior transfer Cecelia Collins had 19 points, five rebounds and seven seriously nifty assists. On a subpar day for senior guard and leading scorer Abbey Hsu (a mere 14 points on 5-for-14 shooting), Collins frustrated the visitors on both ends of the court.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 88-68 loss at No. 25 Auburn

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Chalk up game one of life without Clark Slajchert as a mixed bag for Penn.

The Quakers, playing in their first contest without their injured leading scorer, had a few strong stretches but ultimately couldn’t hang with Associated Press No. 25 Auburn in an 88-68 road loss to round out Penn’s nonconference slate.

Auburn, which entered the game shooting about 33% from deep, hit six three-pointers in the game’s first eight minutes to put Penn (8-7) in a 15-point hole and led by as many as 20 points early on.

A Quakers flurry early in the second half — capped off by an open Niklas Polonowski three from the left wing — cut the deficit to nine points, 57-48, but Penn could get no further. At any rate, it was a far more competitive effort than what the Quakers put forth on Saturday at AP No. 3 Houston, when Slajchert rolled his left ankle in a 39-point loss.

Penn is on somewhat unsteady ground ahead of Saturday’s Ivy opener against Dartmouth. It all begins with how …

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Penn women’s basketball waltzes past Gwynedd Mercy

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When a good Ivy team plays a Division III team, the question isn’t “Who’s going to win?” It’s “Why bother?”
We’ll answer the first question first, though, in case you were anxious: Penn, 89-34.

Penn and Gwynedd Mercy both entered Sunday’s game with 7-5 records, but the similarities pretty much end there. Gwynedd has a successful D-III program, but it’s a small school, and every one of its players is from the Philly area — Pennsylvania and New Jersey, not even Delaware.

What the two schools have, though, are successful longtime Philly coaches (and former Philly Catholic high school players) who have known each other forever. Mike McLaughlin is in his 15th year at Penn, and before then he had 14 wildly successful years at his D-II alma mater, Holy Family. Keith Mondillo has been Gwynedd’s coach since 1995.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball’s 81-42 blowout loss at No. 3 Houston

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Senior guard Clark Slajchert didn’t return after rolling his ankle in Penn’s 81-42 loss at No. 3 Houston. (Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Penn was always going to have trouble competing on the road against Associated Press No. 3 Houston, which ranks first in overall efficiency margin and first in defensive efficiency on KenPom.

But what happened to the Red and Blue on Saturday was worse than what any Penn fan could reasonably have predicted. Houston delivered an 81-42 beatdown, which was the visitors’ worst loss since they endured a 114-55 humiliation at the hands of Duke on New Year’s Eve in 2009.

Houston (13-0) started the game on an 18-0 run. Penn (8-6) did not score until more than nine minutes had passed in the first half, when freshman Sam Brown drained a long contested three-pointer off a feed from classmate Tyler Perkins.

The ugly final score wasn’t even the worst thing about Saturday. Senior Clark Slajchert rolled his ankle midway through the first half and did not return.

There’s not much to take away from a “burn the tape game,” but you can start with how …

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Penn women’s basketball bests Maine, 72-69

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Bring on the Ivies!
The Penn women’s basketball team came out of a 20-day break for finals and Christmas by beating a strong Maine squad, 72-69, Saturday afternoon at the Palestra.
Freshman point guard Mataya Gayle had the hot hand and dropped 28 points, the highest total in her short college career. But this was a team effort for the Quakers against the Black Bears, and a great game if you just love basketball: The lead changed hands 20 times in 40 minutes, with eight ties. Maine hit five of its last seven shots but had to foul repeatedly to get the ball back, and Penn staved off the charge with clutch free throws.

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Quakeaways from Penn men’s basketball escaping Rider with 77-73 overtime win

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Junior Nick Spinoso notched 19 points on 9-for-17 shooting in Penn’s 77-73 win at Rider Saturday. (Penn Athletics)

Penn men’s basketball picked up its first win outside of the friendly confines of the Palestra on Saturday, though it wound up being a much more circuitous path to victory than expected.

The Quakers (8-5) threw away a 13-point second-half lead at Rider in a collapse that brought back bad memories of last year’s Ivy title-deciding loss at Princeton. But they rebounded in overtime to escape Lawrenceville, N.J. with a 77-73 win.

Penn never trailed in the extra session. Junior Nick Spinoso opened the scoring with a putback and-one (he missed the free-throw), while freshman Tyler Perkins gave the Quakers some much-needed breathing room, hitting a banked-in three as the shot clock expired with 90 seconds to play in overtime to extend Penn’s lead to five points.

There’s a lot for Penn fans to be happy about but some reason for concern ahead of a road matchup next Saturday at Associated Press No. 3 Houston, starting with how …

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