Tori Crawford

Penn women stop Brown to stop skid

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The Penn women ended a bad week with a strong win Saturday night, beating Brown, 74-60, at the Palestra and locking up a berth in the Ivy League Tournament.
The Quakers dominated the inside; that was to be expected. And the Bears had some success with what they do best, outside shooting plus a fast transition game. But Penn kept pace with Brown from the outside: Penn was 10-for-28 from three, and Brown was 11-for-29.
On Senior Night for Penn, that outside matchup was personified by two shooting guards who have played one another very well for four years, Penn’s Phoebe Sterba and Brown’s Justine Gaziano. Each knocked down five threes; Sterba had 15 points, six assists and two steals, Gaziano 21 points and six rebounds.

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Penn takes revenge on Harvard in 70-48 victory as Parker, Padilla and company put it all together

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When the Penn women have their whole game working, they’re hard to beat. On Saturday night at the Palestra, Harvard couldn’t come close.
Three weeks after losing to Harvard by seven in Boston, the Quakers (17-5, 7-2) scored the game’s first 12 points and never looked back in the 70-48 victory. Four Quakers hit double figures.
Harvard (14-9, 5-5) has lost three in a row and is in danger of missing the Ivy League Tournament in its own gym. (Someone should ask coach Kathy Delaney-Smith how she feels about that possibility. Not me: I’m chicken. But someone should.) The Crimson probably need to win at least three of the last four games on their schedule to knock Columbia or Yale out of the way.

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Penn takes a squeaker at Yale

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This game didn’t go anything like the coaches drew it up. But Penn came back with some clutch plays in a defensive struggle to beat Yale, 53-51, Saturday afternoon in New Haven.
Credit two starting guards for Penn (15-5, 5-2), senior captains Phoebe Sterba and Kendall Grasela, with pulling this one out after Yale (15-6, 5-3) built a 10-point lead in the second half. The Quakers’ headliners, junior center Eleah Parker and first-year shooting guard Kayla Padilla, had long stretches when they couldn’t buy a basket, but Sterba canned 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and Grasela — who directs the offense while averaging just 3.5 shots a game — had 11 points and five assists.

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Penn women rout Cornell to complete weekend sweep

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A night after the Penn women took a memorable game from Columbia in overtime, coach Mike McLaughlin said he was worried that fatigue might keep the Quakers from being sharp when they faced Cornell on Saturday at the Palestra.
The Quakers needed just five seconds to set those worries to rest.

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Penn bangs inside for overtime win over Columbia

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Penn’s women proved Friday night that power inside can beat accuracy outside, but it couldn’t have been closer, as the Quakers took an overtime game at home against Columbia, 86-84.

Junior center Eleah Parker, who seems fully recovered from injuries and tentative play in the first half of the season, dominated the low post for Penn (12-5, 2-2 Ivy) to collect 28 points and 13 rebounds, shooting 12-for-23 and blocking three shots. Forward Tori Crawford continued her breakout junior year with 13 points, and senior guard Phoebe Sterba, who had an uncharacteristic cold stretch from outside, persisted and finished with 12 points and five assists.

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Harvard women take down Penn to start first full Ivy weekend

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Penn first-year Kayla Padilla led the visiting Quakers with 21 points but on just 6-for-25 shooting as Tess Sussman (left), Matilda Salen (right) and the rest of the Crimson stymied the Red & Blue in a 58-51 victory at Lavietes Pavilion Friday. | Photo by Erica Denhoff
The hot-shooting Harvard women took an astounding lead into halftime against an ice-cold Penn team, and a Quaker revival in the second half wasn’t nearly enough Friday night at Lavietes Pavilion, as the Crimson won, 58-51.
How good was that 32-13 first half for Harvard? This is a team that relies on three-point scoring, and the Crimson (11-5, 2-1 Ivy) hit seven of 14 from outside, for two thirds of their points. Harvard had the edge in rebounding at halftime.

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Depth comes up big for No. 25 Princeton in impressive win at the Palestra

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The long awaited and eagerly anticipated showdown between the Penn and Princeton women to open the Ivy season was played at the Palestra Saturday. The two teams came into the contest with a combined record of 22-2, each with but one blemish. First-year Tiger coach Carla Berube stated that she was thrilled to make her Ivy debut in one of the most iconic venues in all of college basketball.

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Penn can’t get by on potential versus No. 25 Princeton

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Turns out it takes more than potential to beat Princeton.

The season’s first meeting between the two most highly regarded women’s teams in the Ivies lived up to its billing for exactly 20 minutes, as Penn played the nationally ranked Tigers about even at the Palestra. But Princeton dominated inside and played better defense — something that almost never happens to the Penn women — to pull away in the second half and coast to a 75-55 win Saturday afternoon.
Penn (10-2, 0-1 Ivy) had a monumental turnout of talent. Unfortunately for the Quakers, much of that was in the stands — among them ballhandlers and playmakers like Meghan McCullough, Kasey Chambers and Anna Ross, a dominant frontcourt player in Michelle Nwokedi, and the versatile Katy Allen and Lauren Whitlatch to drive to the basket or sink threes.They’re all alums, and they weren’t in superhero mode, ready to toss off their street clothes to reveal their old uniforms underneath and come to the rescue.

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Penn grinds out win over Drexel in defensive Battle of 33rd Street

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On a day when the ball seemed too slick to handle, the Penn women managed not to let a victory slip away, beating a persistent Drexel team 53-49 at the Palestra.
Credit some key threes by guards Kayla Padilla and Phoebe Sterba, a resurgence for center Eleah Parker, clutch steals by Kendall Grasela and sterling play on both ends by Tori Crawford.

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