Against Cornell, Penn keeps its Ivy hopes intact and a longtime win streak going

It just got a little easier for a Penn women’s basketball team trying to make Ivy Madness.

On Saturday, Penn defeated Cornell 68-63 in a closely contested matchup. Although Penn (14-10, 5-6 Ivy League entered the game with a 15-game winning streak against the Big Red (7-17, 3-8), Saturday’s contest was anything but a blowout. The matchup saw 18 lead changes, with Penn finally pulling away in the last two minutes.

Stina Almqvist (25 points) and Mataya Gayle (18) led the Quakers.

“I was very direct [with the team], ‘This is vital for us right now,” said coach Mike McLaughlin. “We’re going to try to earn another game within the season. That’s the way we looked at it, and they responded.”

Going into Saturday, the Quakers were tied for fourth place in the Ivy rankings with Brown (10-14, 4-7). Earlier in the day, Brown fell to Harvard (20-3, 9-2), 60-57. With the Brown loss, Penn now holds a one-game lead for the fourth and final seed with three games remaining.

Here’s what we saw from Penn:

On Penn’s first possession, Simone Sawyer found Gayle for a catch-and-shoot three-pointer.

In the first quarter, Almquvist, the Quakers’ latest 1,000-point scorer, led the way with 11 points. The power forward grabbed four offensive rebounds in the first half as Penn scored nine second-chance points to Cornell’s zero.

Last year’s Ivy Rookie of the Year, Gayle was noticeably aggressive out of the gate.

After drilling a three to start the game, Gayle recorded seven points and two assists in the first half. With 6:51 left in the first half, she took a hard drive into the paint. Sucking in the defense, the 5-foot-7 point guard found Sarah Miller in the corner for a three-pointer to take a 23-21 lead.

Outside of Gayle and Almqvist, no player scored more than three points in the first. In total, the Quakers shot just 25.8% from the floor compared to Cornell’s 52%.

Still, Penn only trailed 30-28 going into the locker room as the Big Red failed to connect from beyond the arc once. Cornell senior forward Summer Parker-Hall, their leading scorer, logged just five points in the first half before ending with a team-high 17 on the day.

In the opening moments of the second half, Penn freshman center Katie Collins drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key to make her first shot from the floor in nine attempts. The seven-time Ivy Rookie of the Week recipient would end her day with 11 points and eight rebounds.

“I think [Collins is] definitely a fighter. She’s one of the hardest workers. We tally points — like deflections, steals, all that — and she’s consistently winning that … That testifies [just] how hard she works every single day. I did notice she was missing shots, but I wasn’t really worried. I know when it matters, she’s going to knock that down,” said Gayle.

Through three quarters, the teams had exchanged leads 11 times.

After five minutes of back-and-forth to start the fourth quarter, Penn took a three-point lead with 4:22 left in the game off an Almqvist post-up. After Cornell hit one of two free throws, Almqvist got to the hole again, extending Penn’s lead to four.

“When we came down to those last few possession, we called some plays that were for me, and everyone executed the way they’re supposed to,” Almqvist said. “It’s not just like me scoring.”

On the next Penn possession, Collins drilled a three-point attempt from the top of the key to make that lead seven with 2:43 to go in the game, marking Penn’s largest lead of the game. The teams would exchange a few more buckets, but the Quakers would hold on.

“Collins is a great player,” said Cornell coach Emily Garner. “We had some big-time miscommunications down the stretch against her, and that really hurt us. I think that’s what good teams and good players do, they take advantage of those miscommunications.”

Penn faces Dartmouth on the road next Friday (8 p.m., ESPN+).