Win and in once again. The University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team will send off its seniors with a matchup against its archrivals on Saturday at The Palestra when Penn faces off with Princeton at 2 p.m. to close the regular season.

  A win over the Tigers or a Brown loss to Yale clinches the Quakers a spot into Ivy Madness for the third straight season and sixth time in the last seven years.

 
Saturday marks the 101st meeting between two archrivals separated by just 48 miles and two interstates. Princeton has a 70-30 edge in the all-time series.

  Penn has dropped 13 consecutive games to Princeton in the series dating back to 2018-19. The last win occurred back on Jan. 5, 2019 at Princeton, a 66-60 victory.

  The Quakers have not beaten the Tigers at The Palestra since the championship game of the inaugural Ivy League Tournament on March 12, 2017. Since then, Princeton has won seven consecutive games at the Cathedral.

 
Two senior players and a senior manager—Stina Almqvist, Lizzy Groetsch, and Mabel Moosbrugger—will be celebrated today at The Palestra for their remarkable contributions to the Penn women's basketball program.

 
The Quakers are closing in on their third consecutive Ivy Madness berth and need a win or a Brown loss to Yale to do so on Saturday.

  If both the Quakers and Bears are tied after the regular season has concluded, the tiebreaker will come down to NET rankings. As of March 4, Penn is currently ranked 162nd, while Brown is slotted at 182nd.

  The top three seeds are set with Columbia clinching at least a share of the Ivy League title and the No. 1 seed. Princeton (No. 2) and Harvard (No. 3) are the next two teams in the field.

 
Penn was done in by a dominant Princeton first quarter before falling 74-60 on Saturday afternoon at Jadwin Gym in the 100th meeting between the two programs.

  Katie Collins tied a career high with 18 points, adding a career-high-tying four three-pointers. On defense, she added three steals.

  Mataya Gayle scored 13 points and led the Quakers with seven rebounds and five assists. Simone Sawyer also reached double figures in the scoring column, with 10 points on six free throws. Brooke Suttle led the bench with a career-high nine points.

 
Collins was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for the ninth time this season on Monday afternoon, doing so for the fifth straight week.

  She's tied with Harvard's Allison Feaster (1995) and Princeton's Niveen Rasheed (2010) and Bella Alarie (2017) for the second- most Rookie awards won by an Ivy in a single season.

  If she wins a 10th following the final weekend of the regular season on Monday, she will tie the record set by Penn Athletics Hall of Famer Diana Caramanico (1998), Dartmouth's Elise Morrison (2004), and Harvard's Temi Fagbenle (2013).

  All six of Caramanico, Morrison, Fagbenle, Feaster, Rasheed, and Alarie went on to be named Ivy League Rookie of the Year. If Collins wins the award, she'll be the eighth Penn player to receive the honor and the seventh in the Mike McLaughlin coaching era (the third in the last five seasons).

 
Penn split its final Ivy weekend of the regular season by routing Dartmouth, 66-37, in Hanover on Friday to earn its fourth straight victory before falling 62-44 at Harvard on Saturday evening.

  On Friday, Penn got double-doubles from both Almqvist (24 pts, 10 rebs) and Collins (14 pts, 10 rebs) while Gayle tied a career high with nine assists as the Quakers topped the Big Green to split the season series.

  Both Almqvist (13 pts) and Collins (13) led the Red and Blue in scoring in Saturday's loss to Harvard. The Quakers led by as many as six points late in the second quarter and were tied with the Crimson at halftime, 26-26. Harvard outscored Penn 36-18 the rest of the way.

 
Penn is ranked highly—both as a team and individually—among both Ivy and NCAA DI statistical categories.

  As a team, the Quakers rank second in the Ivy, 45th in NCAA in assist/turnover ratio
(1.14) and are also highly ranked in three-point percentage defense (28.1; 3rd, 45th), fewest turnovers per game (12.8; 2nd, 27th), and fewest fouls per game (14.5; 3rd, 46th).

  Individually, Almqvist is putting together quite the senior season, ranked 36th in the nation in minutes per game at 35.9, 64th in points per game (17.7) and 62nd in total free throws (116). With 44 blocks and averaging 1.7 per game this year, Collins is tops in the Ancient Eight in both categories, ranked 66th nationally in blocks, 57th in average.

  Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 161 of its last 176 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 171-19 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 50-141 (.288) when they've scored less than 60 points under McLaughlin. The trend continues defensively. Over the last 11 seasons, the Red and Blue are 55-106 (.347) when allowing 60 points or more. But when holding opponents under that number, the Quakers hold a healthy winning record of 190-36 (.836).

  For the latest on Penn women's basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com. 

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