Embarking on a true Ivy weekend road trip, the University of Pennsylvania women's basketball team heads north to New England to take on Brown Friday night before heading back down south to face Yale on Saturday.

  Tipoff times are set for 7 p.m. Friday in Providence and 5:30 p.m. Saturday in New Haven.

 
Friday night marks the 94th meeting between Penn and Brown all time. The Quakers have a series lead of 56-37.

  Penn has won eight of the last 10 matchups, but have dropped two of the last three including a 61-59 defeat last season in Providence.

  Head coach Mike McLaughlin has posted a healthy winning record of 24-5 against the Bears since he took over the helm ahead of the 2009-10 season.

  Penn has dropped its last two matchups at the Pizzitola Sports Center, including a 68-59 loss on Feb. 18, 2023 which snapped a 21-game win streak dating back to March 2, 2012.

 
Penn and Yale's series record has been fairly even heading into the 93rd meeting on Saturday evening.

  The Quakers lead the all-time series, 49-43, and have won six of the last 10 matchups.

  The two teams split the season series in 2023-24 with the Bulldogs coming out victorious at The Palestra, 74-68, in overtime before falling at home, 66-52.

  A win Saturday would give Penn its 50th in the all-time series while McLaughlin would improve to 17-12 against the Elis.

 
This weekend is the first true Ivy weekend of the year as Penn plays Brown Friday night before heading south to face Yale on Saturday evening as we get into the homestretch of the conference slate.

  The Bears currently occupy fourth in the Ivy League standings with a record of 3-2, while the Quakers are two games back at 1-4, a tie for sixth place with Yale.

  Penn has split the Brown/Yale weekend each of the last two years since the Ivy returned to the current format.

  The Quakers have not swept the weekend since 2019-20 when they won 10 of their last 12 games heading into what turned out to be the canceled Ivy League Tournament due to COVID-19.

 
It was a struggle to overcome the firepower that is the Columbia offense, as Penn fell to the Lions, 79-54, Saturday afternoon at Levien Gymnasium on Broadway.

  The Quakers had a 16-15 lead following the first quarter of play, but a 24-0 scoring run bridging the second third stanzas was enough for the Lions to put together a dominant performance.

  Simone Sawyer led Penn with a team-high tying 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting, along with a season-high six steals. Mataya Gayle also scored 14 points, adding six rebounds and three assists over 40 minutes.

  Sarah Miller led the bench unit with eight points on a pair of three-pointers, while Penn was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line in the defeat.

 
Despite a quiet offensive game at Columbia on Saturday, Stina Almqvist has been sensational for the Quakers so far this season, currently ranked second in the Ivy League in scoring at 17.7 points per game.

  She's registered three double-doubles this year and had recorded double digit points in 20 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season before being held to just nine against Columbia in the Ivy opener. It was the longest streak since Eleah Parker had 26 straight in 2019.

  With nine games remaining on the regular season schedule, Almqvist is now on the hunt for 1,000 career points. She's sitting at 933, just 67 away from becoming the 26th player in program history to achieve the milestone.

 
The Quakers wouldn't be as successful as they have been this year without the production of freshmen Katie Collins and Miller.

  Collins ranks second in the Ivy in rebounding, averaging 7.7 boards per game and is also tops in blocks with 34, averaging 1.9 per game.

  Miller has emerged as the team's go-to sharpshooter thus far, leading the Quakers with 28 three-pointers. She's averaging 1.6 triples per game, good for a tie for fifth in the Ancient Eight.

  Both Collins and Miller have combined for five Ivy League Rookie of the Week honors so far this season while Miller was named USBWA National Freshman of the Week back on Dec. 10 for her standout effort against La Salle in the Women's Big 5 Classic.

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

  As a team, the Quakers rank second in the Ivy, 46th in NCAA in assist/turnover ratio
(1.13) and are also highly ranked in blocks per game (4.2; 1st, 47th), fewest turnovers per game (13.1; 2nd, 30th), and fewest fouls per game (14.2; 2nd, 32nd).

  Individually, Almqvist is putting together quite the senior season, ranked 22nd in the nation in minutes per game at 36.1, 58th in points per game (17.7) and 68th in total free throws (77). With 34 blocks and averaging 1.9 per game this year, Collins is tops in the Ancient Eight in both categories, ranked 46th nationally in blocks, 36th in average.

 
Brown has found some early-season success, currently having sole possession of fourth place in the Ivy standings.

  The Bears come into the weekend with a 3-2 record in conference play and are 6-3 at home.

  Brown has won back-to-back games, defeating Cornell, 49-39, on MLK Day before heading to Hanover, N.H. and knocking off Dartmouth. 64-56, last weekend.

  Brown's defense has allowed the second-most points per game (63.1) this season, while scoring the fifth most (63.9 ppg). The Bears are averaging 7.7 three-pointers made per game, the second-most in the Ancient Eight and have the third-best turnover margin at +1.94.

  Grace Arnolie is ranked sixth in the conference in scoring at 15.1 points per game, second in assists (4.2 apg), and tied for fourth in steals per game (1.8) while Alma Ofunrein is ranked third in field-goal percentage (.580).

  Scouting the Bulldogs
After a season-opening victory vs. Monmouth on Nov. 4, Yale's 15-game losing streak came to an end two weeks ago when it knocked off Dartmouth in Hanover.

  Now, the Bulldogs are tied for sixth with Penn heading into their matchup Saturday at the JLA. Their last time out, they fell at Harvard, 91-35.

  As a team in the Ivy League, Yale is seventh in scoring (54.4 ppg) and eighth in scoring defense (72.6 ppg) and margin (-18.1). The Bulldogs are also last in field-goal percentage (.363) and opponent field-goal percentage (.477), but rank second in opponent three-point field-goal percentage at 26.7 percent (64-for-240).

  The Bulldogs are led by Mackenzie Egger, who ranks fifth in scoring (15.8 ppg) and first in rebounding (9.5 rpg). Egger also ranks fifth in blocks per game (0.8) and third in steals per game (1.9), while currently second behind Almqvist in minutes per game (33.9).

 
Head Coach Mike McLaughlin became just the fifth coach in Ivy League history to record 250 career wins with a school after the Quakers took down the Explorers in the Big 5 Classic, 74-63.

  McLaughlin continues to stretch out his lead as Penn's all-time wins leader, surpassing Lois Ashley's mark of 128 wins in 12 seasons with his 129th win at Dartmouth on March 3, 2017. The head man currently sits with a record of 253-170 at Penn.

  In addition, McLaughlin earned the 650th win of his career last season against Harvard; that ranks him eighth among active Division I coaches.

  Magic Number: 60
The statistic that may most indicate a Penn win or loss? 60 points. Penn has won 158 of its last 172 regular season games when scoring at least 60 points in regulation. Over the last eight seasons under McLaughlin, the Quakers are 168-18 when reaching that number. In comparison overall, the Quakers are just 50-140 (.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 52-104 (.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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