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PHILADELPHIA \u2014\u00a0Following a trip to the Lone Star State over the Thanksgiving weekend, the University of Pennsylvania women’s basketball team is back home in Philadelphia. The Quakers will face Maine Thursday in a game that will tip off at 6 p.m. The Series with Maine The Red and Blue gutted out a 56-52 win last year in Orono, Maine behind 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists from Stina Almqvist<\/a>. The largest margin of victory for the Quakers came in 2010 in a 69-48 win at The Palestra.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scouting the Black Bears The\u00a0Eyes\u00a0of\u00a0Texas\u00a0Were\u00a0Upon Them Gayle\u00a0led all scorers in the game with 24 points and tied\u00a0Saniah Caldwell<\/a>\u00a0for the team lead with three assists, while\u00a0Collins\u00a0nearly had a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.\u00a0In the win over St. Thomas,\u00a0Collins\u00a0was simply spectacular\u2014she scored 18 points on a perfect 6-of-6 performance from three-point land and added eight rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots.\u00a0Gayle\u00a0added 14 points and led all players with six assists and four steals.<\/p>\n The St. Thomas Recap The\u00a0Big\u00a05 Women’s\u00a0Classic Tickets are still available for the Classic and can be found online at Villanova’s Athletic Ticket Office<\/a> (https:\/\/villanova.evenue.net\/events\/BIG5).<\/p>\n Aye, Aye\u00a0Captains! Penn WBB By The Numbers 13.0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0Sawyer’s points-per-game average over Penn’s last five contests; she has reached double figures in four of them\u2014highlighted by a 21-point day at Hofstra\u2014and scored nine in the outlier game.<\/p>\n 29\u00a0\u2022 Assists dished out by\u00a0Gayle\u00a0so far this season, tied with Princeton’s Skye Belker for most among Ivy players.<\/p>\n 93.5\u00a0\u2022\u00a0Sawyer’s free-throw percentage this season (29-31), which was tops among Ivy League players\u2014Dartmouth’s Cate MacDonald is second (13-14, .929)\u2014and 14th nationally at the start of the week.<\/p>\n 95.2\u00a0\u2022 Penn’s free-throw percentage Sunday at Texas (20-21);\u00a0Collins\u00a0was the only player to miss\u2014she was still a solid 5-6\u2014while\u00a0Sawyer\u00a0led the way with a perfect 8-8 performance.\u00a0As a team, the Quakers entered the week shooting 84.0 percent from the foul line, a number that leads the Ivy League and is second nationally behind only Rice (85.5 pct).<\/p>\n For the latest on Penn Women’s basketball, follow @PennWBB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, and on the web at PennAthletics.com. #FightOnPenn<\/p>\n \u00a0
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\nThe Quakers are looking to get back in the win column after Sunday’s hard-fought, 81-63 loss at current No. 2 Texas.
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\nGAME 9 – PENN (5-3, 0-0 Ivy League) vs. MAINE<\/a> (3-5)
\nThursday, Dec. 4, 2025 | 6 p.m.
\nPhiladelphia, Pa. | The Palestra
\nWatch on ESPN+<\/a>\u00a0($) | Live Stats<\/a>\u00a0| Digital Game Program<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe Quakers and Black Bears are meeting for the third straight season and the fifth time overall. Penn leads the series, 3-1. Maine is making its third visit to The Palestra, the others coming in 2010 (a 69-48 Penn win) and two seasons ago (the Quakers winning, 72-69). Penn won last year’s game in Orono, 56-52, as\u00a0Mataya Gayle<\/a>\u00a0scored 11 points,\u00a0Sarah Miller<\/a>\u00a0added 10, and\u00a0Katie Collins<\/a>\u00a0stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, a team-high eight rebounds, five assists, and three steals.<\/p>\n
\nAfter a rough start to the season, Maine enters the game after back-to-back wins against Saint Francis and Boston University. Adrianna Smith led the team in scoring in both games with 19 against Saint Francis and 24 against Boston. Smith nearly averages a double-double with 18.1 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest to go along with five assists. Her sidekick Asta Blauenfeldt also thrives on the offensive end, averaging 13 points and shooting around 40 percent from behind the arc. The Black Bears get after opponents defensively, averaging 8.9 steals per game and converting those turnovers into 17 points per game.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quakers spent the Thanksgiving weekend in the Lone Star State and gave a great account of themselves in a pair of games, routing Division III St. Thomas (Texas) 78-44 and then falling to then-No. 4 and unbeaten Texas, 81-63. In the loss to the Longhorns\u2014who extended their home winning streak to 30 games with the victory and were coming off wins over No. 3 UCLA and No. 2 South Carolina earlier in the week\u2014Penn led after one quarter, 15-11; tied UT in the third quarter, 18-18; and were only outscored in the fourth, 22-18.<\/p>\n
\nThe Quakers opened the road trip to the Lone Star State with a 78-44 victory over St. Thomas last\u00a0Friday behind 18 points from Katie Collins<\/a>. Collins shot the ball at an extremely high clip for the Quakers, hitting six-of-six three-pointers while also collecting eight rebounds. Penn hit a season-high 14 shots from behind the arc. Mataya Gayle had a season-high four steals for the Red and Blue.<\/p>\n
\nPenn will play in the opener at Sunday’s Toyota Women’s Big 5 Classic, taking on La Salle at noon. For the second straight year, the Classic will take place at Villanova’s Finneran Pavilion. The other matchups in Sunday’s tripleheader at “The Finn” include Drexel and Temple meeting at 2:15 p.m., followed by Villanova and Saint Joseph’s in the championship game at 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n
\nPenn has five players leading the team as captains in 2025-26, tying a program record for a single season. The leadership group is made up of seniors\u00a0Saniah Caldwell<\/a>,\u00a0Simone Sawyer<\/a>, and\u00a0Georgia Heine<\/a>, as well as junior\u00a0Gayle\u00a0and sophomore\u00a0Collins.\u00a0There have been just two other seasons in program history when the Quakers had five captains: 2004-05 and 2020-21 (which was canceled due to COVID-19).<\/p>\n
\n6.9\u00a0\u2022\u00a0Collins’ rebounds-per-game average so far this season; that is tied for third among Ivy League players with Columbia’s Perri Page, behind Brown’s Alyssa Moreland (10.3) and Princeton’s Fadima Tall (8.0).<\/p>\n
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