Penn searching for answers after its loss to No. 23 Princeton: ‘We need to find a little lightning’

For the sixth straight season, Penn took a quiet bus ride home from Jadwin Gymnasium.

On Friday, the Quakers (13-8, 3-5 Ivy League) took a familiar drive up I-95 to take on No. 23 Princeton (19-2, 7-1 Ivy League). Penn entered the game with confidence after beating Columbia, the only team in the Ivy League to take down Princeton, last weekend.

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Despite impressive performances from Simone Sawyer (16 points ) and Mataya Gayle (16 points), the Penn women’s basketball team lost to Princeton for the 16th straight time. They fell, 69-50.

“The seniors haven’t won a game against Princeton,” head coach Mike McLaughlin said. “Instead of pretending that didn’t happen, we addressed it like, ‘You could be the group that gets a win here.’ I think they were just disappointed.”

A familiar narrative unfolded for Penn in the first half as Gayle jump-started the offense.

Following a sluggish first frame, Gayle took over in the second quarter, dropping eight points to help Penn take a 30-28 halftime lead.

“She made plays off the dribble,” McLaughlin said. “They struggled to contain her. She made some attack, kicks, penetration. We just couldn’t convert.”

Katie Collins, Gayle’s most reliable second punch, didn’t have the same success — finishing with seven points and snapping her 13-game double-digit scoring streak against Princeton.

Sawyer scored seven of Penn’s 11 points in the third quarter, but a flaming hot shooting performance from Princeton’s Olivia Hutcherson broke the game open for the Tigers.

The 6-foot guard scored nine of her total 19 points in the third quarter. Hutcherson’s efforts were capped off by an assist for a three-pointer and layup from center Fadima Tall, opening the fourth with a 14-point lead and a Penn timeout.

Penn couldn’t climb out of the hole, scoring only seven points in the final frame to finish with under 60 points for the third time in Ivy League Play.

“We were tough the first half,” McLaughlin said. “There were moments of really good play there into half time up to start of the third. End of the third quarter started, they start to pull away a little bit… we just struggled to get stops from them.”

The Tigers played seven players for over 16 minutes in the matchup, with three players scoring over 15. On the flip side, Penn kept a tighter rotation — with only six players playing over 15 minutes despite playing in a physically demanding 3-2 zone defense.

“We’ve been working with them in practice trying to get that next kid or two,” McLaughlin said. “Honestly, they haven’t been overly productive in practice settings, to really get those minutes.”

Four players scored in the double digits for the Quakers, but the end of the bench lacked punch as Saniah Caldwell and Brooke Suttle produced two points on six shots in a combined 47 total minutes.

McLaughlin is actively waiting for someone on the roster to step up and keep the program’s Ivy League Championship hopes alive — and will be expanding the team’s guard rotation next week versus Cornell and Columbia.

“We need to find a little lightning here,” McLaughlin said. “We need to find someone off the bench to get a basket for us. And I think this week’s a big week for that. We play back to back again. We’re not going to do it without someone stepping up. It’s not just two people. So see what this week looks like. But I’m with you. I think we need another person there, and that’s trying to connect.

Penn looks to rebound on Friday against Cornell (8-12, 3-4 Ivy League) in Ithaca (6 p.m., ESPN+).