The Quakers Down the Lions 64 – 55 at the Palestra
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1/31/2026 –
What a difference a day makes in the Ivy League. The University of Pennsylvania did not feel well about dropping a game to Cornell. Columbia was feeling on top of the league defeating Princeton. Day Two of the Ivy Weekend. Penn turns it around defeating Columbia 64 – 55 at the Palestra.
But what really makes a difference, the change in outlook is that Penn played hard tonight and did not get out executed. Continuing that will bring hope.
“You start looking at scores and records and all that never gets you where you want to be,” said Penn Coach Mike McLaughlin. “This team just got to get better. And I really do believe we play that hard every night out, we’re going to have a chance. And I think it’s all that. It was a great building tonight that was about as fun as I think these kids can play in this environment, and I want them to experience that too. All this came together tonight.”
Penn Played as a Team
“We competed,” said Penn guard Mataya Gayle. “Everyone on the court doing what they needed to do, the little things. I really think we took yesterday’s loss and learned from it, and that translated today.”
Mataya Gayle led the team in scoring with 16 points and 7 assists. Three other players scored in double figures. Tina Njike recored double-double with 10 points and ten rebounds. She handed out 4 assists. Simone Sawyer added 10 points and Brooke Suttle contributed 11 points and 7 rebounds. The other scorers; Katie Collins had 9 and Saniah Caldwell had 8 and 4 assists. Sawyer added 3 steals. A lot of points and a lot of little things.
“That’s huge for us,” Gayle said about the balanced scoring. “We got a talking to where a coach told us we needed to do all the little things if we want to be a better team. We have to have a more balanced spread of scoring if we want to be successful. Today just showed when we do that, we’re pretty unstoppable.”
For Columbia
Riley Weiss led the Lions scoring 23 points going 12 for 20 from the floor and 5 of 15 from three-point land. In filling the stat sheet Weiss had a team-high tying 7 rebounds.
“She is such a prolific scorer and she can shoot it,” McLaughlin said. “Try to make every shot at least challenging. For the most part, we did it.”
The Quakers survived giving up 21 offensive rebounds to the Lions, and did outscore the opponent 17 – 11 in second chance points.
Penn finds themselves tied for fifth place in the Ancient Eight with Cornell, a game behind Brown for the coveted fourth spot. An Ivy Madness berth is within reach, as of now.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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