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Padilla goes off as Penn WBB wins opener on the road

11/10/2022, 10:30pm EST
By Jonathan Kinane

Jonathan Kinane (@JKinane218)

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY - Penn women’s basketball opened its 2022-23 campaign with a 65-61 win over Marist at the McCann Center as Kayla Padilla put the team on her back Thursday night in a meeting of two traditional mid-major powers coming off underwhelming seasons.

The two-time all-Ivy League selection tied a career high with 31 points on 13-for-23 shooting from the floor and a 3-for-7 performance from behind the arc.


Kayla Padilla (above, in practice) scored 31 in Penn's season-opening win on Thursday. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“I think it’s just crucial to have the mentality of doing whatever I can for the team,” Padilla said. “Traditionally, it’s been scoring, and tonight I knew I had to pick it up a notch, but still knowing that I have to do whatever I can whether it’s making an assist or scoring.”

Even though she scored nearly half her team’s points, her biggest play of the night came as a distributor.

With her team ahead 49-45 with five minutes left in the game, Padilla drove, drew a crowd, and kicked out to a wide-open Mandy McGurk, who swished the three to make it a seven-point game. With the Quakers’ star sitting on 29 points for the night, no one would have blamed her for trying to take it herself. Instead, she made the right read, leading to one of the biggest plays of the night.

“That was a huge momentum play for us,” Padilla said. “In those situations, you have to have the confidence in your teammates to knock down shots, and all credit to Mandy for being able to hit that three and change the tide of the game.”

A little later, with the shot clock running down, she hit a crucial step-back jumper to make it 58-51 with just over a minute left.

The Quakers fought off a spirited Marist rally down the stretch. The Red Foxes came within 63-61 after a Maeve Donnelly layup with 11 seconds left, but after failing to put the game on ice from the charity stripe a few times, Penn finally did so courtesy of McGurk, who made two-of-two to put it away.

The Quakers (1-0) went 12-14 in 2021-22, the program’s first losing season since 2011-12, which was head coach Mike McLaughlin’s third year in charge. Last year was also the first time the team failed to win 20 games since 2012-13.

Thursday’s win marked the debut of a new-look Penn roster anchored by Padilla and Jordan Obi (14 points per game last season).

The Quakers struggled to find balance and the problem was exacerbated when Obi went out of the game with a knee injury in the middle of the second quarter. She was helped off the court but did not return after receiving treatment.

“When Jordan Obi wasn’t able to return for the game for us it caused some problems,” McLaughlin said. “She was our second-leading scorer and we were still trying to search for our third scorer… and we just had to play in a live environment with some lineups we hadn’t tried yet.”

Floor Toonders, a 6-foot-4 junior transfer from Florida, highlighted the slew of newcomers to the Quakers’ lineup, slotting into the starting ‘5’ role. After averaging just 1.5 points per game with the Gators last season, she contributed six points and 14 crucial rebounds, including four on the offensive end.

Stina Almqvist, the other new starter who averaged about four points in 12 minutes in 2021-22, played solidly with eight points and eight rebounds.

The Quakers started an ice-cold 1-for-13 from the floor en route to a 13-7 deficit after the first quarter that could have been worse had the Red Foxes made more of their opening opportunities.

Trailing 18-9 with eight minutes left in the first half, Padilla willed her team back into things with a dominant second quarter. She sparked a 9-0 run that tied the game at 18 with just over four minutes left in the half.

Padilla was also the beneficiary of an overturned charge call that ended up with her at the line to cap a three-point play and ended a 15-point quarter with a three to give her team a 27-23 lead going into the half.

“Kayla carried us in the first half,” McLaughlin said. “We got good shots at the rim but we just didn’t score the ball. She made some big shots… they guarded her hard but she was just really special out there.”

With Padilla scoring 19 of Penn’s 27 first-half points, Marist put an emphasis on trying to get the ball out of her hands.

But on Penn’s first trip of the second half, Padilla was back to her old tricks, penetrating the defense and converting another three-point play for a 30-23 lead.

After scoring 24 of her team’s first 32 points, the Quakers finally found some contributions from a few others, but it was once again Padilla who came up with the goods with a mid-range jumper to send her team to the fourth quarter up 43-38.

While Padilla was involved in several key plays down the stretch, Toonders and Almqvist also came up with important crunch-time field goals to keep the Red Foxes at arm’s length.

The Quakers will need to find some more balance as conference play gets closer. Obi’s health is a big factor, but McLaughlin will have to hope that McGurk, Toonders, and Almqvist can all build on solid second-half performances.

Penn will return to action on Sunday when it travels to Chicago to face Northwestern at 1 p.m.


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