City of Basketball Love

Finn Courtney (@hooplove215)
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Coming into the season opener, intrigue swirled around Penn. The departure of five seniors — notably top scorer Kayla Padilla, who transferred to USC — plus some intriguing new arrivals left plenty of questions surrounding the Quakers. 

Jordan Obi, who averaged 13.3 ppg her first two seasons at Penn, was the obvious choice to step in and lead them in scoring, but she can’t do it all. If the Quakers want to challenge for an Ivy League title, they’d need a couple fresh faces to step up and contribute.

At least for the season opener, Stina Almqvist and Lizzy Groestch provided some answers.

The pair of juniors combined for 42 points and 17 rebounds as they both went off for career games, leading Penn to a blowout 74-51 win over Marist on Saturday afternoon at the Palestra. Quakers coach Mike McLaughlin was impressed with his two new full-time starters, and proud of the leap in play they made.

“I thought they were awesome,” the 15th-year head coach said. “Lizzy was all over the court on both ends, Stina made big basket after big basket, every time; she defended, she kept the ball alive and rebounded the ball.” 

The Quakers’ juniors were constantly diving on the floor, ripping balls out of opponents hands and scrambling all over to make a play on the defensive end, taking multiple charges to get back the other way. The duo had six steals — three each — on the day and propelled multiple other turnovers leading to Quaker scores.

Almqvist, a bench player for most of her first two seasons with an average of 12 mpg to her name, played 34 today, the most of any player and set the game’s tone early, grabbing a steal and taking a charge barely two minutes in on back-to-back possessions. She finished with a team-high 24 points, eight rebounds and set a new career-best with seven assists. 

Coming off a summer where she worked on her skills against other pro-level competitors during a 3x3 league in her home country of Sweden, Almqvist was expected to start at the 3 for Penn. However, due to a preseason foot injury to starting center Floor Toonders, Almqvist had to shift to an unfamiliar role at the ‘4.’

“It kinda changed over preseason, because Floor got injured so I had to take on a different role,” Almqvist said. “But Jordan’s been a great leader, so I just follow her steps and learn from her.”

For Groetsch, who had 18 points and nine rebounds, it’s been an up and down two years at Penn for the Sewickley native. Coming off an impressive high school career where she scored 1,504 points and earned PIAA 6A Player of the Year honors as a senior at North Allegheny (Pa.), Groetsch was mostly a deep reserve in her first two seasons, averaging around eight minutes per contest. 

Playing more minutes than she ever was allotted before, Groetsch excelled, scoring a three and then back to back layups in the fourth to cap her day. While expectations for her may have been high coming in as a freshman, two seasons later, she found her groove, and in a major way.

“I know I can really compete at a high level,” Groetsch said, “and bring a lot of grittiness, toughness, go after all the loose balls, so that’s always my focus going into the game.”

She got off to a hot start spearheading multiple Marist turnovers, with five rebounds and two steals in the books in the first quarter alone, seemingly diving after every loose ball and rebound in the Palestra. That didn’t let up all game long: Groetsch was constantly in the face of whoever she was guarding.

“Lizzy has worked as hard as any kid I’ve coached, I’ve been doing this for 29 years, this kid has lived and died in the gym,” McLaughlin said. “I couldn’t be any more happy and proud of this kid. […] The way she played tonight was the way she played every day in practice, and as a coach you’re just satisfied when someone gets to where she wants to be.”

Effort also was the word of the day for the Quakers as their aggressive zone defense had their players trapping and diving after seemingly every loose ball. Penn finished with 16 steals and forced 26 Marist turnovers on the day, scoring 33 points alone off turnovers in a dominant performance from start to finish.

Obi, who added 10 points, seven assists and six steals of her own, was the third Quaker in double figures. Freshman point guard Mataya Gayle added nine points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists as she started in her college debut. 

Shooting did prove an issue at times for Penn on the day, despite the margin of victory, as the Quakers shot just 37.1% from the floor (26-of-70) and 21.1% (8-of-38) from 3-point range. 

Marist did take advantage of this briefly in the second quarter, and cut what was a 18-6 game down to six at 23-17. Almqvist got the Quakers going again, opening up a 17-0 run for Penn going in the second, blocking a half-court heave to end the first half. 

The run continued for the Quakers into the third quarter, coming out of halftime on fire and never looking back, with continued excellence from Almqvist and Groetsch.

“Both of these guys maybe haven’t played as much their first two years,” McLaughlin said, “and to grow and learn the way they have, I thought it was awesome, I really did.”

Penn will be back in action this coming Tuesday at the Palestra against Big 5 foe Saint Joseph’s, with tip-off set for 6:00 p.m.

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Injury Update

Despite the blowout win, Penn was without two key players in guard Michaela Stanfield and forward Floor Toonders.

Toonders is dealing with a fractured bone in her foot and her timetable is a bit varied. McLaughlin said she could be ready immediately or it could take a few weeks to fully heal. The 6-foot-4 Florida transfer started 28 of 29 games a year ago for Penn, averaging 6.2 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.2 apg and 1.1 bpg. 

“She could be back anytime now, or within the next few weeks,” McLaughlin said. “Just trying to make she’s fully healed, she’s in a good spot, her conditioning stayed strong. So she could return as soon as Tuesday, but we’ll see what happens.”

McLaughlin gave an optimistic outlook for Stanfield, who’s practiced with the team since tearing her ACL in January, but is not quite ready to return to play. The 5-11 guard from Massachusetts, averaged has played in 36 career games (1.8 ppg) but is in line for a bigger role this season. 

“I would think Michaela will be within the next week or so, I think we can expect her to be actually on the floor,” McLaughlin said. “She’s not quite ready yet to put her in this position early, I just didn’t want to do that.”