City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Stina Almqvist knew she had more in her. She just didn’t realize how much. 

The Penn junior spent her first two years at Penn a key reserve for the Quakers, using her limited minutes productively, the upperclassmen dominating the production and headlines.  

Now given her chance to shine, she’s taken it and run. The 6-foot-1 Swedish wing continued her terrific start to the 2023-24 season, topping the 20-point mark for the fourth time in seven games with a 24-point outing as Penn beat La Salle 79-71 in a Big 5 game at the Palestra on Wednesday night.  

“I had some great players come before me, so I think for me it was just patience and wait for my turn,” she said afterwards. “Where there’s an opportunity, just step up, and I think my coaches and teammates have helped me get to the point I’m at now.”

In her first two years at Penn, Almqvist played in exactly 50 games, starting eight. Playing about a dozen minutes per game both years, her numbers as a freshman (4.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg) were slightly better than her sophomore (3.4 ppg, 2.0 rpg); the high point was an 18-point outing against Brown her freshman season. Last year, she had 12 appearances where she didn’t score a point, mostly filling in as a ‘3’ and ‘4’ on the court.

It only took her one game of her junior year to show things would be different, debuting with a 24-point, eight-rebound, seven-assist effort against Marist, playing a combo of ‘4’ and ‘5’ in a new role in the offense. She scored at least 13 points in the first five games of the season, foul trouble limiting her to eight points in 13 minutes the Quakers’ last time out, a win at UC-San Diego on Sunday.

Through seven games, she’s putting up arguably better numbers (19.7 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 2.4 apg) than All-Ivy First Team Kayla Padilla put up last year (17.7 pp, 4.7 rpg, 3.5 apg). 

“I’d be lying if I thought she was going to take this big of a step, but she looked more confident, older on the floor,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. “I thought she’d take a leap in terms of kids had graduated, we needed kids who didn’t play as much [...] she’s taken a massive step.”

Almqvist and senior forward Jordan Obi (13.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg) give McLaughlin his best frontcourt since program greats Sydney Stipanovich and Michelle Nwokedi led the Quakers to three Ivy championships in four years (2014-17).

Being back in the Palestra brought Almqvist right back to form. A skilled post scorer, Almqvist got the vast majority of her production right around the bucket, using some nifty footwork and timing to finish again and again with her right hand, going 9-of-16 from the floor on her 2-point attempts; she’s made more than 58% of her 2-point attempts this season.

She had 18 by halftime, Penn (5-2, 1-1 Big 5) up four in a competitive game that saw the Quakers lead most of the way but the Explorers (3-3, 0-1) never going away. 

“This was a classic case of you know what’s coming, and can you stop it?” La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “She was going to try to go for it with her right and if she couldn’t she was going to put it on the floor with her left and go back to her right, every time. We knew it was coming, we were even in position, and she made plays.”

“I’m just getting more comfortable around the rim, and liking my position more as the ‘4’ or ‘5,’” Almqvist said. “I think I’ve always loved to score the ball, even in Sweden, coming in. It’s always been there, just obviously in every team you have a different role. But losing Kayla is like losing 20 points per game, so we’ve got to step it up someway.”

Padilla, a 5-9 guard doing her grad season at USC, got her buckets from the perimeter, a 3-point marksman who would use that ability to open up driving lanes. Almqvist is much more of an interior scorer, using her size to work around the bucket while only shooting 21.7% from 3-point range (20-of-92) for her career.

Her emergence has meant that Jordan Obi, widely expected to be this year’s leading scorer after finishing second to Padilla last year, has been able to stay in her complementary role, her numbers (13.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg) similar to last season (12.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg).

“I felt like there was some pressure [to carry the load],” Obi admitted, “but yeah, we’ve all said, Stina’s scoring the ball really well — not that I don’t need to score the ball, but…”

She’ll take the help, no doubt. Penn’s other breakthrough junior, guard Lizzy Groetsch (10.0 ppg), contributed 17 points and nine rebounds on 8-12 FG. 

Obi led the way for the Quakers late, scoring 16 of her 18 points in the second half to help Penn close it out. The Quakers won all four quarters but none of them by more than three points. The lead got to double digits for most of the fourth quarter, Penn able to keep La Salle at arms’ length to close it out. 

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Injuries force tightened La Salle rotation

In the preseason, La Salle coach Mountain MacGillivray promised a rotation that came in fast and furious: “You’re going to see 10 kids on the floor before you’ve had time to get your popcorn and sit down,” he said in October. And indeed, in the first game of the season, MacGillivray went to his bench less than three minutes in, a full five-out substitution, something he repeated each of the next four games. 

But with junior forward Emilee Tahata and freshman wing Aryss Macktoon unavailable for undisclosed medical reasons on Wednesday, the Explorers’ rotation changed. It took MacGillivray four minutes to send in his first substitutions, and it wasn’t a full line change but just two players as MacGillivray played only nine against La Salle, including a few of his starters more than 30 minutes each.

On top of his substitution patterns, MacGillivray’s lineup also changed on Wednesday night. Point guard Makayla Miller, a grad transfer from Ouachita Baptist (Ark.), got her first start as an Explorer and made it count, going for a season-high 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting. 

We weren’t going fives, so it was pretty obvious that if we were putting our best group on the floor, she was probably going to be in there, and that’s what we did. And she had a good night tonight, really pleased that with her scoring numbers, she still had four assists and one turnover.”

Two players who didn’t start the year into the rotation but who seemed to have moved into it are junior guard Tiara Bolden and freshman wing Laia Monclava. Bolden, who transferred in from Eastern Arizona JUCO this offseason, scored nine points in 20 minutes against Penn; Monclova, a 6-1 freshman from Spain, added eight points and four rebounds in 16 minutes of her own.

Graduate student point guard Molly Masciantonio finished with 11 points as the last Explorer in double figures, adding six assists and two steals without a turnover in 32 minutes.

Toonders returns to the floor

There was a welcome sight on Wednesday night for Penn fans as senior center Floor Toonders made her season debut. The 6-4 post from the Netherlands had missed the first six games after suffering a right foot injury in the fall, rolling her ankle during a scrimmage. 

Toonders, who started 28 of 29 games last year and averaged 6.2 ppg and 7.3 rpg, came off the bench against La Salle and only played a little more than three minutes, all in the first half. She didn’t have an impact on the box score, but her presence back on the court is significant for the Quakers with Ivy League play five weeks away.

“Yeah, it’s great to have her back, she just practiced with us for the first time yesterday,” McLaughlin said. “She’s obviously very restricted to what we can do now. She’s only gone live for about 10 minutes so far, and I didn’t think it was fair to extend her much further today. Over the next couple days, as we practice, I’ll be able to extend her [minutes].”

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Up Next

Penn travels out to No. 23 Marquette on Sunday for a 2 PM tipoff. La Salle hosts Virginia on Sunday at 1 PM.