PHILADELPHIA — Penn shot 65 percent in the third quarter to break the game open on the way to a 79-56 victory over the Columbia women's basketball team Friday night at the Palestra.
Reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week Sienna Durr posted a team-high 19 points and pulled down six rebounds to pace the Lions (7-15, 3-6 Ivy). First-year Madison Hardy chipped in nine points and a career-high seven rebounds off the bench.
Penn (17-4, 7-1 Ivy) put five in double figures, led by Princess Aghayere's 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting to go with seven boards. Phoebe Sterba hit four of Penn's season-high 12 threes on her way to 16 points. Ashley Russell scored 15 and was a rebound shy of a double-double, also adding five assists.
"Penn played a very good game, in fact that is one of the best I've seen them play," Columbia head coach Megan Griffith said. "Credit to them on really executing their game plan. I think for us, we made some poor decisions in transition across the game and we were never really able to bounce back."
Penn went in front 10-2 after a 3-point play from Ashley Russell with 5:06 left in the first quarter. Durr broke up a scoring drought of 3:55 with a layup in transition, but the Quakers answered with a bucket on their next possession to keep the momentum. Mikayla Markham's runner from the left elbow capped Columbia's first-quarter scoring to make it 17-8 after 10 minutes.
The first nine points of the second quarter all went to Penn as they extended its lead to 17. Clemmons knocked down one of her patented pull-up jumpers to get the Lions on the board, however, a 3-point play by Eleah Parker made it 28-10 at the 5:09 mark. The Quakers took their largest lead of the half, 33-14, off a Sterba triple before the Lions got back in it by completing the half on a 7-0 run. Riley Casey scored all five of her points during that stretch to trim the margin to 12 heading into the locker room.
Penn came out firing on all cylinders in the third, knocking down 5-of-8 from beyond the arc and 13-of-20 overall to build a 65-40 edge heading into the final frame. They led by as many as 29 before going on to tally the 23-point victory. The Quakers knocked down 12-of-29 (.414) from 3-point range.
Columbia will look to bounce back Saturday when it heads to Princeton. The ESPN3 Ivy League Women's Basketball Game of the Week is set to tip from Jadwin Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m.
POST-GAME NOTES
- Sienna Durr notched her 17th double-figure scoring game of the year.
- Madison Hardy grabbed a career-high seven rebounds and tied her career-high of three assists.
- Penn's 12 3-pointers were the most by a Columbia opponent this season.
- Penn won its 16th straight series meeting. Columbia's last victory over the Quakers came in 2011.
