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Womens Basketball vs Princeton Credit: Ilana Wurman , Ilana Wurman, Ilana Wurman

Following a 26-point loss to Big 5 rival Villanova on Wednesday, Penn women’s basketball was prepared to rely on its seniors and stars to get the squad back in the win column.

Maybe it didn’t have to.

In their last nonconference matchup before kicking off the remainder of Ivy League play, the Red and Blue rode impressive performances from freshman rookie Michelle Nwokedi and sophomore Sade Gibbons to a 59-29 win over NJIT on Saturday.

Entering the matchup, the Quakers (9-6) were looking to overcome the offensive struggles that had plagued them all month. In its four other games in 2015, Penn’s highest scoring output was 54 points in the team’s 29-point loss to Princeton on Jan. 10.

And for a few minutes on Saturday, it seemed like the Red and Blue might have confronted those issues. Despite racing out to an early 11-2 lead, both the Quakers and Highlanders (8-14) went scoreless for several minutes midway through the first period.

But Penn managed to overcome the slight lull in a hurry. Sparked by three baskets from Gibbons, the Quakers opened up an 18-point lead with five minutes to play before halftime and eventually went into the break up 30-15.

“Sade came in at a really crucial point in the game in the first half and gave us three incredible baskets,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “She set us up with some really good play.

“She is someone who is going to do really well for us in her junior and senior years, but she showed today that that her development is coming along a little bit earlier.”

The Red and Blue were absolutely dominant on the defensive side of the ball on Saturday. Penn limited NJIT to only seven field goals in each half, holding the Highlanders to 23.7 percent shooting for the entire game.

Much of that success was made possible by the strong play of the Quakers’ frontcourt. Although she scored only seven points, sophomore Sydney Stipanovich collected nine rebounds and blocked two shots, while seniors Katy Allen and Kara Bonenberger combined for nine boards.

“We’ve been effective defensively, but Villanova knocked down some crucial early shots on Wednesday,” McLaughlin said. “In response, I thought we were tremendous on the inside tonight.”

No player was more tremendous on either side of the ball than Nwokedi. The Missouri City, Texas, native put together her best all-around game in a Penn uniform, scoring 14 points — the second highest mark of her career — on six-for-10 shooting.

The rookie also added seven rebounds, five blocks, three assists and two steals to emphatically pace the Quakers in their blowout win.

“At this point, coming into this game, Michelle has had huge upside potential for us and she’s been progressing consistently all season to a pretty high level,” McLaughlin said. “It was a great game for her, and she’s ready to get into Ivy play.

“I’d expect her to play a lot more moving forward.”

Junior guard Ronni Grandison led the Highlanders with 10 points, while senior center Nicole Maticka scored six of her own.

The nine nonconference wins for Penn mark its second-highest win total outside of Ivy play in program history. The Quakers won 10 nonconference games in 2013-14 en route to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade.

“The takeaway is the 15 games [thus far] as a whole,” McLaughlin said. “We’ve played some very good teams, we’ve been competitive against some very good teams, so now we need to get prepared for 80 minutes in an Ivy League weekend.

“I’m excited, I think we’re better than we were a week ago, than we were a few weeks ago. And we’re excited to move forward.”

Penn will next be in action on Friday on the road against Dartmouth in the first game of the team’s first Ivy doubleheader of the season.

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