Heartbreak at the Palestra

There is at least one team that is thankful for the Ivy League's policy of playing two consecutive games each weekend. After suffering the most heartbreaking of defeats Friday night against defending Ivy champion Brown, the Penn women's basketball team did not stay down for long. The Quakers rebounded the next night with perhaps their strongest performance of the season, a 71-55 victory over a solid Yale team. First the bad news. Penn (6-13, 2-5 Ivy League) missed a golden opportunity Friday to upset a team picked to win the Ivies again. After a helter-skelter final 30 seconds of play, junior guard Katina Banks found herself at the foul line for a one-and-one in the ultimate pressure situation -- one second remaining and Brown leading 58-57. Banks was unable to convert the front end, and Brown (11-7, 5-1) grabbed the rebound and narrowly avoided what would have been a stunning defeat. "I was thinking that I've done this a thousand times," Banks said. "Just relax and take a breath. I was thinking that if I made the first we would be tied and that if I hit both, chances were pretty good that we would win. I think maybe I was thinking too far ahead." The main reason Penn was in position to win the game with one second remaining was that 6-foot-5 Bear center Martina Jerant, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, had one of the worst outings of her career offensively. Her biggest problem was the three fouls she picked up in the game's first eight minutes. The fouls forced Jerant to the bench for the remainder of the half, which ended with Penn leading 29-28. And when she returned, she couldn't generate any offense against the Quaker zone defense. Penn senior center Katarina Poulsen blocked three of her shots and helped limit her to zero points from the field, and only three overall. "We did a nice job in our zone," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "I think we did a nice job containing the inside, but also extending and pressuring on the outside so that the pass to her was difficult. I don't think she saw the ball that much. But the Quakers were unable to take advantage of Jerant's off-night, as their inside players struggled as well. Junior forward Shelly Dieterle had only six points, and while Poulsen had 11, she missed several easy shots in the second half that would have allowed the Quakers to pad their lead while Brown was making a charge to go ahead. "When you're working hard to get the ball in the paint, you shouldn't miss the shot," Poulsen said. The outside shooting of Banks and junior guard Shelly Bowers, who combined for 34 points, kept Penn ahead for most of the second half. Then a series of Quaker miscues allowed the Bears to score five straight points to take a 56-52 lead. But Penn battled back and reclaimed the lead at 57-56 when Banks got underneath the basket and put back a missed shot. Brown sophomore forward Kjersetn Boschen put the Bears back ahead on a layup with 25 seconds to play. The Quakers' ensuing possession resulted in a turnover, and they had to foul Jerant with 10 seconds left. But she missed the first shot of the one-and-one. Poulsen grabbed the rebound, but threw the ball away. With the Quakers out of timeouts, all the Bears had to do was run the clock out to secure the victory. But Banks knocked the ball away from Brown guard Michelle Pagliaro. She grabbed possession, was fouled near midcourt with one second left, and went to the line for the shot that decided the game. Although the shot from the charity stripe fell short, Banks and the Quakers would redeem themselves Saturday against Yale, which entered the game in second place in the league. The Elis (11-7, 3-3) were coming off their biggest win of the season, during which they handed Dartmouth its first league defeat, but they were not nearly the same team against Penn. This in spite of the fact that Yale had a distinct advantage in the fatigue department -- the Elis' scheduled game at Princeton the night before was cancelled while the Quakers were struggling through the physically and emotionally draining game against Brown. "That's been the earmark of this team and this program," Soriero said. "They've bounced back from some very tough opponents all year and also from some very disappointing losses. That's the expectation they have for themselves and that's certainly the expectation I have for them." Even though the score was close for much of the contest, Penn always seemed to be in control. With most of the Quakers struggling from the field, senior forward Julie Gabriel scored 11 first-half points to give Penn a 29-26 lead at the intermission. Gabriel's early firepower was all the Quakers needed, because aside from all-Ivy player Mary Kalich, who scrapped and scraped for 16 points, Yale was unable to get anything going on the offensive end throughout the game. The 2-3 zone defense Penn employed for much of the game limited Yale to a putrid 27 percent from the field, and also helped the Quakers reduce the rebounding deficit they suffered Friday. Brown outrebounded Penn 54-30, but Yale's advantage was only 56-51. Gabriel got 15 of Penn's boards against Yale, to go with 15 points. Penn's biggest scares were a result of foul trouble. Gabriel picked up her fourth five minutes into the second half, and Poulsen received her fourth eight minutes later. But Banks, who had shot poorly during the first half, began to find the range. She scored eight straight points when Gabriel was on the bench to increase a three-point lead to nine. Then, moments after Gabriel returned and Poulsen had to take a seat, Yale was within seven when the ball came to Gabriel in the right corner. She hoisted a three-pointer that went in just as Yale forward Bari Porter was called for a foul on Bowers away from the ball. Though Bowers missed the opportunity for the five-point play, the series gave Penn a 10-point lead, and sapped all the energy from the Elis. "That was the turning-point play," Soriero said. "Even though [Bowers] missed the free throws, it was a big play for what it said -- the determination that the entire team had." From there the Quakers coasted to the 16-point win, with Banks tallying a career-high 22 points. And now they are left to channel the momentum this weekend should provide them. "It shows the league, and it also shows ourselves, that we're a much better team than we were last weekend [against Columbia and Cornell]," Gabriel said. "We just have to take this intensity through the rest of our games."