Bears, Bulldogs prevail over Penn

The Penn women’s basketball team showed grit in Friday and Saturday’s contests against Yale and Brown at the Palestra.

But a strong effort wasn’t enough for the team in its first Ivy weekend. The Quakers lost both games by scores of 58-51 and 61-47 respectively.

Penn (1-16, 0-3 Ivy) has now dropped seven consecutive games. Their only win this season came at home against St. Francis (N.Y.) on Dec. 31.

“Disappointing,” coach Mike McLaughlin said when asked to evaluate the weekend’s outcome. “I’d say we played better [against Yale] than we did [against Brown], but ultimately we lost both.”

Against Yale (7-11, 2-2), Penn had to rally from a 10-point halftime deficit. While the team managed to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to four with six minutes left in play, it never managed to get closer.

Junior Kim Adams led the Red and Blue with 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

She was complemented by sophomore Jess Knapp, who led the team with seven rebounds, along with her six points. Penn had its best shooting day of the season, going 19-of-43 (44.2 percent) from the field.

“We got better shots [and] drove in for some layups,” added McLaughlin.

Freshman Megan Vazquez led Yale offensively with 16 points, including 12 in the second half.

In Saturday’s game against Brown (5-13, 2-2) a similar story unfolded for the Quakers.

After Brown opened the game’s scoring with a layup by senior Natalie Bonds, the team didn’t look back. The Bears never trailed once in the game.

After ending the half behind by six, the Quakers cut their deficit to one point with 14 minutes left. But Brown pulled off eight straight points to secure its advantage in the match.

While the Quakers cut Brown’s lead to three points with 1:46 to play. The Bears made their free throws down the stretch and held a 14 point lead — its largest of the game — at the final buzzer.

Brown sophomore Hannah Passafuime scored a game-high 21 points.

With 10 points, Adams led Penn offensively just as she did in Yale. Knapp mastered the boards again, gathering 12 rebounds.

“It’s a matter of starting these games the same way we’re ending them, with a high level of intensity,” Knapp said.

“The intensity was up on defense these last two games. But as coach [McLaughlin] says, our margin for error is pretty small.”

The Red and Blue’s shooting returned back to the season average, as they made 29.6 percent (16-of-54) of their shots.

Coming up next for the Quakers are home games against Dartmouth and Harvard, who are 7-10 (2-1 Ivy) and 11-6 (2-1) respectively this year.

“The schedule’s tough,” McLaughlin said. “We can’t hide from the fact that it’s going to be a great challenge. We’ve just got to do our best everyday, to give ourselves a chance to win.”

Knapp echoed his feelings, “They’re all tough teams,” she said of the Ivy League. “Everyone’s got something to prove out there.”

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