Cavs take care of W. Hoops

Penn falls 92-66 to Virginia Should the Penn women's basketball team happen to find itself in the NCAA tournament come March, it will have to find a way to play better than it did in Saturday's opening game 92-66 loss to 10th-ranked Virginia in Charlottesville. That fact, however, is not on the Quakers' minds right now. Rather, they prefer to look at the strong performance they turned in against one of the very best programs in the country as proof that reaching the NCAAs by winning the Ivy League is not as farfetched as it might appear to be. Surprisingly, Penn (0-1) was able to stay within striking distance through most of the first half. The tide began to turn when the Cavaliers (2-0) used an 8-0 spurt to take a 15-point lead that became 49-36 at intermission. If the Quakers were going to have a chance, they would have had to come out strong to start the second half. Instead, their play was shoddy, as they turned the ball over four times and committed four fouls while Virginia pushed its lead to 20. If the outcome wasn't decided before, it was then. "Virginia is too strong a team physically and the way they play the game?for us to give them four opportunities like that when they're sitting on a 13-point lead," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We kept giving the ball back and eventually they'll find some way to create something on offense." One Cavalier who didn't need any help from the Quakers to create on the offensive end was forward Wendy Palmer, who controlled the outsized and overmatched Penn frontcourt with game-highs of 28 points and 13 rebounds. This performance followed a week in which Palmer did not practice at all because of a sprained knee; her decision to play came just prior to tipoff. "I'd hate to see what she would have done if she were healthy," Soriero said. "She's an exceptional player. She can score in the paint in a lot of different ways." The same also could have been said on Saturday for reserve Cavalier center Jeffra Gausephol, whose appearance turned out to have a double-concussive effect on the Quakers. Not only did Gausephol light up Penn for 22 points (including 10 of 10 from the foul line), but she helped cause Quaker center Katarina Poulsen (7 points, 4 rebounds, 22 minutes) to miss time in the second half due to foul trouble. The difference between the two teams was never clearer than when Poulsen had to take a seat and the Quakers brought in 6-0 freshman center Deana Lewis (6 points, 5 rebounds), playing in her first intercollegiate game, to go against Gausephol, the Cavs' 6-6 reserve in the middle. "If I were asked where our glaring weakness was, it would have to be our depth inside," Soriero said. "When [Poulsen] is in foul trouble we don't have the experience that Virginia has." All in all, Penn was pleased with an effort that saw it play the Cavs evenly the majority of the time. With the exception of the two spurts sandwiched around halftime and another one during garbage time in which Virginia pushed the lead up from 20, the two teams more or less played to a standstill. And aside from Poulsen, who struggled with foul problems, the Quakers' entire starting five made major point contributions. Junior guards Shelly Bowers (13 points) and Katina Banks (10 points) and senior forward Julie Gabriel (13 points, 11 rebounds) kept Penn within striking distance during the first half, and their effectiveness outside opened things up for the Quakers' inside game in the second half. Junior power forward Shelly Dieterle scored 10 of her 14 points after halftime. Following this spirited effort against a top-flight program in front of 5,000 fans, Penn believes that there is much it can take away from this game that will help it in future battles. No other opponent on the team's schedule will be as strong as the Cavaliers, and if Poulsen avoids foul trouble and the rest of the team turns in a similar performance, the Quakers think they can go far this season. "We all took a lot away from this game," Poulsen said. "We saw what we can do, and now we have to try to build on it. Playing against a team like Virginia gives you a lot of confidence. Right now we're real positive." · Penn's first opportunity to build on the Virginia game comes tonight when it travels to Villanova to take on La Salle in the first game of a Big 5 doubleheader (6 p.m.) Playing against the youthful Explorers in La Salle's season opener will provide Penn with a good opportunity to gain its first Big Five win beating Temple 1991. The Explorers are the defending Big 5 champions.