AT COURTSIDE: Penn relinquishes upper hand

All things considered, the Penn women's basketball team was in good shape early in the second half in last night's Big 5 contest against La Salle. But then the Quakers lost the one thing they couldn't afford to lose – their composure. And things went downhill pretty quickly from there. With 16:48 left in the game, Penn junior guard Katina Banks connected on the second of two consecutive three-point field goals and put the Quakers up by eight, 29-21. After overcoming a 26.7 shooting percentage, a 32-23 deficit in rebounds, and La Salle's defensive pressure to take a 19-17 edge at halftime, Penn had opened the second half with a 10-4 run and now held the game's biggest lead. "We thought that both teams were playing sloppy, but we still had the lead," Penn senior forward Julie Gabriel said. "We knew that we needed to clean it up." The Explorers failed to answer Banks's trey, and the Quakers had the chance to push the lead into double digits. They went to the hot hand, but Banks threw an errant pass. La Salle capitalized quickly on the turnover, as forward Lisa Auman nailed a three. The lead still was at five, but this time the Explorer press forced Penn senior forward Julie Gabriel to throw the ball away. La Salle once again fired from downtown, and this time it was freshman guard Marnie McBreen who cut three points off the lead. The score now stood at 29-27 and the Quakers were clearly rattled. "They grabbed the momentum with a couple of big three-pointers there," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "And we just lost our composure." Soriero tried to stop the bleeding with a timeout, and it worked for a few possessions. Junior forward Shelly Dieterle hit a baseline jumper, and then Banks found senior center Katarina Poulsen for an easy score inside. But then the La Salle press began once again to pay dividends, as Penn was forced into some difficult shots and the Explorers closed the gap to two at 33-31. Gabriel's next shot was blocked, and La Salle gained possession – the result was another McBreen three and a 34-33 Explorer lead with 11:35 to play. The Quakers turned the ball over to La Salle's defensive pressure three more times in the next six minutes and Soriero would have to use another timeout. By the five-minute mark, Penn was down by six, 53-47. The tide had turned – in a 10-minute span, La Salle had gotten the Quakers to lose control of the lead and of the game. "We weren't consistent when we had the lead and then we let it go completely," Gabriel said. The Penn backcourt had been able to handle the Explorers' defense without too much difficulty in the first half. Banks and junior Shelly Bowers looked to break the press and Gabriel, despite a tough night shooting (0-10 from the floor) played a key role in bringing the ball up the court. Freshman Erica McCauley added a spark as well, playing 23 minutes and scoring 7 points. But the success didn't last as the Quakers were eventually unable to control the ball and get good shots. Bowers felt it was the lack of composure late in the game – not the La Salle defense itself – that was costly. "I think we lost our poise a little bit near the end of the game," Bowers said. "We might have panicked when we lost the lead and had to get it back. We believe we've improved over last year, and this was something from last year we didn't want to see come back." And so, the Quakers lost last night's game because they lost their poise in the second half. And considering this team's veteran experience, that result was somewhat surprising. "When you have an eight-point lead, and the win doesn't happen, it's disappointing," Soriero said. "We're not a young team anymore – our upperclassmen need to step up and want the ball and get the job done."