AT COURTSIDE: Banks rebounds after fatal miss

Brown could do nothing. The game rested in the hands of Penn junior guard Katina Banks. The Penn women's basketball team had a chance to knock off the best team in the Ivy League. With Penn down by a single point and one tick left on the clock, Banks stood at the free-throw line waiting to launch the first shot of a one-and-one. The Bears had already called time-out in an attempt to ice her. "I was thinking I've done this a thousand times," Banks said. "Just take a deep breath. I thought I could at least make the first shot for a tie, and if I made both the chances were pretty good that we'd win the game. Maybe I was thinking too far ahead." There wasn't any doubt of the outcome as soon as the ball left the guard's fingertips. She wasn't going to get another shot. The ball deflected off the back of the iron and the final second expired. Brown 58, Penn 57. The depression following this kind of loss would have been enough to keep most ordinary players down for weeks. But Banks did not fall into that trap. The following night against Yale it was Banks who lighted the Quakers' fire. With the Elis narrowing Penn's lead to a single point in the second half, the junior showed her maturity. Banks nailed two straight jumpers and dropped in a lay-up on the next possession to halt the final Yale rally. In addition to delivering in the key stretch of the contest, Banks tallied 22 points and, exorcising her demons, shot 8 for 9 from the foul line. "I made my free throws, but I still missed one," Banks said jokingly. "It feels great. I just wish I had done it sooner." Banks presence was also apparent on the defensive end of the court. Underneath the hoop, the guard hauled down 10 rebounds. With senior co-captain Julie Gabriel in foul trouble, Banks was forced to cover Yale's 6-0 leading scorer, Mary Kalich. While the physical forward still got her points, Banks made sure she didn't get any easy ones. "Katina had a monster night," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "That was a great offensive run, but I think she also did a great job defensively." Not only did Banks rebound against Yale, but the entire team was much more solid down the stretch. The night before, the Quakers let numerous chances to convert slip through their fingers. The lead changed hands throughout the second half with Penn staking a 50-45 lead with 7:50 to play. The Quakers had a chance to distance themselves from Brown, but came up empty on offense and allowed the Bears to score six straight points. Still Penn held a 57-56 lead with 40 seconds remaining. However, after a Brown basket, the Quakers turned the ball over on two consecutive trips down the floor before Banks missed that final fateful free throw. "Sometimes we try to win the game off that next offensive possession," Soriero said. "We just want to be patient and execute. We lose our poise a little bit and take ill-advised shots." Against Yale, Penn didn't let a similar opportunity go to waste. Instead of allowing the Elis to make a run, the Quakers distanced themselves from Yale and made all thoughts of an comeback disappear. Penn played with much more control and discipline, although the Yale press flustered the Quakers a bit down the stretch. Despite the defensive pressure, the Penn offense came through with some crucial baskets down the stretch. None was bigger than Gabriel's three-pointer which pushed the Quaker lead to double digits. "One thing we've been doing well is to learn from our mistakes," Gabriel said. "Not panicking -- that was the key thing." It would have been easy for Banks and Penn to simply let the Yale game slip away. After coming so close to upsetting the defending league champion, all signs pointed to a letdown for the Yale game. Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, the Quakers took the court with the determination necessary to win the contest. The team used the Brown loss as a means to improve and Penn was much more confident down the stretch Saturday. "It's real exciting to know that we have the character to bounce back from such a tough loss," Banks said. "We held our composure." No one exemplified this character more than Katina Banks.