W. Hoops can't pull off weekend sweep

If the Penn women's basketball team underwent psychiatric evaluation, the diagnosis would no doubt be schizophrenia. After going on the road earlier this season and beating Harvard and losing to Dartmouth, the Quakers hosted the same two teams in the Palestra this weekend. However, this time the results were the exact opposite. Penn nursed an early second-half lead to hold on for a 56-52 victory over the Big Green Friday. Harvard avenged Penn's 93-71 victory in Boston over winter break with a 72-50 thrashing of the Quakers Saturday. The weekend began on a good note for Penn when the Quakers (7-14, 3-6 Ivy League) dropped league-leading Dartmouth for their second consecutive victory. After extending a seven-point halftime lead to nine, the Quakers let the Big Green (12-9, 7-3) back into the game, falling behind 36-34 just more than five minutes into the half. At that point Penn awoke and went on the 14-2 run which gave the Quakers the lead for good. That six-minute, 12-point swing was sparked by six points and two assists from freshman guard Amy Tarr, who was spelling junior guard Shelly Bowers. Her six points and three assists were both career highs for the freshman, who played rarely before fellow freshman Deana Lewis injured her knee one month ago. Since then, the 5-foot-9 Tarr has played in all nine games as the second player off the bench, scoring a total 16 points. Penn coach Julie Soriero saw Tarr's primary contribution to the run as defensive, though. "I thought we were getting beat with a lot of cuts off the ball and that got us in a little bit of trouble," Soriero said. "Defensively, I put Amy in for Shelly with the thought that maybe Amy's positioning off the ball was a little better." That seemed to work, because by the time Dartmouth guard Betsy Gilmore hit a layup to end a stretch of 10 consecutive Penn points, the damage had been done. Penn fought to hold that lead for the rest of the game as Sally Annis connected from each corner behind the three-point arc in one minute to cut Penn's lead from nine to three. The Quakers held on as junior forward Shelly Dieterle hit 2 of 4 free throws in the last few minutes to ice the victory. "When they have players out there who can shoot the three-pointer, it's easy for them to come back," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "I think we sagged off of them a little too much. We were a little too conservative defensively." Throughout the contest, Penn's co-captains shone. Senior center Katarina Poulsen led Penn with 16 points, 10 in the second half, while senior forward Julie Gabriel had a game-high seven rebounds and added 10 points. Her five assists and six steals were both team highs. Annis had 19 points for the Big Green, which also had a team record broken by center Ilsa Wilbeck, who had nine blocks. Saturday's loss was marked by poor shooting on Penn's part, as the Quakers hit less than 24 percent from the field in the first half. In fact, until the 14:12 mark in the first half, the Quakers had missed their first 10 attempts from the floor as the Crimson jumped out to an early seven-point lead. Throughout the remainder of the half, Harvard continued to hit its outside shots and built its lead to 44-24 by the intermission. The Crimson shot 60 percent and were 8 of 10 from long distance, led by Tammy Butler and Elizabeth Proudfit, who each scored 10 points. While the Quakers saw the game slip out of reach in the first half, Gabriel and Poulsen were the only Penn players to hit more than one field goal before the break. However, Gabriel was 2 of 11, and Poulsen 2 of 7. The Quakers tightened up on defense in the second half, holding the Crimson to 28 points, but the game was effectively over by that point. Penn continued to have trouble on offense, and finished the contest shooting an unimpressive 22.7 percent from the field. "We were not aggressive defensively. They played tonight and we played up there. When we were there, the situation was reversed," Soriero said. "There were times where if we shut our eyes we had just as good a chance of making the basket." Andy Meran contributed to this story.