W. HOOPS NOTEBOOK: Bench picks up slack

There had to be a few anxious moments for the Penn women's basketball team during the first half of its win over Lehigh Monday night at the Palestra when senior center Katarina Poulsen picked up her third foul and joined junior forward Shelly Dieterle, who also had three fouls, on the bench. It looked like trouble for the Quakers when their two main inside players were forced to take an extended break. The situation appeared especially grim because of the replacements Penn brought in when Poulsen took a seat. Penn coach Julie Soriero turned to freshmen Nicki Pozzi, Amanda Coulter and Amy Tarr, who between them had scored eight points over the course of the entire season. Not only did the Quakers survive with Poulsen and Dieterle on the bench, they prospered, pushing a 24-20 lead to 37-26 before Lehigh closed the gap to 39-32 as the teams went into the locker room. The freshmen did little to pad their statistics, but what was noteworthy was the significant amount of playing time they received. Together they saw 19 minutes of action in the game. The result was a first for the Quakers this season -- they were able to go deeper into their bench than their opponent, using nine players to Lehigh's eight. The play of Penn's bench, which was called into question when it was outscored 18-5 by Princeton's reserves in a loss to the Tigers this past Saturday, appeared to be more a benefit than a drawback against the Engineers. The Quakers hope over the next few games they will be able to develop their bench play even further, so they will have a chance of being as deep as the Yales and Browns of the world when the season enters the home stretch. "Getting other players involved is going to boost their confidence and make them feel like they can contribute as well," junior guard Shelly Bowers said. "I think we're going to utilize that down the stretch?especially with the way our schedule is -- doubleheaders every weekend." · Pozzi's play against Lehigh must have been especially pleasing for Soriero, who is desperately searching for someone to play quality minutes inside now that freshman Deana Lewis, the former backup center, is out for the season with a knee injury. Seeing her first important playing time of the season after being out with a serious knee injury of her own, Pozzi made several key plays to help keep the Engineers at bay during the latter part of the first half. "I think she just did a real nice job," Soriero said. "She didn't try too hard to do anything we didn't ask her to do. She played within herself and gave us good minutes." Pozzi is trying to write one of those remarkable comeback stories. In the last high school game of her career, she suffered one of the most dreaded injuries in sports when she tore the anterior cruciate ligament of her left knee. She spent the first part of this season rehabilitating, and finally started practicing after Winter Break. After seeing minimal action against Harvard and Lafayette, Pozzi spelled Poulsen with seven minutes remaining in the first half against Lehigh and netted her first points of the season on a layup with 19 seconds left before intermission. She also grabbed four big rebounds and generally looked mobile. Pozzi is confident that eventually she will be able to fill the shoes of Lewis, who was just coming on as a player when she got injured. "I still have a lot of work to do to fill what [Lewis] did," Pozzi said. "Sometimes I'm too hard on myself, but that pushes me to do more. Eventually my confidence will definitely come back. In practice it's been kind of a scary thing thinking about the injury, but then you forget about that and just play." · If the Quakers gave out a team MVP award today, the likely recipient would be senior co-captain Julie Gabriel. Long known for her defensive ability, Gabriel has taken it upon herself to do more scoring this year and has developed into perhaps the best all-around performer on the team. Since competing in a tournament in Florida during Winter Break, she has averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds per game while remaining a top defender. She can play at either forward position as well as the two-guard spot. More often than not she plays the entire 40 minutes each game, a welcome sight for a team that has had depth problems this season. "She's always been our most consistent and aggressive defensive player and it's wonderful this year to see the offense come to life," Soriero said. "She epitomizes what a good leader should be both on and off the floor and I couldn't ask for anything more from her." For her part, Gabriel sees her stepped-up play this season as much a result of necessity as anything else. "I like to play as much as I can because it's frustrating to be on the bench," Gabriel said. "In the past I took a backseat but this year I couldn't do that. It was a little more vital for me to play well offensively."