Hawks prey on Quakers

W. Hoops falls at home 76-48 The Penn women's basketball team was defeated 76-48 by Big 5 rival St. Joseph's last night at the Palestra, and it wasn't pretty. Control of the opening tip-off was the only control Penn had all evening. The Hawks built their victory with stifling defense. St. Joe's turned 18 Quakers turnovers into 29 points. The Quakers, on the other hand, could only rack up 10 points off the 20 turnovers the Hawks committed. Penn (0-4, 0-2 Big 5) let St. Joe's (3-0, 2-0) get away with sloppy ball-handling -- Hawks guard Anita Moore got away scot free with six turnovers. The Hawks didn't have to run far to get the easy score. The Quakers turned over the ball several times just after inbounding it. Penn was left panting and struggling just to down the court as a result of the Hawks' full-court defense. St. Joe's strategy was to prey on the weakness of Penn's point guard position. Senior Shelly Bowers has been starting at the point since sophomore Erica McCauley fractured her hand earlier in the season. The Hawks smothered Bowers, forcing adjustments in Penn's offensive scheme. Senior Katina Banks started to bring the ball down the court for the Quakers while Bowers called the plays. This situation was awkward for Penn, and St. Joe's exploited it. "They are already not used to having a point guard, now all of a sudden their other point guard is being taken out," Hawks coach Stephanie Gaitley said. "It makes them make decisions." St. Joe's pressure defense started digging a grave for Penn early, but the Quakers did their share of the shoveling. Penn was always taking a desperate shot and the offense could not set up its plays nor get a rhythm going. Senior center Natasha Rezek, Penn's leading scorer, was 1-for-11 from the field. The Hawks held the Quakers to 28.3 percent shooting on the night. To make matters worse, the Penn defense was not ready for St. Joe's sophomore Nikki Jones. Jones exploded for 10 points, two assists, two rebounds, and one steal in the first half. Not bad for a point guard who started only two games last year. "Nikki really came of age tonight," Gaitley said. "I anticipated [Penn] dropping off her a bit because she hasn't scored much for us early.?She took all good shots, and she looked very comfortable taking the shots." Penn was not prepared for an attack from the outside. The zone defense with which the Quakers started the game left Jones and Moore wide open for the outside shot, and they came through nearly every time. Moore was 4-for-5 from the field. Focusing on St. Joe's interior game, the Penn zone did not adjust until it was too late. "Anita Moore and Nikki Jones -- one of them hadn't even scored a basket yet in the three games that St. Joe's had played," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "Unfortunately the night [Jones] got into the attack happened to be tonight." The early blows from Jones and Moore undermined Penn's confidence early in the game and St. Joe's ran off the court at halftime leading 37-20. "We came out without intensity in the first half," Rezek said. "We thought the game was already over when we dug ourselves into a hole." In the first few minutes of the second half it looked like things were about to turn around drastically. Penn came out shooting the same forced shots, but this time they were sinking. The Quakers cut the deficit to 10 points. St. Joe's was so flustered it could not score until over four minutes had elapsed in the half. The Hawks missed their first six field goal attempts. "When we're not scoring we lose a little bit of our intensity." Gaitley said. "Not being able to score put us into a situation where we couldn't press, so therefore the defensive pressure wasn't the same." Without the St. Joe's pressure, Penn played with confidence and intensity for the first time all night. But the effort was short-lived. Five minutes after their run, the Quakers were down by 20. They never had the strength to recuperate. The game became just an effort to keep the score respectable. "I hope we have a lot more pride when we look to the future than to go down quietly after a 28 point loss," Soriero said. "We didn't play well in any single element of the game. They should be upset about it, they should be angry about it, and they should just do a better job."