Quakers use late spurt to breeze past Tigers

The Palestra crowd was loud, the effort was there, and finally it all came together for the Penn women's basketball team. When the dust settled, the Quakers had blown out Princeton, 74-55. And the Tigers didn't know what had hit them. With 5 minutes, 12 seconds left in the game, freshman forward Michelle Maldonado sank a jumper from the top of the key to tie the score at 55. She stole the ball from Princeton sophomore Kim Allen on the other end of the floor and dished to Penn sophomore guard Erica McCauley, who passed off to senior co-captain Katina Banks. Banks' long three-pointer over Allen was good, and the Quakers were unstoppable from then on. Princeton would not score another point in the game. "We fought back and tied it up, even took a lead there for a little bit, then we just stayed at 55," Princeton coach Joan Kowalik said. "It was like somebody just put a big pin in the balloon and took all the air out, and from there it was a snowball effect." "We didn't finish the game," Allen said. "When they went up by three, we started giving away the ball. It was a quick turnaround. They went up by 10, 65-55. I don't think it was them stepping up past that. I think it was us handing it over at that point." Princeton seemed to have only one strategy against the Quakers -- drive inside and score. Against sophomore Deana Lewis and senior center Natasha Rezek, however, that plan soon failed. "We started forcing it in, and then we started making bad decisions," Kowalik said. "We were reversing the ball and trying to get it inside. You can't just score everything from the inside. Our decision making was poor." When the Penn inside game got the better of the Tigers, Kowalik searched for a new strategy. She found it in Allen's three three-pointers. Though Princeton's skill from long-range was well-documented in the scouting report, the Quakers were a bit shocked by the Tigers' offensive production. "I didn't expect them to shoot the ball as deep as they did as well as they did," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We know they have that ability, but we didn't think they have that consistency. They didn't do anything we didn't expect. They did it a little better than we expected in stretches of the game." Penn was the decided underdog coming into Saturday's game. Despite facing a Princeton squad without any senior leadership, the Quakers were expected to have a tough battle just to stay in the game. "When you have four seniors on the floor in a game like this they've got to come up big, and they did," Soriero said. "Shelly Dieterle got us off to a good start. She did a nice job defensively and set the tone for what we were going to do inside. Down the stretch, [senior guard Shelly] Bowers, Katina and Natasha just really gave us everything we wanted." When the game was on the line, the ball was in Banks' hands. Her experience showed when she sank the shot that put the Quakers up for good. Rezek also emerged, pulling down 14 boards. Off the bench, Lewis turned in another solid effort and Maldonado had 10 points in 15 minutes of play. With consistent defense and an offense that finally clicked, the Quakers rose to their potential, as their 21-0 run to end the game proved. "Basketball is a team sport and it was a team effort," Rezek said. "Everyone stepped up and contributed when they were supposed to. We played to our strengths. It's the start of a new season." As the early arrivers for the men's game looked on, the Quakers found themselves facing something new -- loud, supportive cheering. "It's a privilege for us," Bowers said. "When we have it, we like to take advantage of it. It's definitely an extra incentive to play hard. It's special."