They embraced her after she scored her 1,000th career point, but now they will have to let her go. When senior guard Shelly Bowers ran off the basketball court Feb. 7 after the Penn women's basketball team defeated Princeton for the second time in the season, she left a legacy of commitment in the wake of her success. The day Bowers reached that milestone was a defining moment in Penn's rollercoaster 1994-95 season. The Quakers had just completed one of the most successful runs in Penn women's basketball history by winning six of seven games. Behind Bowers and fellow seniors Natasha Rezek and Katina Banks, the Quakers finished third in the Ivy League with a record of 8-6 (11-15 overall). They finished 1-3 in the competitive Big 5. Despite starting the season 1-10, with nothing to motivate them to improve but pride, the Quakers picked themselves up and toughed out the rest of the season with unexpected success. Penn won 10 of its last 15 games to come within range of an Ivy championship. The Quakers had to overcome many obstacles to finish so successfully. Plagued by injuries early on, Penn was unable to adjust quickly. When sophomore point guard Erica McCauley injured her hand, Bowers was forced to play out of position and run the offense for several games. Penn opened its Ivy season against the top two teams, Dartmouth and Harvard. Although it was discouraged by the losses, it came back to sweep season series from Ivy foes Princeton, Brown and Columbia. With the future prospects of the team left in the hands of a young and inexperienced squad, the dedicated and talented seniors have set an example the remaining players will have to work hard to repeat. Bowers made her mark in the record books by accumulating 1,083 points, good for fifth on Penn's all-time scoring list. She also averaged 4.4 assists per game on the season. In the last two games of her college career, when Penn had already secured a third-place finish, Bowers was still going full tilt. She scored 39 points in those two games to go with 11 rebounds, 11 assists and five steals. She tied her career scoring high of 24 points against Columbia. The Quakers will also be saying goodbye to their explosive center, Rezek. After taking a year off to go abroad, Rezek returned to college basketball to average 10.4 rpg and finish with 13 double doubles on the season. Versatile Banks will be another hard player to replace. She finished as Penn's all-time leader in steals with 209 in her career, with 53 of those coming this season. Four against Brown in the second-to-last game of the season put her over the top. When it was time for the Quakers to restore their pride, it wasn't their aggressive defense or accurate perimeter shooting alone that got them there -- it was three seniors who maximized their talent and played their hearts out.
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