AT COURTSIDE: W. Hoops collapses under Lehigh's pressure

Engineers' defense forces 32 turnovers Before last night's game against Lehigh, Penn women's basketball coach Julie Soriero harped on the fact Penn was going to pressure the Engineers for the full 40 minutes. Unfortunately for the Quakers, Lehigh had the same game plan, and executed it to a tee. The Engineers used a stifling full court press for the entire game. The constant pressure forced Penn into 15 turnovers -- in the first half alone. Quakers point guard Erica McCauley had the unenviable responsibility of trying to break the press, and she did a masterful job. It was not McCauley who was responsible for the turnovers, it was the rest of the Penn squad failing to execute. After Lehigh made its second basket of the game, the trouble for the Quakers commenced. McCauley dribbled through the press and dished to senior Natasha Rezek. However, Rezek was rushed by the frenzied defense, and promptly threw a pass away. This errant toss began the string of 32 turnovers that would cripple the Penn offense all night long. Over the next 11 minutes after that first turnover, the suffocating Engineers press held the Quakers to a measly three points. In this span, Lehigh managed to turn a five-point deficit into a 12-point advantage. "Their pressure defense forced us to take bad shots," Soriero said. "They dictated the tempo of the whole game." There were numerous instances when McCauley would dish off the ball, but then instead of slowing down to set the offense up, the recipient of the pass would drive and force up an errant shot or throw the ball away. In fact, even when Penn was chipping away at Lehigh's lead in the first half, all of its field goals were layups in transition. The one time the Quakers did gather themselves and set up their offense after McCauley brought the ball up, McCauley eventually got open and hit a three-pointer. However, the trey came with a mere three seconds left in the half. "We didn't make the transition from breaking the press into our regular offensive sets," McCauley said. In the second half, the Lehigh press finally delivered the knock-out blow. After Lehigh's Kelly Madden hit a jumper, Penn's Colleen Kelly desperately tried to inbound the ball. When she finally threw the ball in, Jessica Mudry, the Engineers' lightning-quick point guard, stole the pass and drove in for an uncontested layup. Immediately after the Mudry basket, Kelly again tried to get the inbounds pass to McCauley. This time Mudry got to it again and slapped the ball off McCauley's arm. Without another guard able to push the ball up the floor, the Engineers were able to focus on McCauley when setting up their press. Minutes later Penn finally succumbed to the pressure. Sparked by three more Quakers turnovers, Lehigh increased an eight-point lead to 13, and never looked back. McCauley just got no help from the rest of her teammates when it came to taking care of the ball. "We never had control of the game," Soriero said. "We can't overly rely on Erica. We've got to get other people to get things done."