Defense disappears as Quakers fall to Temple

Penn finally got its offense on track, but failed to get first win Although last night's Penn-Temple game was a Big 5 matchup, only Owls coach Kristen Foley's logo wristwatch was indicative of the City Series event. With attendance at only 348, and no Big 5 decals on the floor, this simply looked like just another women's basketball game. For the Quakers, it might as well have been. After crushing Temple, 65-29, last year at the Palestra, Penn (0-14, 0-3 Big 5) hoped to earn its first victory of the season when it travelled to Temple (4-14, 1-2) to face a team having similar problems. With simple pride on the line, since both teams were out of the Big 5 race, Temple earned its first home victory of the year. With stellar shooting and tough man-to-man defense, the Owls stunned Penn, 78-64. Coming into the game carrying a meager 36.7 field-goal percentage, the Owls exploded in the first half -- draining 65 percent of their shots. En route to 49 first-half points, Temple's Tania Bailey was already yelling, "Blowout!" only five minutes into the game. Contributing to the blowout was Jen Ricco's long-range shooting clinic. Averaging 6.7 points per game coming in, she exploded for 12 points including three treys along with three steals and two assists in the first half. Meanwhile, Temple instilled a tough press, which slowed the Quakers considerably, allowing Penn only about 15 seconds to operate on each possession. Control was lacking as well, as Temple's man-to-man defense threw a monkey wrench into Penn's offense, earning seven of its eight steals in the first half. "I think their guards are pretty quick and cover a lot of floor," Quakers coach Julie Soriero said. "With Temple, you get past their line of defense, and they're right back on you." Although all of the statistics went the Owls' way in the first half, Penn desperately tried to make things interesting. After being down 13 points only 10 minutes into the game, the Quakers cut the lead to five on Colleen Kelly's trey from the top of the key with just over six minutes to play before intermission. Down 10 points one minute later, the Red and Blue battled back within six points, only to completely lose any sense of control in the remaining four minutes of the half. Meanwhile, the Owls went ballistic, embarking on a 15-2 run to give Temple a 49-30 halftime lead. Despite her nine points in the first half, Penn center Natasha Rezek had a tough time fighting off the physical Owls' inside game. "There was a lot of shoving and pushing, and by the time I actually got to the basket for my shot, I had been posting up for so long -- battling -- I didn't have the extra oomph," she said. "The girls had really long arms, and they could jump, and nothing was being called." The Quakers would get as close as eight, but after a 20 second time-out to regroup, Temple ensured the lead would drop no further. Although Penn shot a respectable 41 percent field-goal percent and outscored the Owls 34-29 in the second half, the initial 19-point deficit was impossible to overcome. Meanwhile, the Quakers are still asking themselves if their goals are even close to being realized. "Right now, my goal is to have my team ready to play each game regardless of what are record was preceding it, and my goal right now is to have us ready to play Cornell and Columbia -- that's my objective for this team," Soriero said. "If I started worrying about my job and not having my team prepared, then I'm not doing a good job. "I think about all the goals we're trying to achieve or whether we're going about it the right way."