W. Hoops wins first game of the season

The QuakersThe Quakersbecame the lastThe Quakersbecame the lastDivision I teamThe Quakersbecame the lastDivision I teamthis year to enterThe Quakersbecame the lastDivision I teamthis year to enterthe win columnThe Quakersbecame the lastDivision I teamthis year to enterthe win columnwith 62-58 victoryThe Quakersbecame the lastDivision I teamthis year to enterthe win columnwith 62-58 victoryover Dartmouth For 22 games, the Penn women's basketball team had left the court without a victory. Yet when the final buzzer sounded at Dartmouth on Saturday, all of the frustrations and tribulations of the season were forgotten, if only for a brief time. For the first time this season, the Quakers were winners, defeating the Big Green, 62-58. "It's a feeling that we haven't had in a long time," Penn guard Colleen Kelly said. "Hopefully we'll be feeling it all week." The Quakers (1-22, 1-10 Ivy League) went into the game confident in their ability to defeat Dartmouth (15-8, 7-4), having stayed close to the Big Green throughout their loss at the Palestra earlier in the season. Saturday morning, Penn had one of its best shoot-arounds of the year, fueling the optimism that Saturday would be different from all other nights. "I really wasn't impressed with Dartmouth when we played them," Quakers captain Natasha Rezek said. "We knew that if we could just shut down the perimeter we could win the game." Penn was able to limit Dartmouth's three-point shooting that had plagued them in the earlier defeat. The Quakers kept waiting for the Big Green to heat up from the outside, but Dartmouth finished the game just 8-of-31 from beyond the three-point stripe. Forced to look for other options, Dartmouth struggled inside as well, shooting only 30 percent overall for the game. But it was the Quakers offense that finally came together as coach Julie Soriero has envisioned all season long. The Quakers had one of their most balanced performances of the year, with Kelly leading the way with 17 points, followed by Deana Lewis with 16 points and 13 boards, Rezek with 12 points and 19 rebounds, and Michelle Maldonado with 10 points. "A lot of our point production came from people who stepped up their games," Soriero said. The Quakers had good ball movement, leading to open shots from the perimeter. But unlike previous games, those shots fell, as Penn connected at a 48 percent clip for the game. "Dartmouth knew that the guards had been shooting poorly, so they double- and triple-teamed Natasha. So she just passed the ball outside and we hit the shots," said Kelly who did her part by going 8-for-15 on a variety of long-range bombs. The game was close throughout the first half and the beginning of the second when the Quakers went on a 14-3 run that stretched the lead to 51-37. From that point on, Penn hoped time would run out before another collapse late in the game. "We just wanted the clock to go faster," Rezek said. Dartmouth clawed its way back, as freshman guard Nicci Rinaldi, who saves her best games for Penn, sparked a late rally. But Lewis iced the victory with her clutch free-throw shooting, going 5-for-6 from the charity stripe in the closing minutes. Her only miss was intentional with a second left. "Her biggest free throw was the one that put us up by four with one second left," Soriero said. "There was no way a last-chance shot could change the outcome." Penn's victory over the second-best Ivy team came on the heels of a 101-64 rout at the hands of probable Ivy champ Harvard who improved to 16-6 (9-1 Ivy). Karun Grossman led the Crimson with 13 points as Harvard featured a balanced attack that shot 56.4 percent from the floor. "If you run into a team with a lot of momentum that is determined to win the title," Soriero said, "you can wind up on the wrong end of a blowout." The Crimson's offense is one the best in the Ivy League, averaging over 80 points per game, but the Quakers did not rise to the challenge. Penn also had trouble holding on to the ball, totaling 23 turnovers to only eight for Harvard. "We started to get sloppy against Harvard, " Soriero said. "Its rewarding to me that we were able to play well against Dartmouth when I knew we couldn't get sloppy." Now the Quakers have set their sights on the upcoming games against Columbia and Cornell. Both games are possible wins for a Penn team that is trying to get out of the Ivy cellar. After 22 losses, the Quakers are in no way satisfied with one win. "It put an end to all the naysayers," Rezek said. "But in the end it's just one win."