W. Hoops lets big first half lead slip away

Michelle Maldonado had 31 points and Colleen Kelly scored 24 in the Quakers overtime loss to the Mountain Hawks. It will be remembered as a game that the Penn women's basketball team let slip away. With the score knotted at 75 with just 16 seconds remaining, Penn guard Colleen Kelly dribbled the ball up the court. On a well-designed play, Kelly found forward Michelle Maldonado cutting off a screen. Maldonado looked for the shot, but the Lehigh defense hoarded around her. Instead of throwing up an off-balance jumper, Maldonado dished to wide-open guard Hope Smith, who had cut backdoor under the basket. Just before the buzzer sounded, Smith got her layup off. But the shot didn't fall, sending the game to overtime. In the five-minute overtime period, the Mountain Hawks pulled away behind freshman guard Danielle Baldwin's 7-for-7 free-throw shooting. The Quakers committed four turnovers in the overtime and fell to the Mountain Hawks, 88-83, at Stabler Arena. Although Penn would have squeaked away with a victory had Smith converted the layup, she is no more to blame for Penn's loss than any other member of the Quakers rotation. It looked as if Penn had the game in the bag at the half, leading 41-36 behind Maldonado's 17 first-half points. But the Quakers let it slip away after intermission. In the second half, Lehigh stepped up the press and the Quakers offense stumbled, committing 14 second-half turnovers. Penn point guard Chelsea Hathaway, who scored 10 points and held her Lehigh counterpart to two first-half points, did not take a single shot after the break. Hathaway also committed an ill-advised technical foul four minutes into the second half. Hawks guard Kelly Madden converted one out of the two free throws. Penn center and co-captain Deana Lewis was also a non-factor last night, scoring only a single point. After Lewis missed all three of her field-goal attempts in the opening minutes, she stopped shooting the ball. "She struggled early on," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "She has to realize that other teams are going to key on her. But she can't stop looking to shoot." In return, Maldonado was dished the ball a little more often from Lewis. "I know Deana got a little discouraged with her shot," Maldonado said. Lehigh tied the game at 75 with a 19-10 run in the final six minutes of the second half. During the run, four different Mountain Hawks scored. The Quakers, on the other hand, made the mistake of trying to play a two-person game. It was quite apparent that no Quaker other than Maldonado or Kelly wanted to shoot the ball. It seems that every game Maldonado is becoming an increasingly dominant force inside. Last night, the junior scored a career-high 31 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and pulled down 17 rebounds. As impressive as her scoring statistics, Maldonado played 44 minutes last night, only sitting in the final minute of the first half when Soriero inserted sophomore Miranda Berge. Kelly was equally outstanding in her 35 minutes on the court. Offensively, Kelly scored 24 points, shooting 6-of-11 from behind the three-point stripe. On the defensive end, Kelly added three steals.

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