First-half run carries W. Hoops

Michelle Maldonado scored 27 points as the beat-up Quakers rallied past Loyola. In front of the largest Palestra crowd to see a Penn women's basketball game this year, the Quakers scraped off some early rust to down Loyola, 62-54. Penn exploded out of a funk to score 19 unanswered points in an impressive 21-3 run that closed the first half. However, in the 10 minutes, 20 seconds before the run, Penn made just four total shots. "It was an ugly game, but we won," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "I think it shows we've been off for about ten days. It shows that we've had kids missing practices because of injuries. Our timing was off, and we were a little out of sync." The Quakers had last played on January 14, and several players have been suffering through a variety of injuries. "Most of the team has been on the training table at least three or four times this week," Penn freshman Chelsea Hathaway said. "But [trainer Debbie Roberts] has done a great job." One of those injured Quakers, junior Michelle Maldonado, was unstoppable. With the Greyhound defense seemingly concentrating on shutting down Penn's three-point shooters, Maldonado worked the post offense to perfection. She ended the game with 27 points and 12 rebounds. "Michelle had a great game, with a lot of great moves to the basket," Soriero said. During the decisive run, which gave the Quakers a 30-18 halftime lead, Penn got 15 of the 21 points from Maldonado and fellow junior Colleen Kelly. The Greyhounds, despite 23 points from senior Lynn Albert, had no answer to the run, which was sparked by Penn's defensive and rebounding efforts. "We turned up our intensity a little bit at that point, and we started really rebounding so we limited them to one shot," Soriero said. "Deana Lewis did a really nice job on the boards for us." The co-captain Lewis was disappointed by her rough shooting night, but she still added 13 valuable rebounds to her usually strong post defense. The most impressive aspect of the Quakers victory may have been that Penn prevented the development of any Loyola run with strong team defense. In past games, the Quakers have had difficulty sustaining leads in the stretch. "What I was happiest about was that we didn't allow Loyola to sustain any long runs and make a real tight ballgame out of it," Soriero said. The fans had no need for an exciting second half after the halftime heroics of 14-year-old Kate DePaul. In the halftime shootout, DePaul calmly sunk her lay-up and free throw left-handed, then backed up to halfcourt and amazed the crowd with a right-handed bank shot. After the break, Penn never relinquished its lead, although it did make it somewhat interesting. A 9-2 Greyhound run allowed Loyola to creep within five points with 1:11 left in the game. But Kelly iced the game by laying in a full-court heave from freshman Shelly Fogarty.