Same result sends Hoops teams different ways

Women: Brown win enough to satisfy The women's basketball matchup Saturday night featured two polar opposites. In the visiting corner, Yale came to the Palestra after being soundly defeated 67-45 by Princeton on Friday. In the home corner, Penn won three of their last four, including a shocking 78-68 defeat of Brown Friday night. It looked as if the two teams were going to continue in opposite directions, as the Quakers (5-8, 2-1 Ivy) jumped to an early lead. But Yale (6-7, 1-1) came back to post a 67-61 win. "Friday night, we had a plan and we did it," Maldonado said. "Saturday night, we rested on our laurels, we didn't do what we were supposed to do." It's hard not to excuse the Quakers from being confident after Friday night's stunning win. The 78-68 victory against Brown (4-9, 0-2) was paced by senior captain Colleen Kelly's 28 points in just 24 minutes. "Even with the brace on her knee, [Colleen's] been playing great," freshman center Diana Caramanico said. "You can't expect more, especially last night." Picking up the extra minutes on the court was freshman Erin Ladley who played all 40 minutes in recording her first career double-double; 12 points and 10 assists. Brown guard Vita Redding led the Bears with 21 points and forward Cathy Miller notched 13 boards. One stat line which the Quakers escaped with Friday night was rebounding. The Bears picked up 53 rebounds to Penn's 36. Especially key was Brown's offensive end, where it had several second chances as a result of a staggering 24 offensive rebounds. Saturday night Penn could not escape its rebounding woes as Yale used a 43-33 rebounding advantage to control the ball and thwart a Quakers' comeback. "We're in the Ivies. We just know we can really win games," Maldonado said. "Obviously, Saturday is a reality check, saying that we have to come and play every night, but we're very excited to play and we're capable of winning these games." Penn sustained its momentum from Friday's win in jumping out front in the first half against Yale, leading by as much as seven after guard Erin Ladley hit a three-pointer from the top of the key. That, however, turned out to be the biggest lead the Red and Blue had throughout the game. Yale turned the tide during the rest of the first half, going on a 17-2 run in 4:11, building a 10 point advantage at one point before taking a 45-34 lead into halftime. Despite the gap in scoring, both teams shot 58 percent from the field. However, the Quakers did not get many second chances on the offensive boards. Yale out-rebounded Penn 9-2 in the Elis' end of the court. Yale's lead changed very little during the rest of the game, seemingly putting the game out of reach when Elis forward Alyson Miller passed to teammate and forward Lily Glick under the basket for a lay-up. The bucket gave the Elis a 61-48 lead. "I think Yale got really good leadership from their upperclassmen, and they really pushed through the fatigue of the second night," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. Penn made a final run in the last three minutes. After a Quakers timeout, Kelly hit a three-point shot from two feet behind the arc, cutting the Yale lead to six with 2:04 remaining. The score didn't change for over a minute, as both teams traded missed shots. Yale eventually regained possession of the ball in the final minute, milking the clock and forcing Penn to foul. Miller led the Elis with 16 points and 12 rebounds, with Glick and forward Autumn Braddock scoring 13 and 12 points, respectively. "The second nights are a real challenge for teams, especially young teams," DeMarco said, pointing out that three Yale freshman played the final five minutes of the game. "It's emotionally draining, as you're asking them to concentrate again in a critical time." At one point, Yale had five non-starters in the game. DeMarco also pointed out that Yale was fearful of the kind of performance Maldonado was going to have. Nevertheless, Yale stuck with its game plan from start to finish as evidenced by three Yale bench players seeing double-digit minutes. Once again, Caramanico led the Quakers with 23 points and 10-of-15 from the field. Ladley also landed in double figures with 13 points. Caramanico and co-captain Michelle Maldonado had seven rebounds apiece. Besides the Elis' run in the first half, the game was defined by the inside game. The Elis limited Penn's second chances, out-rebounding the Quakers 27-11 in Yale's end of the court. "We emphasize boxing out every single day," Soriero said. "I have a team that sometimes thinks because they boxed out they did a good job, but they won't complete the play and get the ball." While the Quakers worked on boxing out, the Elis worked on approaching the early stages of the game. "Princeton totally took us out of the game early on, and one of our goals coming into Saturday was to get off to a start where we could stay in the game," Yale coach Cecilia DeMarco said. Unlike the men's team, which is devastated by a weekend split, the women's team's win against Brown more than makes up for the loss to Yale, and the 2-1 Ivy League record is far better than was expected from a team with 10 freshmen on the roster. Then again, last year's team was also 2-1 in the Ivy league before dropping its final 13 games, but history isn't likely to repeat itself. Ten members of this year's team have no memory of that fiasco, and there's little doubt that the three who do remember will not let it happen again.