W. Hoops stopped in tracks by Miller and Feaster

Harvard forwards Suzie Miller and Allison Feaster scored a combined 58 points to stymie the Quakers. This weekend could have been an ugly one for the Penn women's basketball team. However, the Quakers did their best to take matters into their own hands, earning a split at the Palestra with a 90-64 loss to Harvard and a 62-54 win against Dartmouth. The festivities began Friday night when Penn (10-9, 5-2 Ivy League) faced off against Ivy League leader Harvard (16-3, 6-1). Coming into the game, the Quakers' main concern was stopping Crimson forward and co-captain Allison Feaster, the NCAA's leading scorer at 29.3 points per contest. In arguably the wildest game of the season, Feaster was held to nine points in the first half, taking an early rest on the bench in the half after picking up her second foul. Amazingly, that wasn't the story. With the Penn defense keeping Feaster cold, Harvard forward Suzie Miller caught fire, making 8-of-13 three point attempts despite averaging only 7.4 points per game this season. "That's what happens when you play us in the zone," Feaster said. "We're a great three-point shooting team, and I think we showed them in the first few minutes of the game." The Crimson rode its tsunami, opening up what seemed to be an insurmountable 42-15 lead just 9:35 into the first half. The fortuitous streak ran against Harvard's game plan. "We wanted to go inside more," Harvard coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said. "But, once we started hitting threes and Penn didn't adjust to them, we just kept shooting them. We love threes. That's not new, that's been us for 15 years." Penn, however, showed strong character and fought back with strong defense and downtown shooting. Penn guard and co-captain Colleen Kelly joined Miller in being "en fuego," making four three-pointers in a 30-9 run for the Quakers. On the flipside, the Crimson could not get much going with Miller resting for half the run and Feaster on the bench with foul trouble. The tidal wave on both ends of the floor cut the Harvard lead to 51-45 at the half. The momentum and mood had taken a 180-degree turn in a matter of minutes, and Delaney-Smith let her team know how she felt. "This was my shortest halftime so far this year," Delaney-Smith said. "Maybe two sentences at the most, and you could probably pick the words that were in those sentences. I was not happy with my team." "That's probably the most angry we've ever seen our coach, and it was very much warranted," Feaster said. "She didn't say much, but we understood." It didn't seem as if the Crimson understood the message, however, at the start of the second half. Harvard came out flat, going 1-for-16 from the field in the first six minutes. Yet Penn failed to capitalize during the Crimson's slump. "I would have liked to see us keep the momentum from our run, take it into the first five minutes of the second half and close that gap on our first one or two possessions," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We just didn't do it, and it's a shame that we couldn't keep the momentum running just a little bit longer." Two layups by Feaster marked the beginning of the end for the Quakers, who had trouble for most of the night with inbound passes. Harvard's full-court press aided the Crimson to 33 points off turnovers. Miller led Harvard with 33 points. As the nation's leading scorer, Feaster chipped in 25. Kelly led the Quakers with 25 points, with Penn forwards Diana Caramanico and Michelle Maldonado contributing 11 points and 10 rebounds, respectively. The Red and Blue knew they did not have much time to dwell about the loss. "The main thing was forgetting about Friday night and moving on," Caramanico said. With that in mind, Penn welcomed Dartmouth (10-9, 4-3) by dominating the Big Green for most of the game. Dartmouth came off a close four-point win the previous night at Princeton, and fatigue did not appear to be a factor. Instead, Dartmouth immediately suffered from inept shooting, hitting only 25 percent from the field in the first half. Penn did not help the visitors' cause by taking care of the defensive boards en route to a 46 to 36 edge in rebounding. Penn's ability to rebound from Friday night's loss at Harvard only goes to show that the Quakers are for real. Big Green guard Nicci Rinaldi led the faint Dartmouth charge with 12 points. Meanwhile, Penn received another double-double via Caramanico's 31 points and 16 boards. Kelly and Maldonado also saw double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively. The result is a tighter race atop the Ivy League leaderboard. With Princeton's 55-53 shocking home-court victory over Harvard Saturday, the Crimson still hold a slim one-game lead after the weekend with Penn and Princeton tied for second place.