Allen's double-double can't save W. Hoops from loss

Penn forward Jessica Allen scored 12 points and pulled down 12 rebounds, but her team lost to Lehigh, 71-62. A nine point deficit doesn't really seem insurmountable. After all, in the world of college hoops you just need a few three pointers and you are back in the contest. But what if your team is a pitiful 1-for-12 from downtown and your leading scorer is benched due to foul trouble? Then it appears you have got a problem. Welcome to last night's scene for the Penn women's basketball team. With under 10 minutes remaining in their game against Lehigh, the Quakers found themselves down 56-47 with junior guard Mandy West plagued with four fouls. Foul trouble calmed West's usually-tenacious defense, and the Quakers never proved able to cut into that nine point deficit, losing 71-62 to the Engineers at Stabler Arena. According to Penn coach Julie Soriero, Penn began paving the way toward this predicament early in the contest when they failed to capitalize on multiple scoring opportunities. "We missed a lot of early shots that could have built up our confidence and gotten us a lead," Soriero said. "I think we were intimidated by their aggressive defense, so we didn't make a lot of shots that we'd normally make." Instead of building a lead, the Quakers traded baskets with Lehigh. With 4 1/2 minutes remaining in the first half, Penn trailed by just one basket, 20-18, after Jessica Allen connected on two free-throw attempts. Allen would go on to score 12 points to accompany her 12 rebounds in recording her first double-double wearing the red and blue. Allen was one of the few Quakers who actually benefited from the Engineers' defense. When Lehigh's forwards double-teamed Penn's Diana Caramanico, who entered the game averaging 20 points, Allen took advantage of their strategy. "They were concentrating on her, so they were lackadaisical guarding me," Allen said. "I tried to capitalize on that." But Allen's points to pull the Quakers within two late in the first half marked the closest Penn would get. In the time that elapsed before the halftime buzzer, Lehigh outscored the Quakers 10-5 to build a seven point lead, 30-23. Emerging from the locker room, the Quakers needed a scoring run. But according to Allen, the Engineers had a similar agenda. "They ran at the beginning of the second half," Allen said. "We responded, but we couldn't put together our own run to tie or get a lead." In eight minutes, Lehigh built a 16 point lead before West began to chip away at the deficit. The guard scored nine straight points on a three pointer -- the Quakers lone connection from behind the arc -- and three jump shots. With 10 minutes remaining, the Engineers led 53-44. But once the Quakers were in striking distance, West received her fourth foul. "The ref made a bad call, and we lost a strong offensive presence on the floor," Soriero said. "From then on we had to keep taking her in and out, depending on the game situation." Soriero explained that she removed West when the Quakers attacked Lehigh with full court defensive pressure and re-inserted her when she could contribute offensively. But obviously she could not participate in every offensive effort, and this hurt the Quakers. "It wasn't so much that I couldn't score points that hurt us," West said. "I think the problem was that we needed a court leader. When I had to come out we couldn't really get a fluent offense going, and so we got fewer looks." But her scoring was certainly missed too. West had scored 17 of the Quakers 45 points at the time of her departure. From that point, Soriero called the game "one of those 10, 12, 14 type game," with the Quakers consistently trailing Lehigh by double digit sums before freshman Julie Epton's foul shots cut the lead to nine in the final seconds, making the final score 71-62. West finished with a game high 21 points to go with her six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Caramanico added to Allen's 12 points with 11 of her own.