W. Hoops gets its first home win

The Penn women's basketball team enters the heart of its Ivy season on a two-game win streak. The Penn women's basketball team never once fell behind the Black Knights of the United States Military Academy last night at the Palestra as the Quakers cruised to a 73-61 victory. With 12:20 remaining in the first half, junior co-captain Mandy West took a 13-foot running jump shot to set aflame the Quakers' perfectly executed transition game. West's jumper sparked a 19-2 run that led to a 22-point lead with 2:34 remaining in the first half. West scored 15 of the Quakers' 19 points during that surge. With a solid lead and Army go-to center Therese Kelley on the bench with two early fouls, Penn coach Julie Soriero was free to make substitutions, eventually giving every player minutes on the court. "We were up by 20 and had a lot of momentum with us. I wanted to give other players an opportunity to play," Soriero said. "They all work equally hard in practice." With Kelley riding the pine, "[the Knights] were in trouble," said Laura Worthing, Army's high scorer with 16 points. Despite having Kelley on the bench, the Knights managed to take advantage of the situation and turned up the pressure. With 2:34 remaining, Army went on an 11-0 run. The Knights' Christina Canelli, who had eight points on the night, scored a five-foot, buzzer-beating jumper to give her team the momentum going into the break. Riding its 11-point streak, the Knights (5-14) continued to close the gap as the Quakers' once-comfortable 22-point lead dissolved. Less than three minutes into the half, Army managed to shave Penn's lead to a mere three points. "After halftime we came onto the court flat, we didn't come in seriously whereas Army did and as a result they closed the gap and eventually brought the game to a tie," sophomore center Jessica Allen said. After a 20-second timeout, the Quakers (5-10) regrouped, determined to earn their first home court victory of the season. "We recognized that we had to respond," said Allen, who forced her teammates to run an extra sprint at practice by failing to meet Soriero's challenge of not fouling out of the game. The Red and Blue stepped back onto the court with a vengeance. Realizing the clichZ that defense breeds offense, Penn capitalized on a number of steals and a 49-41 edge on the boards to rebuild its lead over the Knights. Caramanico -- the team's leading scorer at 20 points per game -- and West assumed responsibility for regaining the team's lead. With 11:29 left in the half, West hit a driving layup that put the Quakers ahead 51-48. Twenty-five seconds later, she sunk two foul shots. Immediately following West's free throws, Caramanico sunk two of her own to extend the lead to 55-50. Surprisingly, Soriero responded by calling a timeout. "I've never seen [Coach Soriero] more happy," Caramanico said. "She called the timeout to tell us to keep playing as well as we were. "It was the first non-corrective time out that we've ever had. It was pretty exciting." Soriero's timeout helped Penn keep the momentum, as the Quakers continued to build their lead. Penn peaked at a 12-point lead, 73-61, to end the game and claim its fifth victory of the season. Despite the Knights' mid-game comeback, they never were able to completely thwart the Quakers' game. "A basketball game is 40 minutes, we played about 28 minutes of good basketball today," Army coach Sherri Abbey-Nowatzki said. "We started off OK, but then we started taking some quick shots and stopped executing. Eventually we just got frustrated. We obviously didn't execute. We shot 34.7 percent from the field." Never able to overtake the Quakers, Army found itself consistently in foul trouble. With 11:04 remaining in the second half, the Knights had seven team fouls and the Quakers were already in the bonus. Capitalizing on Army's foul trouble, Penn converted 22-of-29 opportunities from the charity stripe. With 22 team points from the line, Caramanico's double-double -- 25 points and 12 rebounds -- and 28 points from West, the Quakers put away Army and sealed their first home victory of the season.