W. Hoops shoots for first Palestra win

The Penn women's basketball team seeks to build on the momentum it started in a Saturday win over Bucknell. Many college basketball fans will tell you that the famed Palestra traditionally gives its home teams one of the biggest home-court advantages in the country. For the Penn women's basketball team, however, this assertion has proved anything but true. Fourteen games into the season, the Quakers (4-10) have yet to win a game at home. The team will make its fifth attempt at that elusive victory tonight at 7 p.m. when Penn hosts Army. "All of our difficult games have been at home," Penn coach Julie Soriero said. "We played Villanova and La Salle close and took Princeton to overtime." The Quakers should have an easier time with Army (6-15), which has struggled more this year than any of Penn's previous home opponents. The Knights have lost five of their last six and were trounced by Holy Cross in their last outing, 80-43. Holy Cross put Army away behind a 13-0 run that pushed its advantage to 32-11 with 5:38 left in the first half. The Crusaders, who shot 50 percent from the floor in both halves, led 45-19 at the break. They coasted the rest of the way as all 12 players broke into the scoring column. Army was led by senior co-captain Karen Callahan's seven points, while Therese Kelley and Christina Canelli added six apiece as the Knights were held to a season-low 43 points. Conversely, Penn had a solid showing in its last game, beating Bucknell 56-53 on Saturday. The game was the first since Soriero announced that this season would be her last as Penn's coach. The Quakers responded in fine form, shooting 40 percent from the field and outrebounding the Bison 45-34. Diana Caramanico and Mandy West led the team with 17 points each. Caramanico also pulled down 14 rebounds. If the Quakers can put in another strong performance tonight, they will win two games in a row for the first time all season. Kelley and Laura Worthing are the two key players on Army that will try to stop the Quakers from gaining momentum. Kelley is a forward averaging 12.4 points a game. Worthing, a guard, is just behind at 12.3. This balanced scoring combination from the perimeter and post positions could prove to be a problem for Penn. This game marks the beginning of a crucial stretch for the Quakers in which seven of their next nine games are at home and eight of the next nine are against Ivy League opponents. Contests against Cornell and Columbia are the most imminent as the Quakers play these two league foes back-to-back this Friday and Saturday. If Penn can beat the Knights and get this string of important games off to a good start, the Quakers may have a shot at ending their Palestra jinx and turning their season around just in time.

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