W. Hoops is comfortable at Palestra

The Penn women's basketball team earned Ivy League victories at home against Cornell and Columbia. Roll Quakers, roll. OK, so maybe it doesn't sound as great as Alabama's famous 'Roll Tide Roll' cheer, but the Penn women's basketball team is on a roll after winning four straight games, including this weekend's 71-68 win over Cornell and its 87-71 victory over Columbia. The Quakers began the weekend against Cornell (8-10, 2-4 Ivy League) Friday night at the Palestra. Penn dominated the first half by starting the game with an 11-2 run. The Quakers extended the lead to as many as 14 points, en route to a 37-26 halftime lead. "We did a lot with the running game by rebounding and quickly outletting to Mandy [West]," Penn sophomore center Jessica Allen said. "Mandy then goes one-on-one and that's where her points came from." After an excellent first half, the Quakers came out flat in the second half and their lead was chopped to one within 10 minutes. "It's the same story every game," Allen said. "We had an 11-point lead and then we lost it during the second half, and they came back." Penn, however, prevented the Big Red from ever taking the lead in the game. After Cornell cut Penn's lead to 45-44, the Quakers answered with seven consecutive points. Penn (7-10, 3-2) increased its lead to 11 with only 2:17 left on the clock, but the game was far from over. The lead shrank to two with 32.8 ticks left on the clock, before West -- and her .881 free-throw shooting percentage -- came through in the clutch with two free throws. Cornell picked up another basket, but Erin Ladley made a free throw and the clock ran out to give Penn the win. "We were a little nervous, but I think we're getting better," West said. "We've been in a lot of close games and have been coming away with more wins, so we've been getting more confident." West paved the way for Penn's victory by shooting 12-of-23 from the floor, resulting in a career-high 31 points. Although the quick back-and-forth pace of the game limited sophomore forward Diana Caramanico to 13 points, she played a huge role defensively with 13 rebounds and six steals. In a much more slowly flowing game the following night, Caramanico stole the show against short and scrappy Columbia (3-13, 0-6). Caramanico had her third 30-point performance of the season, finishing the game with 34 points and 17 rebounds. That was the 12th straight game that Caramanico led the Quakers in rebounding. "Cornell took me out of the game," Caramanico said. "They didn't even let me get the ball because I had to post up two players. Columbia has small post players and I hit a shot or two early on, so I had more confidence." Penn's height advantage led to productive nights for Allen and freshman Julie Epton, who are both over six feet tall. Allen scored 12 for the Red and Blue and Epton added five in only six minutes of playing time. Penn's win over the Lions also contrasted the previous night's contest because the Columbia game featured 17 lead changes, while the Cornell game had zero. Against the Lions, neither team led by more than five until Penn broke away in the last 10 minutes of the game. Ironically the see-saw battle proved to be the bigger blowout. The Quakers went on a 15-4 run to close out the Columbia game. West shined again at the charity stripe, going 4-of-4 down the stretch to increase her weekend total to a perfect 8-of-8. The weekend sweep improved Penn's Ancient Eight record to 3-2, That currently puts the Quakers in a tie for third with Harvard, behind Princeton (5-0) and Dartmouth (4-1). "I feel we can win the Ivy League and this weekend opens it up for us," Epton said. "Everything is in our hands except we need Princeton to lose." The Quakers, who were in sixth place in the Ivy League entering this weekend, can leapfrog at least one more spot in the standings next weekend by adding to their current four-game winning streak with wins at Dartmouth and Harvard.

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