Caramanico carries W. Hoops to two big wins

Junior forward Diana Caramanico matched the Penn single-game record with 41 points against Lafayette. Diana Caramanico has as much humility off the court as she does scoring ability on the hardwood. However, no matter how much the Penn women's basketball tri-captain tries to de-emphasize her many accomplishments and give tribute to her teammates, her stats keep saying the same thing -- Caramanico is the real deal. And the Penn star proved this fact yet again as she was named MVP of the 1999 Air Force Classic while leading the Quakers (3-2) to a first-place finish in the tournament in Colorado Springs, Colo., over the weekend. After a tough, 83-73 win over Lafayette in the first round Friday, the Quakers rolled over Loyola (Ill.), 91-78, in the championship game Saturday for their first-ever tournament title. Much of the driving force behind the Quakers' success in Colorado was Caramanico, who was honored for her combination of 77 points and 27 rebounds in the two games. She tied the Penn single-game points record by racking up a career-high 41 against Lafayette in the first round, then followed with a game-high 36 points in the final against the Ramblers. The Quakers forward credits her numbers and the award, though, to her teammates, who she said did all the hard work. "My points came from just shooting layups," she said. "The points are not due to me, but to my teammates who passed to me and who set the screens so I could get open. It's not hard to make layups, but it is hard to make good passes or do the things that lead to the points." Joining Caramanico in the tournament awards circle was Penn guard Mandy West, who totaled 43 points in the two games and was named to the Air Force Classic All-Tournament team. Despite the win Friday, the Quakers as a whole did not do as well as expected against a winless Lafayette (0-7) squad. Part of the problem for Penn was that the Quakers put too much of an emphasis on their offense. This left their defensive play loose enough to allow the Leopards to stay within striking distance throughout much of the game. "We just allowed a team who isn't very strong offensively to score a lot of points," Greenberg said. "It's good to score a lot of points, but we also need to worry about stopping the other team." Lafayette even traded the lead with Penn midway through the first half and forced a 39-39 tie at halftime. West, who ended with a season-high 23 points, nailed a three-pointer 30 seconds into the second half to break the tie. Penn allowed Lafayette to equalize two minutes later but, after the 6-1 Leopards' run to tie the game at 45, the Quakers took over for good. Penn took its biggest lead, 75-63, with 6:31 left when West drove in for a layup right after a rare Caramanico three-pointer. Penn then sealed the win with a 6-2 spurt in the final three minutes. Despite the win, allowing Lafayette to stay in the game stung the Quakers. "From the game we realized we needed to get better on defense," Caramanico said. Penn turned this realization into reality the next day against Loyola in the championship game. The Quakers executed a high-intensity defense that allowed them to get the lead early, then build on it throughout the game. "We kept pressing and pressing and pressing until we had a 23-point lead [with 4:08 left]," Greenberg said. "The Loyola coach told me that they never even thought they could win." The defensive effort also led to a high offensive output for the Quakers, whose 54 points at halftime was the highest first-half point total in team history.