Analysis: Transition game powers Quakers to victory

The Red and Blue scored 28 points off turnovers and more off fast breaks. Mandy West scorched the Palestra nets for a career-high 32 points in the Penn women's basketball team's 76-67 victory over Towson last night, and of those points, at least half were in transition -- if not more. "Everything was off transition," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "Otherwise, we weren't scoring." It seemed at points that you missed a Penn fast break every time you blinked. The script for the game was pretty easy to follow -- Towson misses a shot; Diana Caramanico grabs a rebound; West makes an easy layup or a wide open jumper on the fast break at the other end. Caramanico grabbed 16 boards, 14 off the defensive glass, to more than make up for her below-average scoring night. Penn's tri-captain was held to 18 points by a tight Towson defense whose frontcourt amassed a whopping 19 fouls -- as many as the Quakers committed all night -- trying to slow her down. Unfazed even by a kick to the head that was not called a foul, Caramanico missed a scant 57 seconds on the entire game. "They played her well defensively," Greenberg said. "So she went about it a different way and got rebounds, and she made her presence known there. As a coach, you can't ask for anything more. We can run when she rebounds." And Penn did run. The Quakers scored 28 points off of 28 Towson turnovers that were largely the result of a defensive effort that produced 12 steals and four blocked shots. A 12-2 Penn run at the end of the first half was almost entirely the product of turnovers and defensive rebounds converted into fast breaks. "We tried to just put on more ball pressure and play to their weaknesses," West said. "Coach has been on us because we've been scoring a lot of points every game. Offense isn't our problem, but our defense does suffer every once in a while and we've been working on it all week in practice. So we came out and just tried to play intense on defense." Two plays in the second half epitomized Penn's opportunistic style. With 11:22 to play, Caramanico deflected an inbounds pass by the Tigers into the air. Penn guard Erin Ladley caught the ball at halfcourt and passed back to Caramanico, who drew a foul on her cut to the inside. Ten minutes later, Caramanico came up with a steal in the defensive zone, then passed ahead to West, who converted an acrobatic layup for two of her game-high 32. "Our points off of their turnovers were huge, because that's our game plan," West said. "Our team wants to run. That's our goal. If we steal the ball or get good defensive rebounds and run, that's our game. We play well when we can do that." Penn's final basket of the first half was also indicative of the night's action. After Towson's Mylisa Pilione missed a foul shot, Caramanico grabbed the rebound and passed to West. The Red and Blue's lone senior then dribbled upcourt and hit one of her three three-pointers on the evening to give the Quakers a 10-point halftime lead. Even though most of Caramanico's passes off of rebounds resulted in fast breaks that did not yield assists, she did manage to record three, one more assist than her fellow tri-captain West dished out for the evening. That's not quite how Penn's one-two punch is accustomed to working, but it was good enough to take care of the Tigers. "Our plan tonight -- no one saw it," Greenberg said. "Pretty much it came down to Mandy making huge shots? and there were a couple of rebounds that we had to have, and [Caramanico] got them." The importance of Penn's transition game was underscored by the Quakers' weak showing elsewhere on the floor. Aside from West's layup-driven performance, the Red and Blue shot 34 percent from the floor. While the Quakers have had three scorers in double figures in most games this season, only West and Caramanico got over 10 against Towson. Julie Epton who had nine and Tara Twomey who had eight were close, but neither one was much of an offensive factor in the second half.