Bad blood swirls around Big Green point guard

Dartmouth star Courtney Banghart has become the center of controversy. At Weightman Gym yesterday, the Penn women's basketball team prepared for tomorrow night's showdown against Dartmouth which -- with a win -- would move the Quakers back into a tie for first place in the Ivy League. Meanwhile, in Hanover, N.H., bad blood was brewing. "[Penn has] gone over the line, and they've taken it beyond the realm of basketball and I'm not going to go near the line," Dartmouth coach Chris Weilgus said. "I think it's in the best interest of Dartmouth and the Ivy League and the game of basketball for me to keep quiet." Weilgus was referring to a comment made by Penn coach Kelly Greenberg after Dartmouth star Courtney Banghart scored 24 points in an 89-71 win over the Quakers on February 12. Banghart, who earned first team All-Ivy honors last year and leads the Big Green with 16 points per game this season, taunted the Quakers and acted cocky thoughout the game. Weilgus was upset after reading a quote from Greenberg in The Daily Pennsylvanian earlier this month: "Dartmouth's point guard was out of control, slapping the refs on the butt and pointing to the crowd when she did something good," Greenberg said. "I can't wait to get them back." Greenberg was taken aback when notified of Weilgus' reaction. "I'm kind of shocked and maybe a little bit hurt that anyone would think I meant harm to an individual," Greenberg said. "Especially a young individual within our conference?. I am really in shock." Greenberg -- in her first Ivy campaign -- said her initial comments were misunderstood and, instead of deriding the Dartmouth program, she would ask her team to emulate it. "I have the utmost respect for Coach Weilgus, and have had since her days at Fordham," Greenberg said. "I think it's a shame that she took it that way, since that's exactly what I'm preaching to my team not to be like. We're trying to build a classy program here, and Dartmouth and Harvard are the class of this league. "Anyone who knows me and read that wouldn't think anything about it." Greenberg emphasized the amount of respect she held for Banghart and her play. "She plays with a lot of emotion, and intensity," Greenberg said. "I know that I've said in the past that she definitely has a cockiness about her, but I give her a lot of respect. She can play. She can flat out play the game. [She] is playing awesome right now. There's no doubt that the girl is on fire." Banghart, who is leading her team in scoring and assists and was named Ivy League Player of the Week this week, has indeed improved her numbers since Dartmouth began its Ivy loop, and, over the last three games, the improvement has been even more dramatic. Although she is averaging 16 points per game for the season, Banghart has upped that figure to 17.3 in Ivy League play. The most noteworthy jump is in Banghart's long-range shooting, which was already impressive. For the season, she is shooting 35 percent from downtown. In Ivy League play, however, she has drilled 43 percent of her long-range shots. Over the last three games, Banghart has led the Big Green's vault from third place to first place in the Ivy League standings while playing arguably the best basketball of her career. In games against Penn, Yale and Brown, Banghart scored 24, 31 and 26 points, respectively, for an average of 27 points per game. In that same span, Banghart hit 17 three-pointers on 27 attempts for an astonishing 63 percent. "We're definitely keying on Banghart," Greenberg said. "Because besides her talent, she has all the emotion, and if we can get her out of what she does well early in the game, then we'll be better off. "She does a lot more than scoring. She plays defense, and she's tough. They'll put her anywhere on the court. She'll be in the back line, she'll defend [Penn forward] Diana [Caramanico] in the post and be able to push her around, she is just a tough kid." Quakers senior tri-captain Mandy West echoed her coach's impression. "[Banghart's] a tough, aggressive player," West said. "She leads their team, so we need to respect her and play hard." West said that Banghart's enthusiastic displays on the court didn't translate into trash-talking to her opponents. "No, she's obnoxious because she gets real into it and she's kind of cocky," West said. "But she doesn't really say anything to any of our players." It's Banghart's enthusiasm and effusiveness on the court that caused Greenberg to use the words "out of control," but the Penn coach wants it clear that she respects these things in the Dartmouth guard. "She's cocky? but I just think that she feels good out on the court," Greenberg said. "She does a lot of things that, in women's basketball, you just don't see a whole lot. I'm not saying it's bad, in any way, but she definitely feels good out there, and I do have a great deal of respect for her."