Ivy foes wonder how to stop visiting W. Hoops

The Quakers face Cornell and Columbia, which have had some time to think since losing at the Palestra. As Columbia women's basketball coach Jay Butler outlined his game plan yesterday, it became painfully apparent why Penn's Diana Caramanico is about to become the all-time leading scorer for the Quakers. "Two things have to happen," Butler said. "We have to contain Mandy West in transition? and then the second priority is making sure we don't allow [Erin] Ladley and [Julie] Epton to have free reign." Butler weaved his way through Manhattan traffic, talking on his cellular phone, and also weaved around the primary threat to his Lions when they face the Red and Blue (15-6, 6-1 Ivy League) tomorrow night in New York -- Caramanico. Columbia (4-16, 3-5) focused on Penn's junior forward back on January 28, and Caramanico still went for 19 points and a then-career high 19 boards. Meanwhile, West scored 19, Ladley poured in 15 and Epton added 10. Tara Twomey chipped in seven off the bench. And the Quakers cruised to a 79-43 blowout victory. The next night against Cornell (11-9, 3-5), Caramanico reached a new career high with 20 rebounds to go along with 23 points in Penn's nine-point victory. Penn visits Cornell tonight, and Caramanico needs just nine points to break Kirsten Brendel's Penn career scoring record. The Quakers can also tie a team record for wins in a season with a victory. The Big Red did challenge Penn at the Palestra, where the Quakers are 9-1 on the season. "Cornell, when they were here, it was a good game," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "They made some adjustments and took us out of what we were doing well." Echoing Butler's suggestion, Cornell contained West, holding her to 11 points. That was the same total Ladley achieved for the evening. Epton added 12, and the Big Red was at least able to hang in the game with Penn. That doesn't mean that Caramanico won't be guarded this weekend. It just means that the Lions will be focusing their defensive energy elsewhere tomorrow night at Levien Gym. "The reality of the life is that nobody in the Ivy League is going to contain Diana," Butler said. "You just hope she doesn't score 35 points." If hope is Columbia's best defense against Caramanico, the Lions are in trouble. On six occasions this season, the nation's second-leading scorer has posted 30 or more points in a contest. Penn is 6-0 in those games, including the Quakers' victory at Harvard last week, their first triumph in Cambridge since 1985. Caramanico has scored 30 points in 13 games in her career, far and away the most in Penn history. West is tied for second on that list with three, and at times when Caramanico has been held back this season, West has carried the load, firing for over 30 against Princeton and Towson. Throughout this week, though, West has been bothered by back pain. She sat out of yesterday's practice, and her status for the weekend is questionable. "I pulled it on Monday, and yesterday was a really long hard practice, so I think that I overdid it a little bit," West said. "With a little rest it should be alright." Should West be forced to sit out, Twomey would be pushed into the starting point guard position. Twomey does not have West's scoring proficiency -- the freshman averages 5.1 points per 40 minutes as opposed to West's 20.1 clip -- but she is arguably the Red and Blue's best passer, averaging 5.8 assists per 40 minutes, tops on the team. "Tara makes good decisions, and she's going to have to keep that up, and we're going to have to get scoring from other places besides Mandy," Epton said.