Record-breaking year for W. Hoops

Diana Caramanico will likely become the Penn women's basketball team's all-time leading scorer in tonight's game at Cornell University. But don't ask the 21-year-old Wharton junior to talk about it -- as usual, all she's concerned about is spending the weekend beating two Ivy League foes and helping keep her team in first place. "I guess it's neat," Caramanico said of the record. "In terms of basketball, though, I just really, really, really want to win." She'll be in Ithaca, N.Y., tonight, going for a Penn-record 16th win of the season against Cornell. And for the first time since Ivy League play began in 1974, the Quakers are in the hunt for a championship. It's been a year full of broken records for both Caramanico and the Quakers. And with one more year remaining in her Penn career, the star forward will easily smash all existing Penn basketball records -- for players male or female. She could even break the record for career points before the end of her junior campaign -- 1,827 points, set in 1953 by men's basketball standout Ernie Beck. Caramanico needs just nine points to break 1991 graduate Kirsten Brendel's women's record of 1,656. Since the star forward averages over 25 points per game -- the second-highest scoring average in the nation -- Caramanico's record-breaking basket should come sometime in the first half tonight. Caramanico has already scored more field goals than any woman in Penn history. On February 4, in a thrilling three-point victory over Yale, she broke Brendel's record, and now has 636 for her career. She is also likely to break the season record of 230, set by Brendel in 1991. But no one on the Penn bench is going to be counting -- at least not until after the game. "Diana's going to score her points, and hopefully she scores them and we win," said first-year Penn coach Kelly Greenberg, who has led the team to unprecedented heights. "Diana certainly doesn't want to break a record during a loss. When you get that [commemorative] ball and see 'Loss,' you don't even want it. We really want to have a 'W' on that ball for Di." That "W" is all Caramanico is thinking about, anyway. "I know it's not something she'll be thinking about during the game, or that any of us will be thinking about," said forward Julie Epton, a College sophomore. "But it's really cool to see Di finishing so many of her shots down low that so many other people don't finish. She has a talent for that, and for grabbing boards." Indeed, Caramanico is also in the hunt for the Penn rebounding record. She has 847 career rebounds and needs just 131 to overtake Natasha Rezek as the Quakers all-time rebounder. Barring injury, the junior should become the first Quaker ever -- male or female -- to score 2,000 points and pull down 1,000 rebounds. "It couldn't happen to a nicer, more deserving person," Greenberg said. "Everything she's getting, she's worked for. It's not like she was born with a ball in her hand and God said 'Here, you're the best player.' She's worked at it, and she's worked hard." Humble to a fault, Caramanico goes out of her way to make sure she gets no more credit than she feels she deserves. As far as she is concerned, scoring points is simply her role on the team, and she's confounded as to why it keeps coming up. She just wants to help her team make a run for the Ivy League title in peace. "It's a team effort, my points really have nothing to do with that. If we win a championship, it'll be because of the team, and not because of me," Caramanico said. Epton said that the only thing the Quakers are worried about is the Ivy League title. "I actually have never talked to Di about it, and we've never talked about it as a team," Epton said. "I don't even think I heard anyone talk about it until I read it in the paper." "It's all a tribute to her work ethic," Greenberg said. "It has nothing to do with me or the other coaches. It has everything to do with Diana and her teammates. I think it's going to be something that everyone realizes how much it meant later, right now we're just really focused on just winning." With seven games left to play, the Quakers, at 15-6, are just one win shy of tying the Penn record for wins in a season, and are all but assured of breaking it. In addition, the Quakers have established a new record for consecutive games won at the Palestra, as they are riding an eight-game home winning streak. The Red and Blue also set a new team record for consecutive Ivy League wins, starting the Ancient Eight season 6-0 before falling at Dartmouth last Saturday night. The Quakers, still in a three-way tie for first, have never been on top of the league this late in the season.