W. Hoops falls in N.,Y., drops one game back

Diana Caramanico broke the team scoring record at Cornell, but Penn lost to Columbia. NEW YORK -- On Friday night, everything was right for the Penn women's basketball team. The Quakers tied the team record for wins in a season, beating Cornell 74-65 after an early 17-4 deficit. Diana Caramanico broke the all-time Penn scoring record, posting 21 points, and Mandy West played through the pains of a stiff back to score a game-high 23 points. Saturday should have been a day for the Quakers (16-7, 7-2 Ivy League) to celebrate. Penn faced a Columbia squad that had not beaten the Quakers since the final game of the 1997 season, and a victory would have broken the season wins record. Instead, the Quakers played what may have been their worst game of the season, falling 70-67 to the Lions (5-16, 4-6), whom they had trounced by 36 points earlier in the season. "I thought [losing to] Dartmouth was going to be our wake-up call," West said. "[We] need to get more focused for Saturday nights." On Saturday night, Caramanico shot 4-of-19 from the field, and having broken the scoring record the previous night did not take any of the sting off of the loss. "It was nice to get [the record] on a win," Caramanico said. "But I'm not worrying about it. It doesn't mean anything right now because we're in second place." Penn definitely had its chances against Columbia. The Lions did not take their first lead until Catherine Tubridy's driving layup with 2:56 remaining in the game put them ahead 61-59. It was only after falling behind that the Quakers started to play with the intensity that had carried them to first place in the Ivy League. "We're playing Columbia, they're not very good this year, and we're on a roll and we just thought showing up in our uniforms we'd walk away with a 'W,'" Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "We didn't prove it out on the floor." But in the final three minutes, Penn seemed to finally sense the Lions' challenge and responded accordingly. Erin Ladley, who had 13 points on the night, immediately tied the game at 61 on two free throws. Columbia's Shaunte Edmonds and Penn's Julie Epton then traded three-point plays. Then, Tubridy and West exchanged bombs from downtown. Finally, foul trouble caught up with the Quakers. Brie Cokos, who had earlier excited the Lions with a play on which she chased a ball through the doors of Levien Gym and out into the lobby, hit two free throws with 43.7 seconds remaining to put the Lions ahead to stay. "I find myself being a spark player," Cokos said. "I think I have the worst [free throw] percentage in the league? [but] that's just a pressure situation where you want to prove that you're worthy of being there." Cokos did indeed prove her worth, but her teammates went 1-for-4 on their remaining foul shots -- shots that could have iced the game for the Lions. But with Penn out of timeouts, Columbia's misses at the line may have been something of a blessing in disguise. After Edmonds failed to convert from the foul line with 16.2 seconds to go, West -- who led Penn for the third straight game with 18 points --Ecould not find a good look at the basket. The story was the same after Patricia Kern's second free throw missed the mark with 4.0 seconds to go. With Penn trailing by three, West drove to just past halfcourt before she had to shoot, lest time expire. "We didn't have any timeouts left, so we couldn't set up any plays, so it was kind of just driving in and looking for a call," West said. "They're not shots I would take if there wasn't so little time, but I had to do something." But Columbia knew what was coming, and despite the long range of her last-second shot, West was in traffic. "Our thought was to contain her, contain her, don't let her go by you," Columbia coach Jay Butler said. "We knew that she was going to be the go-to. She's one of the best guards in the league." West showed it on Friday night in the Quakers' victory in Ithaca, N.Y. She went over 100 assists for the season in addition to her 23-point outburst. "She played great," Greenberg said. "She shot it well, she pushed it. She's been out with an injury all week with her back, and we didn't really know what to expect? but she's just the toughest kid as I've ever known, and she wants to be in there, helping us do something." All of the little things went well for Penn at Cornell (11-10, 3-6). Ladley, who according to Greenberg "couldn't hit the side of a barn," shot 0-for-8 from three-point land, but grabbed five rebounds and captured two steals. Penn's defense in general was also much better at Cornell. On Saturday, the Lions, who average 58 points per game, shot 47 percent from the field and scored 70 points on the Red and Blue. "There was no defense," Greenberg said. "It was a joke." But the next two games are no joke for Penn -- Dartmouth and Harvard, first and second in the Ivies, respectively, visit the Palestra this weekend. The Quakers stand one game behind the league-leading Big Green. They are tied with the Crimson. "It puts a lot more pressure on because we have to win every single game now to even contend for first," West said. "But I think we're a tough team and we're up for the challenge."