W. Hoops wins with balance on offense

All season long, Penn women's basketball coach Kelly Greenberg has insisted that the Quakers' offense does not revolve around Diana Caramanico and Mandy West, the Ivy League's top two scorers. The fans who filed into the Palestra to watch the first game of the Penn-Princeton doubleheader last night saw four of the five Quakers starters score over 10 points for the third time this season. While the top two scorers were once again tri-captains West and Caramanico -- with 17 and 22, respectively -- sophomore forward Julie Epton also had 13 points, and freshman guard Jennifer Jones scored 11. This is the kind of balanced attack Greenberg has been trying to develop since she arrived in Philadelphia last summer, and she thinks this could be a good omen for the future of the program. "I hope that it is," Greenberg said. "I thought that our team was really aggressive. I thought that Jen Jones seemed really relaxed, and we haven't seen that Julie in a long time. Hopefully we will build on that." Jones missed just one shot on the night, and Epton, in addition to her 13 points, grabbed six rebounds and made three steals. Greenberg thought the Quakers' balance was a byproduct of their heightened defensive intensity and increased communication on defense, qualities that have been sorely lacking in late-season losses that knocked the Quakers out of Ivy contention. "I thought that in the first half, we came out extremely aggressively," Greenberg said. "And you know, [Princeton] has that darn offense that you just hate, and we only let them get the back door once the entire game. Even that time I cringed. When we all play together on defense, I think that helps everyone offensively." West and Caramanico do not usually need that help. Last night, West ended her impressive two-season Quakers career in which she scored 1,076 points. She now owns the records for most three-pointers made in a season and two of the top six spots in the record book for most points in a season. She is also third all-time for three-pointers made in a career. Caramanico, meanwhile, finished her record-breaking year with a mere 19 points shy of Ernie Beck's all-time Penn career scoring record (1,827). With 1,808 career points, she could conceivably break it in her first outing of the 2000-01 campaign. "That's huge, I mean that's 1953," Greenberg said of Beck's mark. "That's a big-time record, that's back when my dad played at La Salle. I know that name from growing up, and it's just incredible that she's breaking someone like that's record." Caramanico, who has had her fill of records this year, was simply content that the Quakers came out on top. "[Princeton is] scrappy. They're really tough. So I'm just glad we won the game," she said. Caramanico thought that the Penn-Princeton women's matchup carried with it nearly as much intensity and emotion as the men's game. It also had as much contact. "It was physical," Greenberg said. "And a lot of times off the ball there were a lot of altercations going on." One instance that was indicative of the contact throughout the game came in the middle of the second half. After a scramble for a loose ball, Princeton forward Hillary Reeser grabbed Caramanico's ankle and brought her to the floor. Greenberg, whose coaching style centers on running the floor and getting quick buckets, also pulled out all the stops at the end of the game when she ordered her troops into a slowdown offense that they had only run in practice. "We haven't [run it yet this year]," she said. "It's our 2-1-2, it's as basic as possible. Towards the end of the game, we obviously weren't making good choices, so I thought let's just hold [the ball] a little bit. We did get some good stuff out of it, so you will see that more next year."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.