Temple trounces W. Hoops

Hawk Hill has not been kind to the Penn women's basketball team. Three years ago, the Quakers fell to St. Joseph's at Alumni Fieldhouse by 46 points. In this season's opener, the Hawks beat Penn by six. On Saturday afternoon, the Red and Blue (1-4, 1-2 Big 5) played what was easily their worst game of the young season, as they were defeated by Temple (4-1, 1-1) on the City Line, 80-64. Stacey Smalls led the Owls with 14 points and an incredible seven steals. Temple is much improved under first-year head coach Dawn Staley, who notched her first career Big 5 victory. The Quakers defeated Temple by 29 points in last season's opener at the Palestra. "The difference is their level of toughness, there's no doubt about it," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "I'm sure coach Staley brought that to them... They won the game on defense." The Owls certainly gave Penn a chance to make it a closer game early on. Temple shot just 30 percent from the field in the first half, but the Quakers were even weaker, missing 12 of their first 14 from the field. Penn trailed 23-10 a little more than midway through the first half. "In the beginning, we didn't come out and just get the job done," Penn senior guard Erin Ladley said. "We didn't come out with any fire or anything. They did catch us standing a little bit in the beginning, and I guess throughout the game." For her own part, Ladley scored 11 points, but on 3-for-13 shooting from the floor. She also committed a game-high six turnovers. Ladley had a particularly tough time in the first half, shooting 1-for-5 with four turnovers and three personal fouls. In the game's first 20 minutes, Penn put up some startling numbers. The Quakers shot 6-for-21, scored 20 points, and committed an astounding 17 turnovers. They seemed almost lucky to be trailing by just 12 at halftime. "You're not going to win any game when you have 17 turnovers in the first half," Greenberg said. The Quakers struggled mightily against Temple's pressure defense, one of the new tactics employed by Staley this season. When Penn did break the press, the Owls keyed their halfcourt defense on Penn's star forward, Diana Caramanico. "You stop her, you stop basically Penn," Staley said. "She's a big part of their offense... She's good around the basket, so we tried to be a little more physical with her and hopefully we could disrupt her shots, and I thought we did a great job in the first half." Caramanico did, however, score a game-high 18 points and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds. She seemed to find her stride right after halftime, scoring seven points in a 9-2 Penn run that cut Temple's lead to five. But Caramanico was disappointed with her overall performance. "They were being physical, but I wasn't tough enough," Caramanico said. "I need to just go back at them with the same kind of toughness that they were showing me, and I didn't do that." Penn's early second-half momentum was broken when Jessica Allen committed an intentional foul on Temple's Lisa Jakubowicz after Allen had turned the ball over. The game resumed a back-and-forth pace, and Penn stayed close until a 12-2 Temple run starting six minutes into the second half put the game out of reach. The loss was particularly disappointing for the Quakers coming off of an emotional victory over La Salle on Wednesday night at the Palestra. "Getting a win against La Salle was awesome, it was a great feeling," Caramanico said. "It makes the feeling that I have now that much worse because I know that we're a better team than what we showed." The Quakers will have one more chance to show the city just how good they are this season. Penn can even its City Series record at 2-2 in tomorrow night's Big 5 finale as Villanova visits the Palestra at 7:00. News and Notes Caramanico's double-double was her fifth in as many games this season... In the second game of Saturday's Big 5 women's doubleheader on the City Line, the host Hawks defeated Villanova, 63-59... Staley is Temple's coach, but is still an active player with the WNBA's Charlotte Sting... Penn has not won two Big 5 games in a season since 1974-75... Penn's four losses have all been away from the Palestra this season. The Quakers were 11-2 at home and 4-7 on the road last year, with a 3-1 record at neutral sites.

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