Offensive woes doom W. Hoops

The Quakers bench did its part.

Unfortunately, the starters couldn't keep up their end of the bargain.

With its starting five shooting a paltry 9-for-32 from the field against a swarming Temple defense, the Penn women's basketball team fell to the Owls, 66-60, last night at the Liacouras Center.

The biggest disappointments for the Quakers (2-2 record) were Jennifer Jones' 0-for-9 performance and Julie Epton's 2-for-8 disaster from the field.

Penn senior captain Epton scored her first basket with 17:15 remaining in the game, finishing with a mere seven points -- well below her season average of 13.7 points per game.

"The defense is really focusing on [Epton]," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "When she has only two shot attempts in the first half, we're not going to beat anyone."

Despite the starters' shooting struggles, Penn still found itself leading the Owls (1-2), 46-44, with 8:38 to play.

"We fought hard in the second half and put ourselves in position to win the game," Greenberg said.

It was Temple senior Athena Christoforakis, however, who sunk the Quakers' upset dreams.

After being limited to six points in the first half, the Temple forward exploded for 21 points in the second half, en route to scoring a career high 27.

Christoforakis also snatched 13 boards.

"She is the key to their team," Greenberg said. "They'll go as far as she and [point guard] Stacy Smalls takes them."

From the game's opening tip, Penn looked out of sync in its offense against a much taller, more athletic Temple team.

Penn's undersized junior point guard Tara Twomey epitomized the Quakers struggles, as she was badly mismatched against the lightning-quick Smalls.

"We couldn't run an offense," Greenberg said. "The ball wasn't moving and we couldn't get our shooters any good looks."

But the Quakers defense kept Penn from getting blown out.

An inspired, active defensive effort by Penn reduced Temple's decisive offensive advantage, limiting the Owls' inside shots and forcing them to fire from long range.

Temple shot 5-for-13 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes, as it totaled 15 out of its 29 first-half points on three-pointers.

"We knew we couldn't match their quickness or their inside presence," Greenberg said.

"So we needed to force them to shoot the threes."

With its defense rising to the occasion, Penn looked to its bench to provide an offensive injection.

That's where Mikaelyn Austin came in.

The sophomore guard gave the Quakers instant offense, scoring 12 points in a six-minute stretch at the end of the first half.

"Mikaelyn really gave us a big lift," Greenberg said. "I put her in the game to play point guard, because both of our point guards weren't ready for the defensive pressure."

Although Penn closed the gap to 29-22 at halftime, the Quakers ran into a blitzkrieg in the opening minutes of the second half. Temple knocked down its first four attempts, stretching its lead to 10 points and looked poised to pull away.

But Jewel Clark wasn't going to let this game go just yet.

Scoring in double digits for the third consecutive game (14 points), and adding 11 boards for her first double-double of the year, Clark jumpstarted the Penn offense.

The sophomore guard stole consecutive Temple in-bounds passes and picked off a cross-court swing pass, converting the turnovers into three buckets on the offensive end to bring the Red and Blue within three at 44-41.

Down the stretch, however, the combination of Christoforakis' offensive dominance and Temple's mental grit proved the difference.

"We knew they're going to be tough, but we just couldn't match their toughness," Greenberg said.

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