W. Hoops eyeing a pair of wins

After dropping the first contest of its six-games-in-eleven-days grind in a loss to Temple on Wednesday, the Penn women's basketball team heads to Long Island, N.Y., to compete in the Stony Brook Tournament this weekend.

The highly competitive four-team invitational will feature three teams that earned postseason tournament bids last season -- Penn (NCAA), George Mason (NIT) and Loyola Marymount (NIT) -- as well the host Seawolves.

Penn coach Kelly Greenberg seems confident that there will be no emotional letdown for the Quakers after the Temple defeat.

"We'll be ready to go," she said.

In the first round of the tournament, Penn (2-2) faces host Stony Brook (0-3), in what appears to be the most favorable matchup for Penn..

Last season, on Dec. 29, Penn defeated the Seawolves, 68-56, at the Palestra.

Despite last year's victory, the Quakers found themselves victimized all night by the Seawolves' 5-foot-11 guard, Sherry Jordan. She torched Penn for a game-high 27 points and 12 boards.

This season, Jordan once again anchors the Seawolves attack, averaging a team-high 14.0 points per game.

And although Penn knows it will have its hands full once again, the Quakers vow to do a much better defensive job this time.

"She's really quick and athletic," Greenberg said. "But we're not going to let her score 29 again. We're not going to even let her score her average."

In order for Penn to prevail against the Seawolves, the Quakers' starters will have to shoot better than their 9-of-32 disaster against Temple.

Leading the brick city parade was Penn's triumvirate of captains -- juniors Tara Twomey and Jennifer Jones and senior Julie Epton --who shot a combined 2-for-18 from the floor.

"I didn't feel I played well at all," Epton said. "It was just a sloppy game and we never got into an offensive rhythm which caused us to take a lot of bad shots."

Penn will also have to improve its rebounding.

Against a taller, more athletic Owls team, Penn was outrebounded 46 to 36, giving up 22 second-chance rebounds to Temple.

"We really need to box out better," Epton said. "Stony Brook likes to crash the boards and we have to be strong and active."

Depending on the result of the first-round matchups, Penn will either play George Mason or Loyola Marymount on Saturday night.

Although Greenberg confesses to know little about either the Colonials or the Lions, she is confident in her team.

"See ya after two wins," she said.

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