W. Hoops battles Hens in Ivy tuneup

The Penn women's basketball team is well-rested after playing just one game in the past two weeks and is poised to resume Ivy League play on Friday.

The Quakers are getting excited, itching to make a statement to all of their rivals with a couple of big road performances this weekend at Cornell and Columbia.

But first, there is the matter of Delaware.

The Red and Blue (5-10) travel to Newark, Del., for a 7:00 p.m. matchup with the Blue Hens tonight.

This will be the final non-conference contest for both teams this season.

And while Penn anxiously awaits its New York swing, it is not concerned with an emotional letdown this evening.

"I always say to the team that they work hard 365 days a year, and play only 27 games" Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "So to look past somebody would be silly."

And in this respect, Delaware serves a double-edged sword to the Red and Blue. The Hens will not be overlooked because of their enormous success in the past two years.

In 2000-2001, Delaware qualified for the NCAA Tournament by winning the Colonial Athletic Association. This year, the Blue Hens boast a record of 13-4 and have lost just one game at the Bob Carpenter Center.

If the Quakers need more motivation to bring a high energy level into tonight's game, they might look at the four common opponents they share with Delaware.

While the Hens breezed past Princeton, La Salle, George Mason, and Drexel -- winning all four contests by a total of 73 points -- Penn dropped each contest.

Though the Quakers hung tough against La Salle, losing, 74-69, the other games really weren't close. All told, Penn was outscored by 42 points.

Playing the Blue Hens, especially in their building, will be a difficult challenge.

One of the keys will be contesting Delaware's post players. Senior forward Christina Rible is a rebounding machine for the Hens, averaging 10.1 per game.

"They have some inside threats and they're a team that gets a lot of offensive boards," Penn junior tri-captain Tara Twomey said. "They have guards and forwards who all go to the boards really well, so we have to really focus on blocking them out."

One problem with aggressive play under the basket, though, is that it generally leads to fouls. And perhaps more so than with any other team in the nation, free throw shooting is a potent weapon in the Delaware arsenal.

"They're not flashy, they just get it inside and get to the foul line," Greenberg said of Delaware's usual strategy. "We'll have to focus on not fouling and hopefully get them to take some more threes than they'd like to."

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