Penn - 57 Drexel - 68
The hack-a-Shaq defense didn't quite work out for the Penn women's basketball team against Drexel last night.
The Quakers sent Drexel center Michelle Maslowski to the charity stripe for 12 shots, and she buried all of them en route to the Dragons' 68-57 win over Penn at the Daskalakis Center.
"They had 23 [free throw] attempts [in the second half]," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "You're not going to win if you're putting a team on the line that much."
Heading into the last night's game, the Dragons were shooting just 69 percent from the line.
But against the Quakers, Drexel connected on 27 of its 29 free throw attempts -- an astounding 93 percent.
The Dragons weren't so hot from the field, however, shooting just 29 percent for the game. But then again, Penn couldn't quite find the touch either, hitting just 33 percent of its shots.
"I think we're hesitating with our shots," said Penn freshman guard Karen Habrukowich, who went 3-of-14 from the field against Drexel. "We just have to be sure and take the shots that we're used to taking."
Greenberg, too, is aware of her team's shooting woes.
"We're not shooting well right now, and I think a lot of that has to do with conditioning," Greenberg said. "We're getting good attempts out of our offense, we're just not making them."
The lone bright spot for the Quakers' offense last night was freshman center Katie Kilker, who went 9-for-13 from the floor en route to a career-high 24 points in 30 minutes of play.
Kilker helped the Quakers jump out to an early lead in the first half, catching lobs over the heads of her defenders and putting them in for easy layups.
After Penn opened up a 15-6 lead in the first nine minutes, Drexel came storming back. Getting it done with outside shooting and moves in the paint, Drexel went on a 12-2 run to take the lead at 18-17.
The Quakers, however, again looked to their frontcourt to provide the offense. Kilker and senior forward Julie Epton were virtually unstoppable in the paint, leading Penn on a 15-4 run and putting the Quakers up, 32-22.
In the final minute of the half, Drexel guard Bridget Scanlan buried a three-pointer and backcourt teammate Steph Frysinger added a 16-foot buzzer-beater to put the Dragons within five at 32-27 at the half.
Things looked good statistically for the Quakers at the break, as they held their West Philly rivals to a measly 27 percent from the field and even outrebounded the much larger Drexel team by a 26-21 margin.
But in the second half, Drexel's big frontcourt came to life and took control of the boards.
"Whoever rebounds is going to win the game, and that's why we won the first half," Greenberg said. "But there's two halves, and you have to win both."
Drexel slowly chipped away at Penn's lead in the early going until the score stood at 40-40 with 10 minutes left in the game.
That's when Drexel's offense was revived. Led by Maslowski -- the Colonial Athletic Association's top scorer and rebounder -- the Dragons created scoring opportunities inside, resulting in fouls, and made free throws.
And the two times Drexel did miss a free throw, one of its big frontcourt players grabbed the offensive rebound and reset the offense.
"They missed a couple of free throws and got the rebound. That can't happen," Greenberg said. "That's a lack of focus. That happened twice in the last five minutes. That's 60 seconds they were able to run off the clock."
Drexel finished the night with 16 offensive rebounds, eight in each half.
"In the first half, we were all over the court. In the second half, we were just standing," Greenberg said. "You can't react when you're standing.
"Rebounding is all about footwork. The other team is going to get offensive rebounds, you just have to make sure they don't get that many."
Down by seven with 90 seconds left in the game, Penn had to resort to fouling and hoping that Drexel would miss its free throws.
But the Dragons were dead on from the charity stripe and put the game away, 68-57.
"This is going to be one of those games where we watch a lot of film and learn from it," Greenberg said.
