(Penn - 87, Columbia - 78) (Penn - 69, Cornell - 68)
A night after Penn women's basketball guard Mikaelyn Austin tied a career-high by scoring 16 points against Columbia, it seemed that her magic had run out.
With three minutes left to play against Cornell, the 5-foot-8 sophomore had shot just 4 for 15 from the floor, including 1 of 7 from beyond the three-point arc.
But with the game sliding out of the Quakers' reach, Austin recaptured her touch.
While Penn trailed Cornell, 64-57, with only 2:41 remaining, Austin nailed a trio of threes to propel her team to probably its most thrilling victory of the season.
"It was just great," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "I never really felt like we were out of it, but it was slipping away. Then Mik hit the three from right in front of our bench."
Austin was the offensive star of the weekend, coming off the bench both nights to lead Penn to a pair of victories. The wins put the Quakers in position to clinch second place in the Ivy League with a win on Wednesday night at Princeton.
On Friday, her 6 for 10 shooting performance against Columbia (12-14, 6-8) spurred the Quakers (12-14, 8-5) to an 87-78 triumph, while her team-high 18 points enabled Penn to inch past the Big Red (14-13, 8-6), 69-68.
"Coach [Greenberg] has been telling me to shoot ever since the beginning of the season," Austin said after the Columbia game. "That's what I was recruited for and that's what my mindset was."
Following Austin's first three in her late-game barrage, Cornell remained unfazed. At the other end of the court, Penn tri-captain Julie Epton -- honored before the game in a senior night ceremony -- picked up a foul as she pushed a hard-driving Lynell Davis in the lane.
Davis converted both free throw attempts, opening the lead back up to six. After a Karen Habrukowich foul shot cut the Penn deficit to 66-61, Austin drained her second three with 1:23 left, again from the right side.
Yet the tide turned back in Cornell's favor, capped off by the Big Red's Breean Walas who nailed one of two free throws to open up a 67-64 advantage with slightly under one minute left.
This set the stage for Austin's dramatic finale -- a three from straight away to tie the game with :41 remaining.
"We do it all the time in practice," Austin said of her clutch long-range precision. "People think we've never been in this type of situation before, but every single game last year was like this."
The Red and Blue were in position to win the game when Epton rebounded an errant Cornell shot, but the Big Red's Tanya Karcic wrestled control of the ball under the basket and was fouled by Jewel Clark.
The 989 fans in attendance rose to their feet and a number of young children in the Palestra crowd sprinted behind the Cornell basket to distract Karcic at the line. The tactic was successful on the first shot, but Karcic hit the second to put her club up by one with 12 seconds left.
Another clutch Penn player was about to emerge.
Receiving the ball off the inbounds pass, Jewel Clark drove the length of the floor to draw a foul. After Cornell called consecutive timeouts to "ice" the sophomore guard, Clark smoothly made both shots to give Penn a 69-68 lead.
"I wasn't thinking about those [timeouts]," Clark said. "I was just thinking about making the shots."
A desperation three from 30 feet away by Cornell's Karen Force careened harmlessly off the glass, and the Quakers exalted.
Against Columbia, Clark was limited to eight points. Habrukowich and Austin picked up the slack, particularly in the first half.
Habrukowich tallied eight points in the first eight minutes of play, while Austin came off the bench shortly thereafter when the Quakers had hit an offensive drought that saw them go scoreless for a stretch of 4:27.
Austin, upon entering the game at the 7:14 mark, provided an immediate lift. She hit a three to give the Red and Blue a 25-24 lead, halting a 12-0 Columbia run.
"She showed courage to just come in and shoot it," Greenberg said. "She stepped up to the plate -- big time."
Penn would not trail again for the rest of the night, and Austin's torrid weekend was underway.
