Women's Hoops falters in opener

It was a case of opening night jitters for the Penn women's basketball team.

The Quakers committed 21 turnovers -- 14 in the first half -- and dropped their season opener to Temple on Friday night, 78-71, at the Palestra.

"We have to take better care of the ball," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said. "We need to make better decisions... of all the things in the game, that was the most disappointing."

Despite the turnovers, Penn forward Jewel Clark led a furious second half comeback, scoring a career-high 33 points on 11-of-24 shooting. She also had 12 rebounds and hit 11-of-12 from the line but led the Quakers with seven turnovers.

Clark shot a blistering 8-of-12 in the second half as the Quakers chipped away at a 39-28 halftime deficit.

"At halftime... I told my teammates to play real hard and play to win," Clark said. "And you can't tell them one thing and then do another."

Clark scored eight straight points late in the second half as the Quakers clawed to within four, 70-66. Penn center Katie Kilker then hit two free throws to cut it to two.

Kilker had 17 points on the night on 7-of-10 shooting.

"Katie had a nice game," Greenberg said. "We would have liked to have gotten her a few more touches though."

With the score 72-68, Cat Makarewich hit her second three-pointer of the night to cut the deficit to one. But Temple's Stacey Smalls, who had 15 points -- all in the second half -- hit two free throws, and Amanda Kammes missed two at the other end as the Owls put it away.

Despite the Quakers strong play in the second half, it was an entirely different story in the first. With Penn (0-1, 0-1 Big 5) struggling in the early-going, the Owls (1-0, 1-0) jumped out to a 12-4 lead just five minutes into the game.

"Sometimes the first games are like that," Greenberg said. "We knew what to expect from Temple, but they just got out on us early."

The deficit stretched to 18 points 10 minutes later, as Temple guard Ari Moore stole the ball from Kammes and passed it to Khadija Bowens for the easy layup. Bowens, a graduate of University City High School, led the Owls with 22 points.

The problems for Penn were more than just a slow start and turnovers, as Temple also grabbed 16 offensive rebounds. Due to the offensive boards and the turnovers, the Owls attempted 71 shots to Penn's 55.

"They send 4, 5 players [to rebound after every shot]," Greenberg said. "They get a lot of second and third opportunities."

Two of Penn's starters, Jenn Jones and Tara Twomey, also had off nights. Twomey didn't score, while Jones was only 1-for-5 from the field and had just two points.

The Quakers will have a chance to rebound against Drexel tomorrow night at the Palestra at 7 p.m.

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