W. Hoops dominates Delaware

According to Penn's women's basketball coach, Kelly Greenberg, last night's game against Delaware was just practice for the Ivy League teams the Quakers will face this weekend. "As much as it sounds silly," Greenberg said, "I told the team it was a practice game." But this 'practice game' ended up being one of the Quakers' biggest wins of the season. Penn defeated the Blue Hens, 57-47, last night at at the Palestra. Coming into the game, this looked to be a tough practice for the Quakers (6-8, 0-1 Ivy). Delaware (11-4) was ranked No. 12 in the NCAA in scoring defense and loomed ominously on the Quakers' schedule. But the Red and the Blue proved to be up to the challenge, jumping out to an early lead and keeping the Blue Hens at arm's length most of the contest. Penn junior Mikaelyn Austin came off the bench to lead the team in scoring with 17 points. She had five three- pointers, including four in the first half. "Ima [Abia] and Mik [Austin] coming off the bench really changed the game," Greenberg said. "There's a great saying we have hanging in our locker room, 'Great teams are made of great benches,' and I really believe that." Coming out of the half up 27-23, Penn stretched its lead with a key 5-0 run. "We had the energy on defense" junior Jewel Clark said. "To have the offense, you have to have energy on defense. That's the biggest thing." Penn was leading 43-27 when Delware made a push to get back into the contest, mounting an 11-0 run to cut its deficit to 43-38 with 7:15 remaining. But due to early foul trouble -- Delaware committed seven fouls in the first nine minutes of the second half -- the Blue Hens' effort came up short. As the minutes began to wind down, the Quakers picked up their defense. Delaware only scored nine points in the last seven minutes after its big run. Penn built up a 12-point lead with 1:55 left on a layup by Clark and ended the game with a comfortable 10 point win. Blue Hens' star Allison Trapp was held to only six points -- the Delaware senior guard had averaged 17.4 points on the season. "We knew she was much more comfortable off the dribble," Greenberg said. "And we pushed her to the edges, and it worked to our advantage." In addition to Austin's game-high 17 points, the Red and Blue had two others in double figures. Clark scored 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, earning her fifth double-double of the season. Sophomore center Katie Kilker had 15 points on the night. The Quakers will take the energy and momentum from this final non-conference game into the upcoming series of Ivy League games. "It's time to get started," Clark said. "We are ready for the weekend, we've been waiting for this."

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