Holding the lead for 35 minutes of play was not long enough for the Quakers, as the Penn women's basketball team eventually fell last night, 74-67, to Big 5 rival La Salle.
The Quakers (1-2, 0-1 Big 5) came out on fire in the first half and never trailed in the 20-minute session. Their impressive early play was partly due to solid three-point shooting by guard Cat Makarewich.
The 6'0" junior was on target early on from behind the arc, tallying all of her 12 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting in the first half.
"Personally, I had a lot of open shots," Makarewich said. "We were knocking them down."
The Explorers went on an 8-0 run late in the first half, however, that brought La Salle (2-1, 1-0) within one point, 34-33.
Penn went into halftime with a 38-35 advantage and was able to keep its edge on La Salle until Explorers guard Shaune McLaughlin hit her first three to draw the teams even at 47 with 13:07 to play.
After shooting 48.4 percent from the field in and 5-for-9 from three-point land in the first half, the Quakers' shooting tapered off.
The second half saw Penn shoot only 31.3 percent from the field and struggle from behind the arc with only 3-for-14 shooting.
"I don't think we necessarily fell apart offensively," Makarewich said. "But we just didn't get as good of looks as we did in the first half."
Teammate Jennifer Fleischer, who added 11 points and 10 rebounds, echoed Makarewich's remarks about the second half of play.
"We definitely had the effort I would say," the sophomore center said. "But we just didn't play quite as well, and we let up a little bit."
The teams would exchange leads before a free throw by La Salle freshman Crista Ricketts gave the Explorers the lead for good at 65-64.
La Salle was able to ice the game after hitting 10 of 12 free throws in the final two-and-a-half minutes of the game.
The Explorers made 10 more free throws than the Quakers for the game as they shot a combined 19-for-22 from the charity stripe.
Penn senior forward Jewel Clark put together a complete performance before fouling out. She tied La Salle's Davineia Payne for the game-high of 17 points, including a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line, while securing a double-double with 15 rebounds.
After opening the season with three road games in four days, the Quakers will host their first home game of the season when they play Marist on Monday.
