VILLANOVA, Pa. --Perhaps the cold Main Line air got ahold of the Penn women's basketball team's shooting touch.
Whatever the reason, the Quakers struggled mightily to get the ball in the basket against Villanova last night, making only 16 of 50 attempts in a 57-40 loss at the Pavillion.
"You're not going to beat anyone scoring 40 points," Penn (2-3, 0-2 Big 5) coach Kelly Greenberg said. "We're disappointed with that."
She placed much of the blame for the loss on "a major lack of energy" in the first half.
"For our two guards to start the game and not even be looking at the ball... we were flat," she said. "And there's no excuse for that. If there's something you can control in the ball game it's your energy level."
Villanova freshman forward Jackie Adamshick led all scorers with 17 points and also had seven rebounds. Two other Wildcats (6-1, 1-0 Big Five) registered double figures-- sophomore guard Jenna Viani scored 13 points and junior center Jana Rediger scored 12. Penn failed to have a player reach double-digits in scoring as junior Maria DiDonato was the Quakers' leading scorer with nine points.
Villanova coach Harry Peretta was particularly happy with the performances of his top scorers, since none of them are seniors.
"Hopefully they will get better," he said.
Peretta labeled the game "a Big 5 Game --it was played ugly."
"The game was never over until, I thought, about four minutes to go," he said.
There were a few flashes of the Penn offense which scored 86 in a win over Marist on Monday night. The first of two DiDonato three-pointers cut the lead to 14-10 with 7:10 to go in the first half, and the junior guard forced her way through the point for a layup and foul early in the second half.
Senior Jewel Clark -- who made only 3 of 11 field goal attempts all night -- provided another highlight when she broke free of a tight Villanova defense midway through the second half and took a defensive rebound all the way down the floor for a layup.
Freshman guard Joey Rhoads added seven points in the last 1:42, but that was too little, too late.
"We played hard, we gave it all we could, but our shots were just not falling," junior center Katie Kilker said.
All those misses made for plenty of rebounds, which were spread almost evenly between the teams -- 38 for Villanova, 35 for Penn. Clark and sophomore center Kilker each had eight for Penn, while sophomore center Jennifer Fleischer had six. Adamshick, Kate Dessart Mager and Courtney Mix led the Wildcats with seven apiece.
"Rebounding is a huge part of the game," Kilker said. "You can't run the ball, you can't shoot the ball, unless you have the ball."
Penn's next game is against Temple at the Liacouras Center in North Philadelphia, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night.
