With 5.8 seconds to go and the score tied at 72, junior Katie Kilker stood at the free-throw line at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion, home of the two-time defending Ivy League champions, with two chances to give the Penn women's basketball team the win over the Crimson, which they so desperately craved.
She missed the first shot.
She made the second.
Beating the Ivy League's best team this season was easy by comparison.
The Quakers (11-6, 5-0 Ivy) swept what is by far the hardest weekend of their season every year, beating Harvard, 73-72, and Dartmouth, 71-58, on the road, and now stand alone in first place in the Ancient Eight.
In Boston, Penn and Harvard (9-9, 2-3 Ivy) raced back and forth early, with the Crimson leading, 36-33, at halftime.
Junior guard Karen Habrukowich gave the Quakers their first lead of the second half, 41-40, just under two- and-a-half minutes in, and after six lead changes and four ties, the game was tied at 53 with 11:08 remaining.
Penn then jumped out to its largest lead of the game, 67-56, with 6:41 to go, but Harvard responded with 13 unanswered points to take the lead back with 2:36 left. With the Crimson ahead, 72-70, and Penn senior forward Jewel Clark having fouled out early, after playing only 19 minutes, freshman forward Monica Naltner -- matched up against reigning Ivy League Player of the Year Hana Peljto -- nailed a long two-point shot to tie the game, leaving Kilker to provide the rest of the drama.
"I knew those foul shots were going to be huge," Kilker said. "After I missed the first one I actually said out loud, 'I'm not going to miss this one.'"
Kilker wasn't the only prescient one, according to Penn coach Kelly Greenberg.
"I looked at all three of my assistant coaches and they said, 'She's making this one,'" she said.
But with time left on the clock after the Langhorne, Pa., native's free throws, Greenberg knew that the Quakers would have to set a defense quickly.
"Just make sure they don't get a good shot off," she said, invoking reference to former Duke star Christian Laettner's turnaround jumper against Kentucky as time expired in the Final Four of the 1992 NCAA Tournament at the Spectrum.
The Quakers were able to spread the scoring around effectively against the Crimson, with seven players scoring eight or more points .
"That's one thing where I think we are a very good team right now," Greenberg said. "We know we don't have to rely on just one or two people."
In fact, Penn relied on its bench quite heavily. The Red and Blue's reserves outscored Harvard's by a score of 41-4 -- and also outscored the Quakers' starting five in the process.
The next night, Penn faced off against a Dartmouth team which also came in undefeated in Ivy League play. With a crowd of 1,583 on hand for the showdown in Leede Arena, Clark and sophomore center Jennifer Fleischer carried the Red and Blue, combining for 33 points and 26 rebounds.
Fleischer had the unenviable task of guarding Big Green freshman sensation Elise Morrison, and the additional year of experience paid off. Morrison only managed five rebounds on the night, and fouled out as the Quakers sealed the win over Dartmouth (11-7, 4-1 Ivy).
"I think she's a very good player and it was a pleasure to play against her," Fleischer said of her Big Green counterpart.
"We did a really great job on [Morrison] and just wore her down," Greenberg said.
For Clark, who scored her 1,500th career point with the game's first field goal, the big crowd was not much of a factor.
"It's always good to have a crowd there to cheer you on," she said, "but it can't be the pivotal portion of the game for a team."
Clark admitted that she was "definitely shocked that we won by 13."
"There was a lot of hype about Dartmouth but we really play well against them," she said. "I'm not going to take any credit from them, just more credit to us for doing a great job."
The Quakers will get a short reprieve from Ivy League play this week, finishing their Big 5 season against Saint Joseph's tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Palestra.
