Jennifer Fleischer spent the entire week watching the Penn women's basketball team's practices from the bench in order to recover from a stress fracture in her lower leg.
Try convincing the Columbia and Cornell coaches of that.
The sophomore center posted a combined 37 points and 33 rebounds -- including a career-high 18 boards against the Lions -- propelling the Quakers to a weekend sweep of the Lions and Big Red at the Palestra and a perfect 7-0 Ivy League record (13-7 overall) so far this season.
"Rebounding is great in that it's not something you need to practice," she said after Saturday night's 72-62 win over Cornell. "I'm very fortunate that I can do that at any point -- it doesn't matter if I've been out a week or a month."
On Friday, Fleischer contributed 19 points to back up senior forward Jewel Clark's 24-point effort in an 81-70 win over Columbia. Although the Quakers led for the last 7:28, forward Nicole Lesko and guard Sue Altman kept the Lions (10-10, 4-4 Ivy) close -- which left Penn coach Kelly Greenberg less than pleased with her team's performance.
"We weren't smart," she said. "Leaving people wide open for shots, just toughness-wise, instinctive-wise, it can't happen."
But the Red and Blue pulled out the win from the free-throw line, hitting nine of 14 shots after the Lions cut the lead to 65-61 with 3:53 remaining.
"That old clich‚ when you don't play your 'A' game and still win, that's a sign of team with character," Greenberg said. "We do have a team with a lot of character."
On Saturday, Fleischer scored 18 points and junior guard Karen Habrukowich shot 7-12 from the field to fend off a Cornell team which took down two-time defending champion Harvard earlier this season on its home floor in Ithaca, N.Y.
With Penn up by two, 27-25, at halftime, the Big Red (8-13, 3-5) came out ice-cold, scoring only seven points -- two layups and three free throws -- in the first 9:10 of the second half as the Quakers raced to a 50-32 lead, their biggest of the game.
But the visitors were able to cut the margin back to 61-59 with 2:24 to play, only to lose their shooting touch again save for a Tanya Karcic three-pointer with two seconds remaining.
Free-throw shooting again proved a deciding factor for Penn, which shot 18-22 from the line against Cornell.
"The thing I'm happy about is the 22 attempts," Greenberg said. "I know we're going to make free throws but we just need to be getting there more and more."
Greenberg also appreciated the visitors' ability to keep the game close, despite their sub-.500 record both in conference and overall.
"I can totally see how [Cornell] beat Harvard," she said. "They step up and they have a couple seniors, they step up -- they know what it means to beat Harvard."
"I hope it happens again," she added jokingly.
It turns out that Greenberg and her team might not even have to bother hoping. The Crimson fell on Saturday, 62-59, to a Yale team which came into the night winless in Ancient Eight play -- all but ending the Crimson's chances for a third straight title, as it now has four losses in the league.
Harvard was predicted to win the Ivy League in the preseason media poll.
Perhaps even more of a surprise was Dartmouth's 78-68 loss at Brown the same night. This puts the Quakers two games clear of the rest of the Ancient Eight, and well within sight of their first championship in three seasons.
Greenberg, Fleischer and Habrukowich were all informed of the scores during the post-game press conference on Saturday, and could not contain their happiness as they prepared to head to a pizza party with the fans in attendance in honor of National Women in Sports Day.
"It's unbelievable," Greenberg said.
But she quickly shifted her perspective on the results, knowing that Penn has to travel to Providence, R.I., and New Haven, Conn., next weekend.
"Our reaction is, 'Yeah!' but we've got to take care of business," she said. "Now we're 0-0 -- that's what we're saying. We have a whole new season ahead of us."
