Kammes' buzzer-beater gives Penn win over La Salle

After 39 minutes and 57 seconds of basketball that was defensive at best, Penn point guard Amanda Kammes made one sweet move to beat La Salle.

With three seconds to go and the sparse but increasing Palestra crowd on its feet, Penn senior guard Karen Habrukowich found her classmate with a long inbounds pass from the far baseline, and Kammes hit a driving layup at the buzzer to win the game for Penn (2-0, 1-0 Big 5), 51-49. It was the Quakers' first victory against La Salle (1-2, 0-1) in four years.

Quakers coach Patrick Knapp labeled the game "up and down, and very frustrating," and indeed it was that for Knapp and Explorers coach Tom Lochner. Both men exhorted players and officials alike to raise their game, as numerous fouls and missed shots were the order of the day.

"It sure was a defensive battle," Lochner said. "I think both teams played extremely hard and both teams played with a lot of energy and emotion."

He added that "maybe some of that emotion took away from offensive production for both teams, too -- they were trying too hard."

No one player dominated the game, as evidenced by the fact that the highest scorer was La Salle guard Davineia Payne, who had 13 points. The two teams combined for 35 fouls and 26 turnovers, and neither shot better than 35 percent from the field.

La Salle's perimeter defense was particularly effective, limiting Penn guards Cat Makarewich and Karen Habrukowich to one three-point attempt each, both of which were converted.

"That was our goal," Lochner said. "We wanted to make sure that we stayed up on those two as much as we could throughout the game, and I thought we did a pretty good job of that."

Habrukowich said that La Salle's defense "made us drive" to the basket, which the Quakers did quite often -- but without much success.

"Definitely, we should have finished the layups down low," she added.

While there might not have been much attractive basketball, there was nonetheless plenty of drama. Neither team held a lead of more than five points during the game and the margin was at most three points for the last 2:50 of the game.

"We missed a lot of easy shots and we missed free throws," Knapp said. "But we kept persevering, especially on the defensive end. La Salle's got a lot of weapons and the way they played the games, they missed some shots and we got the rebounds -- that's the only way we came back."

Although both teams had nine boards in the final seven minutes of play, Penn sophomore center Jennifer Fleischer made the biggest difference in the post. Five of her nine rebounds in the game came in that span.

"I tell you what, Jen's the best," Knapp said. "She just has a never-say-die attitude, and she just keeps coming, man, she's resilient."

Then came Kammes' buzzer-beater, and trepidation turned to elation for Knapp and the rest of the Red and Blue.

"I knew it was going to go in," he said. "Now you hear that stuff all the time, but I wanted her to get the ball, because I knew she was going to go to the basket, and she was getting to the basket the whole game."

"We practiced the play in practice and then coach just drew it up," Habrukowich said. "I knew I'd be able to find Amanda."

That she did, and the Wheaton, Ill., native was off to try to beat the clock.

"You miss eight layups, you figure the next one's got to go in," Kammes said. "It means a lot to me to be able to win the game for us."

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