W. Hoops starts 2-0

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Reflecting on the Penn women's basketball team's first Ivy League weekend of the season, coach Patrick Knapp easily found the difference between his team and its foes.

"Our collective will means a lot," he said. "These kids don't believe they can lose."

So they didn't.

Despite shooting under 39 percent from the field on their trip, the Quakers won both games -- 53-40 over Yale (3-13, 0-3 Ivy), and 47-43 over the Brown (11-6, 3-1).

With a 2-0 conference record, Penn (9-6) sits atop the Ancient Eight standings this morning, officially tied for first place with Dartmouth (7-8, 3-0).

On Friday night in New Haven, Conn., Penn came to a gym built to look like a great gothic cathedral and left with a very ugly win.

After leading the Elis only 19-15 at halftime, the Quakers pulled away in the second half, prevailing in front of a sparse but vocal crowd at the John J. Lee Amphitheater and a television audience on the YES Network.

The 40 points were the second-lowest total allowed by Penn in an Ivy League game in program history. The record was set on Feb. 24, 1995, when the Quakers beat Columbia, 66-39, at the Palestra.

Abysmal shooting by both teams led to the low score. Each made only five field goals in the first half and 13 in the game, with Penn attempting 43 shots to Yale's 41. Penn shot 2-of-8 from three-point range on the night, while Yale shot 5-of-19.

Knapp admitted that the teams "set basketball back a little bit today," and was more than happy to "throw [the game] in the trash can" as the team got ready to board the bus.

Penn was led on offense by junior center Jennifer Fleischer, whose 15 points included 7-of-12 shooting from the free-throw line. Sophomore forward Monica Naltner was also impressive from the charity stripe, shooting a perfect 6-for-6 and hitting three clutch jumpers for 12 total points.

Overall, Penn shot 25-of-37 from the free throw line, benefiting from the 26 fouls committed by Yale -- 11 in the first half and 15 in the second. Six Elis finished the game with three or more personal fouls charged against them.

Yale was certainly complicit in its third loss of the young Ivy League season, and not just because of its shooting. The Elis allowed Penn to steal the ball 12 times and committed 24 turnovers, including 10 by senior guard and team captain Morgan Richards.

"We're plagued by turnovers, and not giving ourselves an opportunity to score when we have possession of the ball," Yale coach Amy Backus said. "That's been our issue the entire year."

Saturday night in Providence, R.I., Penn met a Brown team which entered the weekend in first place in the Ancient Eight. Each dared the other to blink, and as the clock wound down, the Bears finally did.

The Quakers, who had a sizeable fan contingent in the announced crowd of 724 at the Pizzitola Sports Center, held a tenuous 23-21 lead at halftime. They were able to extend their lead to as many as eight points, but with 5:31 to play, Brown senior center Holly Robertson scored on consecutive possessions to cut the margin to 43-41.

Brown went ice-cold from the floor after that. The Bears missed their next four shots, but two Penn turnovers in the same span kept the score where it was -- allowing Robertson to tie the game by hitting two free throws with 1:39 to play.

The free throws were Brown's last points of the game, and from there, Fleischer took over. With 22 seconds to go, she took a pass from senior guard Amanda Kammes in the paint, drove hard to the basket and hit a layup to give Penn the lead back.

The Bears played for the last shot, and coach Jean Marie Burr called a timeout with 10.9 seconds remaining. Off the inbounds pass, Sarah Hayes missed a layup, and Fleischer simply overpowered everyone in the post to get the rebound.

Brown had a foul to give, so forward Andrea Conrad did the honors, and guard Colleen Kelly fouled Naltner on the inbounds pass with three seconds to go. Naltner hit both free throws and sealed the victory.

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