Karen Habrukowich sat in one of the folding chairs in the Palestra media room on Saturday night, considering her part in yet another astonishing Penn rally.
"It's just pride in Penn," she said. "We want to win every game, and we're not going to back down."
This one wasn't like the others, though.
This one was the senior guard's last time playing in her school's colors on the Palestra's historic floor, her last home game in front of loving parents who have traveled to nearly every game of her career.
"I just wanted to win so bad," she said. "So whatever I could do, I got the ball and did what I could."
And so, with five minutes to go, Habrukowich took over the game. Ten of her game-high 20 points came in that span, including seven of Penn's last 11.
Final score: Penn 58, Columbia 52.
It was an act of defiance as much as it was a ferocious rally. And when it was over, the sounds of joy bounced off of the Palestra's walls once again.
But once the din subsided, the time came for reflection.
"It's been so much fun," Habrukowich said. "It's upsetting that ... it didn't go the way we planned in the Ivy League."
She paused for a moment, a tinge of melancholy in her voice. There is plenty to recall fondly, though -- a program-best two wins in the Big 5 this season and plenty of afterglow from a night on the big stage against Connecticut a year ago.
"There are so many memories, and I'm just going to miss it a lot," she said.
Penn coach Patrick Knapp, now just days away from finishing his first season on 33rd Street, has memories of many of these farewells after nearly two decades of coaching at Georgetown.
"These guys have only been through one senior day, and I've been through a lot," Knapp said. "They're hard. I think they're very hard ... It's an emotional roller coaster, it's got to be balanced."
But he admitted that this one was different for him.
"Six months and a week ago is the first time I was introduced to any of them," he said. "They are very proud of Penn, they are very proud of Penn basketball and they have started something here that we want to continue."
Jennifer Fleischer, who will be continuing that something as a senior next year, was asked what the Class of 2005 meant to her.
"That's a really tough question," she admitted. Toughness is nothing new to her, though, with all the battles she has waged under the basket this season.
The five seniors "are all different, and they all have their different personalities," she said. "If you meet them individually, you would wonder how they could ever be friends, but they are, and they're the best of friends."
Then Knapp turned the tables and asked his captain -- or one of his five captains, I should say -- what she did after she walked off the floor that final time.
"Before the game, I was sitting around in the Palestra just thinking about things," Habrukowich said. "I've been all nostalgic all weekend, trying to not let it affect me."
A difficult task, no doubt. The Palestra is not the kind of place in which one's emotions are easily hidden.
"But it's going to hit me. It's so weird."
Eventually, the departure of this team's seniors -- Habrukowich, Cat Makarewich, Amanda Kammes, Katie Kilker and Maria DiDonato -- will hit everybody, and all will wonder who will become the new leaders, the new scorers, the new spokeswomen.
But for now, we marvel at the blaze of glory in which the Class of 2005 departed the Palestra -- a remarkable night among four remarkable years.
Jonathan Tannenwald is a junior Urban Studies major from Washington, D.C. His e-mail address is jtannenw@sas.upenn.edu.
