This weekend Penn's campus will shut down as students depart for a relaxing vacation. But with the two highest-ranked Ivy League teams awaiting their arrival, the Quakers cannot slack off for a second.
Friday night the Quakers (15-10, 8-4 Ivy) travel to Hanover, N.H., to battle Dartmouth at Leede Arena. The next night will bring a similar level of competition as the team will make its way to Cambridge to face off with Harvard (17-7, 9-2). With only one league loss, the Big Green (14-9, 10-1) is looking to sweep this weekend's competition and affirm their spot atop the conference standings. Trailing only Dartmouth in the Ivy League, the Crimson is hoping for two final wins to earn a shot at a conference title of its own.
The Quakers are still mathematically in the title chase but are barely breathing. They would have to sweep the weekend and Princeton would need to sweep both Harvard and Dartmouth. If that happens, they still need Harvard to beat Dartmouth on Tuesday to force a three-way tie for the Ivy crown.
If all this happens and Brown sweeps, there could be a four-way tie for the Ivy title -- something that has never happened in Ivy basketball history, men or women.
In their last meeting, the Red and Blue fell to the Big Green, but not without a fight. Dartmouth controlled the game most of the way, mounting a 51-38 lead with just over 14 minutes left in the second half. The determined Quakers managed a hard-fought 13-point run.
Even after this effort, though, Penn could not finish off their New Hampshire rivals, suffering a heartbreaking 73-71 loss.
The game was one of three in which Penn gave up 70 or more points. Now, they are looking to reverse the outcome in the rematch tonight with an air-tight defensive performance.
"I think the thing that distinguishes these two teams from everybody else in the league is that they really are consistent offensively," Penn coach Patrick Knapp said. "And they have more than a couple of people who can take the ball to the basket. So, once again, it's going to come down to how efficient we are going to be defensively."
Penn fans witnessed a desperate comeback during the last five minutes of Saturday's 58-52 victory over Columbia at the Palestra. Though they ultimately earned the win, the Quakers cannot ignore the mistakes made on the defensive end.
"We've been working on our defense," senior Cat Makarewich said. "We have been watching a lot of film and focusing on defense. We know we had some lapses in the last game, and we are going to cut down on those. We need to play like it's the last five minutes of the game the whole game."
A strong defensive performance will not only benefit the Quakers on Friday but also on Saturday night against Harvard, who handed Penn a 54-51 loss at home four weeks ago. In the teams' last contest, Penn gave up a nine-point lead with just under eight minutes left in the game. On Saturday, in what may be the last game of the season and of the careers of five senior captains, the Quakers seek revenge for a game that barely slipped away.
"We have always shown that we can defend Harvard -- we have to duplicate that effort. We didn't show that we could defend Dartmouth and we are really going to have to gear up and play a lot better," Knapp said.
These next two games hold special significance for the underclassmen, who will get only two more chances to share the court with the heart of their 2004-05 squad: the seniors.
"It is the last time we are going to get to play with them, and they are a special class," sophomore Monica Naltner said. "I am going to miss them a lot, I know all my teammates will -- on and off the court. So we are going to make it a happy weekend."
Knapp knows the degree to which his seniors have carried the Quakers this season and expects them to end their careers the way they have been playing all along.
"I know our seniors are going to finish strong," Knapp said. "I believe that the rest of the team has the pride to do the same. It is something that we will demand. We are not going to mail it in -- we are going to go down swinging, whatever the circumstances."
