PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Penn women's basketball team's season came to a close with a 67-55 loss at Princeton Tuesday night, giving the Tigers a share of the first ever three-way tie for the women's Ancient Eight championship with Brown and Dartmouth.
Although their title hopes faded long ago, the Quakers (5-22, 3-11 Ivy League) nonetheless gave an impressive effort. There were five ties and 10 lead changes in the first half, and Penn was within three points with 8:45 to go. But Princeton (21-6, 12-2 Ivy) held the Red and Blue scoreless for the next four minutes and 47 seconds, and extended its lead to 12 points before a Joey Rhoads three-pointer made it 60-51. That was as close as Penn would come for the rest of the game.
Still, Quakers coach Pat Knapp praised his team's resilience.
"I told the kids, we gave them a great effort," he said. "We made them play."
Penn guard Joey Rhoads was the game's high scorer with 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including a perfect 3-for-3 night from three-point range. She also played all 40 minutes of the game, the only player on either team to do so.
"I've never had a player in my career coaching who has played 40 minutes a game like she does," Knapp said.
Rhoads was nonetheless disappointed that her team could not pull off an upset win.
"We would have liked to knock them out of the running because of the rivalry and to end our season strong," she said. "But we fought hard until the end."
If nothing else, Penn's struggles this season have given Knapp a chance to play his freshmen for significant amounts of time, and that was the case again this evening. Guard Kelly Scott started and was on the floor for 24 minutes, while guard Anca Popovici played 16 minutes and forward Carrie Biemer played 10 minutes.
"I tried to get our freshman more minutes this year and there were mixed results," Knapp said. "There were some good moments and there were lessons that were learned."
At the other end of the floor, Princeton clinched a share of its first Ivy League championship since 1999, when it split the title with Dartmouth. The Big Green made this year's race end in a three-way tie by routing Harvarad, 76-55, in Hanover, N.H. Brown also finished the regular season with a 12-2 conference mark by beating Penn on Saturday at the Palestra, 70-62.
Princeton's leading scorer was sophomore forward Meagan Cowher, with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting. The effort was witnessed by her father, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher. Senior center Becky Brown added 16 points, making her the Ivy League's leading scorer for the season, while guards Jessica Berry and Katy O'Brien scored 11 and 10 points respectively. Rhoads was Penn's only player to record double figures in points.
The Ivy League conducted a coin flip to determine which of the three teams would get the bye to the second playoff game, and Princeton won. As a result, Brown and Dartmouth will play at 7 p.m. Friday at Harvard, and the winner will play the Tigers Sunday at 2 p.m. at Yale.
Tigers coach Richard Barron said that his team is "excited to play" in the playoff, but added that "we're trying to stay focused about our next game and just take it one step of the time."
"The great news is we get to keep playing -- we've got practice tomorrow," he said.
For Penn, however, the season has come to an end.
