Penn women's basketball coach Pat Knapp knew that defense was the key to stopping La Salle's Crista Ricketts.
As it turned out, merely good defense wasn't enough, as the Explorers came away with a deserved 73-63 win over the Quakers at the Palestra.
"She gets too many calls," Knapp said of the Explorers' star forward, adding that defenders need only to "breathe on her" to be called for a foul.
But even when Ricketts (21 points, 11 rebounds) wasn't hitting, La Salle (4-0) got contributions from other areas. Guard Tara Lapetina poured in a career-high 20 points as the Explorers pulled away in the final minutes.
Penn took an early 6-5 lead on a couple of transition layups by senior Lauren Pears (19 points, 5 assists), but saw it wiped away by a 12-0 La Salle run.
The lead was also 11 at halftime, due mainly to the difference in shooting between the two sides. La Salle shot a blistering 62 percent, while Penn (2-1) hit 33 percent - as a result, the Explorers hit three more field goals despite attempting nine fewer.
That pattern continued for the rest of the game, after which La Salle had four more field goals and 11 fewer attempts. The shooting advantage (57.4 percent for La Salle to 39.7 percent for Penn) effectively neutralized the Quakers' 13-4 edge in offensive rebounding.
Nonetheless, forwards Monica Naltner (22 points) and Carrie Biemer (11 points) helped to bring Penn back in the second half. The Quakers gradually chipped away at the lead before Naltner finally cut it to two on a layup with 5:05 to go.
But that was as close as the Quakers would get. Back-to-back layups by La Salle's Carlene Hightower pushed the deficit back to six.
Penn's next two possessions consisted of two missed jumpers by Biemer. Then, after a Kelly Scott steal, the Quakers were called for a 35-second violation despite calling a 30-second timeout midway through the possession.
Inside penetration was an issue for the Quakers, who were usually settling for jumpers on their unsuccessful possessions.
"We could have screened better," Knapp said of his team's offensive performance, which improved throughout the game but lacked the consistency of his counterpart's team. "In the second half, it got much better."
But the deciding factor was probably the La Salle offense. Ricketts, in particular, contributed several of her points down the stretch, when Penn was pushing to turn the tide of the game.
"It was definitely a challenge on defense," Naltner said of the All-Big 5 and All-Atlantic 10 selection. The two guarded each other and often traded baskets back and forth.
Ultimately, though, Ricketts simply got more support than Naltner did.
