Last night was the 32nd time that the women's basketball team faced Saint Joseph's. For the 31st time, Penn came up short.
After losing to the Hawks 62-51 yesterday, the Quakers finished Big Five play winless for the second straight season.
"It stinks," coach Pat Knapp said. "I can't give you any other word but it stinks, and I don't like it."
The Quakers won the opening tip-off, but from there it was all downhill. They were immediately called for a backcourt violation, and turned the ball over on three of their next four possessions. Within minutes, they were down 11-2, a deficit from which they would not recover.
The Quakers managed just 17 points in the first half - a season low - on meager 21.4 percent shooting. Joey Rhoads shot 3-of-7; the rest of the Quakers combined for 3-of-21, or 14 percent.
Yet despite the poor first half, the Quakers had a chance to tie later on. An 18-7 run shortly after the break brought Penn within seven. The rest of the game was back and forth action, during which St. Joe's responded every time Penn closed the gap.
Monica Naltner, who led the Quakers with 16 points despite shooting 6-for-21, sunk her only three-pointer in seven tries to bring the Quakers to within six with a few minutes remaining. After the Hawks sunk both free throws on a call against Naltner, Lauren Pears nailed a long three. Penn was down by just five.
The comeback ended there. Hawks guard Whitney Ffrench completed a three-point play, Ayahna Cornish turned a blocked shot into a fast break layup of her own, and Rhoads was called for an offensive foul. Naltner missed a pair of three-pointers before finally settling for two, but the Hawks quickly responded. The Quakers were down by 11 with under 90 seconds left.
"The comeback showed a lot of heart, but it wasn't because of fundamentals or good play," Knapp said. "It was because of hustle and determination. We should have had that at the beginning of the game."
The Quakers were overwhelmed by the size of the Hawks, who featured a 6-foot-5 center and a starting lineup with an average height of 5-10. The Quakers could not get inside with any consistency, nor could they prevent the Hawks from getting open shots. They were also out-rebounded 45-34, a career-high, nine of which came from the 5-8 Pears.
"I lost track, I took so many people out for not boxing out," Knapp said.
Penn finished shooting 29.8 percent for the game, even while playing better in the second half. Naltner and Rhoads led the way, as usual, with 16 and 14 respectively, while the rest of Quakers combined for 21 on 5-23 shooting.
Ashley Gray continued to make an impact after coming off the ineligible list, scoring nine points and managing to get inside. Knapp, however, said that she was often in the wrong position, and still needs to learn the team's plays.
Knapp, who said that he was "very disappointed in the game in its entirety," criticized his team's shooting, free-throw shooting, execution, boxing out, and turnovers. But he also thought that the Quakers were playing afraid.
"The timidity factor is a mental thing that some of our kids have to get over," he said, noting that Rhoads, Naltner, Pears, and Gray did not suffer from it.
"There are a lot of ways to play strong without knocking somebody on their ass. And we have some people who didn't do that tonight."
