W. Hoops | An annual nemesis still has W. Hoops' number

Coming into the season, the Penn women's basketball team had defeated Big 5 rival Saint Joseph's only once in 32 games. That pattern continued last night as the Hawks cruised to a 63-46 victory over the Quakers (1-3).

Penn was once again plagued by turnovers, especially in the first half. Forward Carrie Biemer, the only Quakers player to score in double figures, turned the ball over seven times in the first half and nine times overall.

"[The number of turnovers] sucks. We have to minimize that," Penn coach Pat Knapp said. "I think you saw a bunch of young women who were in a little bit too much of a hurry tonight."

"I think that we're just really finding ourselves," point guard Sarah Bucar said. "We're pretty inexperienced as a whole, and we're just trying to find chemistry."

Fueled by a 32-8 run, the Hawks (3-1) built a lead as high as 21 on their way to a 36-17 halftime lead. Meanwhile, the Quakers had no answer for the Hawks' size on the interior.

Center Sarah Acker led the Hawks with 16 points and 10 rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass.

As a team, St. Joe's racked up 28 points in the paint and outrebounded the Quakers 44-28.

"We were getting really caught up in not fouling them, and we were forgetting to box them out," junior forward Maggie Burgess said.

Despite the loss, the game was not without its positives.

In a game full of momentum swings, the Quakers opened the second half with a fullcourt press and built a 12-1 run of their own to cut the lead to as little as six.

"I thought our press worked pretty well," said Bucar, who was "exhausted" after logging 38 minutes and pressuring Hawks point guard Mary Kate McDade almost every time up the floor. "I thought we got a lot of good looks off of that."

In addition, the Quakers held St. Joe's to only four three-point field goals. Perimeter defense has been Penn's Achilles heel this season; opponents shot over 44 percent from behind the arc coming into the game.

"[St. Joe's forward Jenna Loschiavo] is a ridiculous three-point shooter, so we were kind of expecting her to hit a lot of threes," Burgess said. "Our guards did a much better job of getting out on three pointers."

But despite their second-half run, the Quakers would get no closer than six as the Hawks responded with a 16-4 run that put the game out of reach.

One of the keys to St. Joe's scoring spurts was its 10 second-chance points off of 16 offensive rebounds.

"You got to stop them," Knapp said. "When we needed to stop them they got second shots."

The Quakers will look to get their season back on track with a Sunday matchup at home against Loyola Maryland.

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