Brown best chance yet for Knapp & Co.

"Cool. Calm. Chilled."

Why does women's basketball coach Pat Knapp describe his team like that despite having lost 14 games in a row?

Because Penn (3-17, 0-5 Ivy) is not the only Ivy League team struggling this season, and this weekend is its best chance yet for a win.

Brown has started 0-6 in league play and is 1-19 overall. Its lone victory, a 65-61 home win over Howard, came on Dec. 1, and the Bears have been outscored by an average of 22 points per game.

The Quakers will try to stay out of the Ivy League cellar with games at Brown and Yale (5-14, 3-3 Ivy) tonight and tomorrow, respectively.

Tonight's contest will likely be a defensive struggle between two teams that combine for fewer than 100 points per game.

"Every game right now should have a lot of intensity because at this point it's for pride and for developing our team," junior forward Carrie Biemer said. "But since [Brown is] in the same boat as us, it might give us a little more confidence because we know that they haven't won either."

The Bears have shot a mediocre 30 percent from the field on the season and an even-worse 22 percent from beyond the arc, but their strengths lie on the inside and the offensive glass.

That may be a favorable match-up for Penn, which has struggled with perimeter defense. The Red and Blue's opponents have shot 39.5 percent from three-point range but only a marginally higher 41.2 percent on two-point field goals.

"Anybody that shoots 30 percent as a team on a regular basis, you hope they continue to do that," Knapp said. "But we've got to keep them off the boards. They're athletic [and] they hustle. We can't give them lay-ups and second shots."

Biemer and Knapp both cited team rebounding as a key area that needs improvement.

"We improved a lot right before Ivies started and were out-rebounding all our opponents," Biemer said. "But then in the last five games, we've only out-rebounded our opponent once, so I think we need to bring that back a little bit."

Following tonight's game, Penn heads to New Haven, Conn., for a Saturday matchup against Yale.

The Bulldogs have a lower field goal percentage than Penn, but score nearly 10 more points per game thanks to its free throw shooting. The Bulldogs average over 20 trips to the line, where they shoot 72.2 percent.

Melissa Colborne, Yale's leading scorer at 15.1 points per game, has made 104 free throws during the season - only 57 fewer than Penn has as a team.

Free-throw disparity may be a key to the game, as the Quakers have a penchant for getting into foul trouble and providing their opponents too many opportunities at the line.

Despite the prolonged losing streak, Knapp bristled at the characterization of his team as desperate for a win.

"It doesn't matter whether it's Yale, Brown, Harvard [or] Dartmouth," Knapp said. "We're capable of beating any of these teams and they're capable of beating us."

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