W. Hoops | Leading for 39 minutes not quite enough

Ahead for nearly the entire game at Harvard on Friday, the women's basketball team seemed in control, poised to end a 10-game losing streak.

But with 32 seconds remaining and the Quakers up 62-61, Crimson guard Lindsay Hallion stole an inbounds pass to set up an Emily Tay jumper with 14 seconds left. Tay's shot fell in, giving her team its largest lead of the game - one point.

That margin was all that counted, as the Quakers dropped a 63-62 heartbreaker.

"It's frustrating [to lose like that], and there's a lot of things we could have done differently throughout the whole game and in the last 10 minutes," junior forward Maggie Burgess said.

But the Quakers' troubles did not end there. It was deja vu less than 24 hours later, as Penn once again saw a second-half lead turn into a loss, when Dartmouth overcame a four point deficit at halftime to edge the Red and Blue, 63-58, in Hanover, N.H. With the loss to the Big Green, the Quakers' losing streak is up to 12 - their longest since they lost the first 22 games of the 1995-96 season.

Although Penn (4-15, 0-3 Ivy) played better than in its last game two weeks ago, it just wasn't enough against the top two finishers in the Ivy League from last year.

"I think we made a huge improvement in our cohesiveness," Burgess said. "We're already huge amounts better than we were."

This improvement showed up in the statistics, as the Quakers shot 49 percent from the field against Harvard and 43.1 percent against Dartmouth-well above their season average of 38 percent. Meanwhile, they held their opponents to a combined 39.5 percent shooting.

Freshman guard Kim Adams, who scored 23 points on the weekend, including 4-for-6 shooting from long range, credited the team's offensive development to a new focus on transition offense.

"With that mentality, we're creating a lot more opportunities [and] we were able to get into our offense quicker," Adams said. "It's definitely easier to score when we're beating teams up the floor."

Penn coach Pat Knapp offered a simpler explanation-the two-week break allowed his team to heal from injuries.

"Look at who's adding to our field goal percentage," Knapp said. "Two kids that hadn't played in two months, Kelly Scott and Kim Adams. They've brought a little extra pop."

After their demoralizing loss to Harvard, the Quakers played with as much intensity against Dartmouth, but they could not overcome a 46-24 rebounding deficit.

"21 offensive rebounds is intolerable," Knapp said. "Dartmouth then becomes a whole different animal because we didn't rebound the ball."

Although Penn didn't come away with a victory this weekend - or any time since November - Knapp still believes that a win may be on the horizon.

"We need to continue to be resilient, that's the bottom line," he said. "No matter what Ivy weekend it is, they're all going to be ultra-competitive. But if we do our jobs, we'll be talking a different tune next Sunday."

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