W. Hoops | Twice as nice

The Penn women's basketball team may have thought it was experiencing déj… vu.

For the second consecutive game, Penn held a small lead in the closing seconds, this time at home against Navy. Once again, the Quakers forced a missed shot, scrambled for the rebound and dove on the loose ball.

The difference between a fourth excruciatingly close loss and an uplifting first victory was just a single timeout.

But unlike in last Wednesday's overtime loss to Lafayette, Penn still had one remaining, which junior guard Sarah Bucar called with four seconds left on the clock to secure a 61-58 victory on Friday.

While coach Pat Knapp didn't specifically plan to save the timeout, this time his players were prepared for the scenario.

"They made sure they told us," Bucar said. "This season now I think we've really experienced a lot of situations that we didn't [early] last year."

The Quakers didn't exactly capitalize on the momentum of their first win when they faced Colgate on Sunday, but they came away with an ugly 49-46 overtime victory anyway.

"I don't know how to spell discombobulated, but it was a wreck," Knapp said. "The best thing I can say is what our kids did today is play defense with great heart and rebound with great heart."

Against Navy (4-6), the Quakers (2-6) relied on hot shooting - including 8-for-15 from beyond the arc - and the leadership of Bucar and senior Carrie Biemer, who scored 16 points apiece in the decisive second-half.

Bucar was particularly clutch down the stretch, driving for the game-winning layup with 21 seconds left after the Quakers had squandered yet another late lead.

"They knew that there was a double-down screen for a shooter on the opposite side, and it wasn't open," Bucar said of her decision.

Bucar - who bounced back from an 0-for-7 night against Lafayette on Wednesday night - also bailed the Quakers out of some slow possessions by twice draining deep three-pointers as the shot-clock expired.

After so many close losses -- Penn has lost four games by a combined 20 points - the Quakers might be gaining the experience needed to actually finish off opponents.

"Especially since a bunch of our games have been down-to-the-wire like this one, to finally get over the hump is huge," Biemer said after Friday's win. "When you start out the season, and you just keep losing, you kind of lose a little confidence."

On Sunday, the Quakers utilized a press and forced 20 Colgate turnovers on a season-high 13 steals. But Knapp said he was far more concerned with his own team's propensity for mistakes, which led to a tied score of 37 at the end of regulation.

"We double-dribbled, we moved our pivot foot, dropped the ball," Knapp said. "[In the last seven minutes] we had fastbreaks, penetrate-and-kicks, dump-offs, and we dropped flat-out layups. I don't know how or why that was."

In overtime, Biemer took control, scoring eight of her team-high 15 points en route to her first career double-double (she also had 10 rebounds).

After a grueling stretch, the team will need its 12-day break before facing a tough Drexel team on Dec. 19 at home.

"I think right now maybe the three games in five days were pretty draining, particularly on the kids that play a lot of minutes," Knapp said after the Colgate win. "So we get away with one here . and we get ready for the 19th."

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