W. Hoops | Burden is on boards vs. Bears, Bulldogs

If momentum is what the Quakers were looking for, they surely have it.

Coming off a huge win over Cornell last Saturday, the Penn women's basketball team is looking to continue its confidence in this weekend's matchups.

The Quakers (4-15, 1-4 Ivy) will host Brown tonight and Yale tomorrow. The Bears (3-17, 1-5) enter with only one Ivy League victory in six games played, and have no players who average more than seven points. As a team they have managed a woeful 49.5 points per game. (The Quakers, by comparison, average 55.7).

Penn will key on athletic sophomore guard Sadiea Williams, who tallied ten points in her most recent game against Harvard.

"We won't leave her," junior guard Sarah Bucar said. "We'll defend the penetration and stay on her."

Williams and teammate Karly Grace will be on the Quakers' radar not only for their solid offensive statistics, but for their rebounding skills as well. According to Penn coach Pat Knapp, rebounding will be essential to the Red and Blue's success.

"Brown's guards get to the boards pretty quickly, so our guards need to be ready to get a body on people," he said.

Defensively, the Quakers had a strong showing in the second half against Cornell, but their aggressive style did not work in their favor versus Columbia Friday. Senior captain Carrie Biemer fouled out of the game in just 13 minutes of play.

With the Lions game behind them, the Quakers are looking to build on their rebounding edge against the Big Red, when they totaled 27 defensive boards and 34 overall, versus Cornell's total of 23.

Yale (9-11, 2-4) will also pose matchup problems on the glass, with strong rebounders such as Haywood Wright and Mady Gobrecht, who average 7.6 and 7.3 rebounds, respectively.

"Of all teams in the Ivy League, if we can get the offensive rebounds against them, then we'll put ourselves in a good spot to win," Bucar said.

The Bulldogs also have strengths in scoring. Junior forward Melissa Colborne is ranked second in the Ivy League in total points scored with 15.6 points per game (Biemer leads the league with 17.6). Colborne just hit the 1,000 career points landmark against Brown at the end of January.

Yale has played eight games this season that have been tied at some point in the final three minutes of play. The Quakers also have their share of experience in close games, which could be useful against a team that carries the game to the bitter end.

Specifically, Bucar thought that Penn's close losses in the Big 5 - which she described as some of the toughest non-conference games that any Ivy team played - will help the Quakers this weekend.

"We went down to the wire with those teams" she said. "I think we need to take that into this game and have confidence that we can use those experiences."

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