Although Villanova handed the Penn’s women’s basketball team its second loss of the season and 19th straight Big 5 loss, the Quakers did rack up a notable first of their 2009-10 season — their first lead.
The Quakers led the Wildcats by three points in the beginning of the first half, but it was Villanova that pulled away to win the game, 44-28.
“They run an offense that is particularly wide,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said. “[They] made a lot of threes, switched a lot of their screens. We just have to do things a little bit better.”
For the second year in a row, Villanova’s Maria Ghetty gave the Quakers’ defense problems.
Ghetty netted 15 points to go along with her three rebounds, which just edged her 14-point, two-board performance from last season’s Nov. 19 matchup between the two teams at the Palestra.
“[Ghetty] is pretty tough because she can score off the dribble and she can shoot the three,” McLaughlin said. “That’s just a pretty tough matchup for us.”
Although Penn allowed 28 — more than half — of the Wildcats’ points in the second half, McLaughlin was pleased with his squad’s overall defensive performance.
“Our defense kept us in the game,” the first-year Penn coach said. “For the most part we had them pretty much contained. I was happy with that. I think everyone stepped up on the defensive end.”
Unfortunately, it was the Quakers’ offense that could not capitalize.
At the start of the second half, Penn was down 17-11. Although Quakers’ sophomore Jess Knapp scored the first points for either side at the half’s opening— giving Penn an opportunity to go on a run — no such momentum was established. Villanova held the Quakers to just 17 points in the last 20 minutes.
“What we were trying to do was trying to create a little bit more motion and to make them have to switch and make them drop back a little bit,” McLaughlin said. “We struggled to score.”
The one member of the Quakers that didn’t struggle offensively was junior Jerin Smith. The Fort Worth, Texas native came off the bench to score a team-high 12 points.
Like the Quakers, however, Smith fell just short. She was one rebound away from earning her first career double-double, though her nine carums were a career high.
“I am very upset about that actually,” Smith said. “There [were] a couple times I definitely could have gone to the boards and I didn’t.”
Yes, the Quakers suffered their second city — and overall — loss, but Smith isn’t worried yet.
“It’s only the second game of the season,” she said. “Later we will start to pick up more.”
