Headed by a new coaching staff, the women’s basketball team has found wins this season to be few and far between.
During this past weekend, however, the squad showed that it is on the brink of surprising everyone in the Ivy League.
The Quakers were a much improved club on their first Ivy road trip, yet still fell to Cornell and Columbia on Friday and Saturday by scores of 52-59 and 58-71, respectively.
“We had a good chance against Cornell,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “We were right there, got behind a little bit, and then fought all the way back.”
In a game highlighted by fourteen lead changes, Penn (1-20, 0-7 Ivy) was down three to Cornell (6-15, 1-7) with under a minute to go.
Senior Amy Donovan had a good look from three-point land but missed the shot. The Big Red then finished off the Quakers by converting from the free throw line.
Cornell’s advantage at the line in the second half was crucial—the Big Red attempted 17 of their 18 free throws in the final period.
“We committed a couple early fouls in the second half,” McLaughlin said. “I think by the ten-minute mark they were already in the bonus.”
Senior captain Caitlin Slover agreed with McLaughlin’s assesment, pointing to her own foul trouble.
“I had two quick fouls in the first half and that really hurt our team because of how quickly Cornell reached the bonus,” she said.
Though she had three fouls of her own, sophomore Jourdan Banks emerged as the star of this game for Penn. The forward scored 13 points on 4-for-7 shooting. She also went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe and pulled down seven rebounds.
“Jourdan played a lot more minutes and I really thought she showed a lot of progress this week,” McLaughlin said. “I thought she gave us a presence in the lane and was also able to step out and hit a couple jump shots.”
Despite the disappointment after a close loss to Cornell, the Quakers were able to regroup and play an excellent game against the more highly-touted Lions (14-8, 5-3).
Penn had its best shooting performance of the year, sinking a remarkable 45.5 percent from the field and 82.4 percent from the free-throw line.
Leading the way was Slover, who shot 6-for-10 from the field and 3-for-4 from three-point range en route to a career high 22 points.
Although the Quakers shot well and out-rebounded the Lions 30-29, they did not play well defensively, allowing Columbia to end the first half on a 14-2 run.
Penn, however, did not give up, and after an 11-0 run of its own in the second half, it cut the deficit to just four points with five minutes to go. The Red and Blue netted just one basket in the remaining minutes, though, and Columbia went on to win by 13.
Even though Penn did not come away with any wins this weekend, the team’s confidence appears to be growing.
“We always walk on the court thinking we’re going to win the game,” Slover said. “I think now teams are going to know how hard we play and we’re going to take one of these games.”
“We’ve shown growth in many areas,” McLaughlin added. “We just have to find a way to put all the things together at once.”
