After a difficult 0-7 start to conference play, Penn women’s basketball knows that the next seven games can’t be any worse than the first.
Seeking to notch their first Ivy win down the final stretch, the Quakers couldn’t have received a better opportunity to redeem themselves than a Friday-Saturday match-up against Brown and Yale.
Penn will head to Providence, R.I., tonight to take on a Bears team led by sophomore guard Hannah Passafuime. The team will then travel to New Haven, Conn., for a battle with the Bulldogs tomorrow.
A victory this weekend would signify that Penn (1-20, 0-7 Ivy) has indeed turned the page on the disappointing start to its conference schedule. According to senior co-captain Sarah Bucar, there is no reason why it can’t.
“We were a very young team, but that’s not an excuse anymore,” she said. “We’ve gone down to the wire a couple games, and I think we need to finally learn and carry over the experience we have gained this year.”
Experience will certainly be a factor, since Penn saw both teams just three weeks ago.
In order for the Quakers to reverse their fortunes against the Bears (6-16, 3-5), they’ll need to keep up with a Brown offense that put 61 points on the board last time around.
It seems like a tough task for a Penn team that sits last in the League in scoring offense, but coach Mike McLaughlin knows his team will have its chances.
“We’re looking to change a couple of our sets for Brown, to get better looks at the basket,” he said. “[Last time] I thought we defended them well and we just missed some opportunities.”
It’s those missed opportunities that seem to have haunted the Quakers all season long.
Despite an impressive rebounding display and shooting a season-best 45.5 percent from the floor last Saturday, Penn still fell to Columbia after failing to convert through its half-court offense down the stretch.
If the Quakers can put the pieces together from last weekend’s road trip to Cornell and Columbia, they can pick up a second win on their waning season. By limiting turnovers, rebounding misses, and shooting a high percentage, they can exploit a defensively poor Bulldogs team (10-12, 5-3).
McLaughlin understands that it’ll take much more than scattered flashes of brilliance to get a victory over Yale, which currently sits at fourth in the conference.
“If we can utilize all the experience we have to this point, and put it all in one big package … I’m confident we have the right mind-set to be successful,” he said.
With just seven games left in the season, now is as good a time as ever to show that Penn has learned from this season’s experiences.
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