As the women’s basketball team boarded the bus to New England, to open up the remainder of Ivy League play, one unifying goal was in mind: win.
After losing to Princeton earlier this month, the Quakers did just that Saturday by defeating Brown, 52-32.
While Penn fell to Yale, 53-44, in a hard-fought game Friday, it bounced back with solid defense to grab its first Ivy win of the season.
But in the first game of the weekend, the Red and Blue nearly stole a win from third-place Yale.
Led by 16 points on 7-for-21 shooting from freshman guard Alyssa Baron, the Quakers (7-10, 1-2 Ivy) never trailed by more than 10 points in the same arena where they lost by 32 points just a year ago.
Both teams had issues putting the ball in basket, as the Quakers shot just over 30 percent and the Bulldogs (7-11, 3-1) shot 35.8 percent.
“We just struggled to score at crucial times,” Penn coach Mike McLaughlin said.
Though down just one point at halftime, the Quakers couldn’t pull through in the second frame to secure the win.
“We battled tough, competed, there just wasn’t enough left in the tank,” McLaughlin added.
Junior Jess Knapp contributed six points, five rebounds and a season-high four blocks. Senior Erin Power also provided her usual defensive presence, collecting eight rebounds and stealing the ball three times.
“Erin’s leadership on the floor is tremendous,” McLaughlin said. “She’s a girl that really is huge for us.”
Soon after the defeat, the Quakers were back to work.
“After the [Yale] game we got on the bus and knew we had to take care of business and get at least one win this weekend,” Knapp said.
Saturday against Brown, while the Red and Blue shot better from the field, it was their Ivy League-leading defense that won the game. Penn tallied 13 steals and used a full-court pressure to force the Bears into 23 turnovers.
Offensively, Baron led the Quakers again with 13 points, this time on 5-for-11 shooting. She also grabbed five rebounds and three steals. Sophomore guard Brianna Bradford finished with 12 points in just 19 minutes.
The victory marks the first time since the 2004-05 season that the team has seven wins before February.
However, the Quakers played an admittedly sloppy game, committing 20 turnovers and shooting just 36 percent.
“Sometimes we have some mental lapses during the game, we can avoid turning the ball over unnecessarily,” Knapp said. “We’ll be working on that a lot.”
“Next weekend we’ll be well prepared,” McLaughlin said of their upcoming trip to Harvard and Dartmouth. “The girls are learning more everyday.”
