W. Hoops falls to Wildcats

Going into Tuesday night's game at the Palestra, history did not bode well for the Penn women's basketball team. The Quakers, who were hosting Villanova in their final Big 5 contest of the season, had dropped 25 straight games to the Wildcats. The Red and Blue had also never before won two Big 5 games in a single season, a feat that they could have accomplished had they toppled Villanova on Tuesday. The Wildcats (5-3, 3-1 Big 5), however, made sure that tradition would not be broken as they defeated the Quakers (1-4, 1-3 Big 5), 61-52, ending Penn's Big 5 schedule on a sour note. "They wanted it more than us down the stretch and they made the big plays to do it," Penn coach Kelly Greenberg said following the loss. The Wildcats were sparked by a 10-0 run late in the second half. After Penn guard Erin Ladley sunk one of two free throws to give the Quakers a 39-38 lead with 7:36 left in the contest, Villanova center Brandi Barnes took control of the game. The 6'3'' inside force converted on three straight easy layups in between a made free throw to give her seven of her team-high 20 points in just a little over two minutes. "She's a really big girl," said Penn forward Julie Epton, who chipped in nine points on 3-of-5 shooting. "We need to do a better job of keeping our feet moving on defense." When Villanova guard Trish Juhline sunk a three from the corner at the 4:09 mark to cap off the Wildcats 10-0 run and give them a 48-39 lead, the game was all but over. At the three-minute mark, Penn cut the lead to six, but that was the closest the Quakers would ever get as Villanova knocked down 13-of-18 foul shots in the final 2:30 to secure the victory. Once again, turnovers were the story for the Quakers. After a 27-turnover outing against Temple on Saturday, Penn was again extremely sloppy with the ball. The Quakers committed 16 turnovers on the night, including one stretch in which they turned the ball over on five straight possessions. "We need to take care of the ball more," said freshman guard Jewel Clark, who gave the rock away three times, but contributed a team-high twelve rebounds. "One turnover is too many turnovers." Frustrated by Penn's lack of poise on the offensive end, Greenberg felt that the Quakers could have came out on top if they just held onto the ball. "They weren't forced. It wasn't like Villanova came up in our face and made us [turn it over]," Greenberg said. "I thought the game was ours.They shot 3-of-20 from three-point range. You make Villanova do that, you should win the game -- we did everything we could to put ourselves in a position to win." In the first half, both teams went pretty much basket-for-basket After Penn took an early 14-12 lead just less than eight minutes into the game, Villanova guard Mimi Riley nailed a three pointer in between two nice penetration moves to score seven of her nine points, all coming in the first half. After a basket by Villanova forward Courtney Mix pushed the 'Nova lead to seven, the Quakers went on an 11-4 run to tie the game at 25, capped off by a key three-pointer from Penn star forward Diana Caramanico. Penn went into the locker room down just three, very much within striking distance. The second half was a seesaw battle through the first 13 minutes with neither team able to push their lead beyond three until Barnes began to dominate inside. Neither Penn or Villanova shot the lights out on the night. The Quakers' 38.9 field goal percentage was slightly better than the 33.3 percent mark posted by the Wildcats. With such a poor shooting performance from the opposition, the Quakers expected to win the game. They blamed themselves, rather than the pesky Villanova defense for the exasperating defeat. "I think we beat ourselves," Epton said. "I don't think it was their defense that got us out of it." "I think we just made a lot of small mistakes and made their defense look better than it is," said Penn sophomore guard Jennifer Jones, who contributed six points in 16 minutes. The Quakers will now have some time off to work out the kinks in their offense and prepare for the rest of their schedule. "We have 16 days," Epton said. "We have that much time to get better."

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