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A mismatch on paper, a mismatch on the court.

Traveling to New Orleans to face No. 25 Tulane on Saturday, the reeling Penn women's basketball team knew it would have its hands full.

The Quakers -- marred by offensive struggles and weakness in their post defense -- had lost five games in a row.

After Saturday's 82-64 drubbing by the Green Wave, Penn's losing streak now stands at six.

"Tulane is ranked 24th [25th] in the country and if we have want to improve, we have to play good teams. This is the only way we're going to get better," Penn junior point guard Tara Twomey said.

Tulane raced out to an early 13-3 advantage, holding the Quakers without a field goal for the first eight minutes of the game.

After Penn (2-6) finally nailed its first basket, Tulane immediately went on a 17-4 run -- anchored by a successive three-pointers drained by Delancey Joseph (16 points), Sarah Goree and Britt Themann -- to open up a 30-9 lead with 6:23 remaining in the first half.

Although the Quakers would rally again to close within 12 points, the Green Wave (8-1) extended their lead to 38-22 before halftime.

The most telling stat in Penn's disastrous first-half was its 7-of-29 (24.1 percent) shooting effort, including 0-for-9 from behind the arc.

The Quakers shot 0-for-18 from downtown on Saturday.

"There will be games where things just don't fall," Penn senior forward Julie Epton said. "We have some very good shooters, and days like that just happen."

After getting whacked in the first half, Penn played a much more inspired second half.

"We did a good job being aggressive [in the second half]," Epton said. "That is one of the keys to winning games and we played hard.

"It was a good feeling to be out there and feel the intensity level higher than it had been," she said.

Penn nearly outscored Tulane in the second half -- the Green Wave finished with 44 second-half points to the Quakers 42 --and were able to narrow the gap to 13 points on two occasions.

But Tulane's large frontcourt-- a pair of six-foot-three juniors, Teana McKiver and Gwen Slaughter -- proved too tough on the interior.

McKiver -- last season's Conference USA Sixth Player of the Year -- scored a game-high 19 points and added 9 boards, while Slaughter added 12 points and 12 rebounds.

"Tulane had some pretty solid forwards," Epton said. "They were the biggest and thickest forwards we've played against. It was a good challenge."

Despite the loss, the bonafideplay of Penn's new-look starting lineup and its effectiveness as a high-pressure defensive unit evinced encouraging signs for the rest of the season.

Although Penn freshman Karen Habrukowich struggled in her first game in the starting lineup -- she managed only four points against St. Joe's last Wednesday -- she rebounded to total 17 points and six boards against Tulane.

Joining Habrukowich as a new starter was sophomore Mikaelyn Austin. Inserted into the lineup against Tulane because of her scoring capability, Austin scored six points for the Quakers.

With Penn coach Kelly Greenberg juggling the lineup, Penn's established starters needed to step up.

And they did.

Epton returned to form with 18 points and sophomore Jewel Clark tallied her second double-double of the season with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Twomey, mired in a season-long slump, registered an assist and a game-high five steals.

"I think I played better," Twomey said. "I'm still not exactly where I want to be, but I feel like I'm getting there."

With Twomey leading Penn's highly-athletic guard-quartet --four of the starters, Twomey, Clark, Austin and Habrukowich, are listed as guards -- Penn wreaked havoc on the perimeter.

Penn forced the Green Wave into 27 turnovers, including eight by Goree.

"We took a huge step forward as a team," Epton said. "It was still a loss and it's still disappointing. But, it was a victory in a sense, because we stepped our play up as a whole."

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