Surging W. Hoops picks up two more Ivy victories

(Penn - 68, Yale - 65) (Penn - 86, Penn - 63)

One of Penn coach Kelly Greenberg's favorite halftime mantras is, "God creates two halves," to remind her players that they need to come out energetic in the second half, regardless of what took place in the first 20 minutes of play.

That message must have gotten through loud and clear this past weekend at the Palestra.

The Penn women's basketball team used a late come-from-behind surge on Friday night and an explosive final frame on Saturday to notch a pair of crucial Ivy League wins.

The sweep was the season's first for the Quakers (8-12, 4-3 Ivy League), who defeated Yale (11-10, 4-4), 68-65, to begin the weekend, and closed it out with an 86-63 blowout victory over Brown (5-16, 2-6).

With the pair of wins, the Red and Blue moved into third place in the conference, two games behind Harvard and one-and-a half in back of Cornell.

"The Ivy League race has got to be the closest in America," Greenberg said. "You never know who's going to win each night."

On Friday, Penn began on a torrid pace, connecting on 11 of its first 14 shots in jumping out to a 24-10 lead. But soon thereafter, the Quakers went ice cold as Yale cut the lead to 33-29 at halftime.

And as play resumed after the break, it took the Bulldogs little time to pull ahead, and do so by a sizeable margin. Yale outscored Penn 23-9 in the first ten minutes of the second half, putting the Red and Blue in a 52-42 hole.

In two timeouts during Yale's run, Greenberg, who also received a technical foul on Friday, was irate with her players for allowing uncontested lay-ups and for their lack of movement on offense.

The team, perhaps in need of some rather vocal motivation, soon responded.

"I don't have Claire Cavanaugh [former Penn basketball player] around this year to tell me my vein is popping out, but it was on that [second] time-out," Greenberg said.

"These guys know how much I love them, and I knew we had it in us to do something. Sometimes I get a little spirited and hopefully that helped them respond a little bit."

The Quakers stepped up their defense, forcing the Elis to turn the ball over several times down the stretch. Yale forward Helene Schutrumpf committed four turnovers alone in the game's final 12 minutes.

Penn still trailed, though, until freshman guard Karen Habrukowich nailed a three-pointer from the left side with 1:17 remaining.

The decisive basket put the Quakers up, 66-65.

Penn freshman center Katie Kilker, who assisted on Habrukowich's three, then hit a turn-around jumper in the lane to extend the lead to 68-65 with just 21 seconds remaining.

Two last-second Yale three-point attempts were off target, and the Red and Blue bench celebrated at the buzzer by rushing the court.

"I thought this was even more exciting than the Columbia win [last week] because we were down the whole time," Greenberg said. "This was just awesome."

Greenberg was again in awe with the pounding her team gave Brown the next night, particularly with the run the Quakers used to open the second half to put the game away.

After emerging from the locker room ahead, 42-33, Penn went on a 16-2 run in the first 3:15.

Sophomore guard Jewel Clark, who had scored 12 points in the first half, equaled that total during the sensational Red and Blue surge. She finished the game as the leading scorer with 26 points, going along with 8 rebounds.

"Coach told us to run and to beat them up and down the court," said Clark, whose excellence in the Quakers' up-tempo system was poorly matched by an overwhelmed Brown defense.

Kilker, who was especially dominant in the first half with 13 points and 7 rebounds, recorded her first career double-double. The Langhorne, Pa., native finished with 16 points and 10 boards.

"I think I'm becoming more comfortable," Kilker said. "We have confidence in each other, and it's all been falling into place."

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