W. Hoops outlasts Columbia in overtime victory

(Penn - 84, Columbia - 80) (Penn - 61, Cornell - 77)

NEW YORK -- "Composure" and "resolve" were words that were thrown around Levien Gymnasium quite frequently on Saturday night after the Quakers topped Columbia in what may have been the season's most exciting game so far.

In a contest reminiscent of many during last year's Ivy championship run, the Penn women's basketball team defeated the Lions in overtime, 84-80.

With the victory, the Red and Blue (6-12, 2-3 Ivy League) successfully bounced back from a 77-61 loss on Friday night at first-place Cornell (11-8, 5-1).

The Lions (9-9, 3-3), meanwhile, came in to Saturday's game confident after beating Princeton.

Yet, Penn still felt it had the edge down the stretch.

"When we went up by four in overtime [76-72], I knew we had it," Greenberg said.

The game was close throughout, but lacked any kind of flow in the first half. Penn and Columbia were tied at 30 at the half, yet a combined 20 turnovers and poor shooting did not foretell the thrilling finish that awaited.

At the start of the second half, Penn junior tri-captain Jenn Jones began to heat up. She connected on two shots in the opening minutes, then beautifully set up fellow tri-captain Julie Epton for an easy lay-up.

With 3:21 gone by, the Quakers had already scored 10 points to open a 40-34 lead. And even though Columbia would come back to knot the score a couple of times later on, Penn never trailed after the 3:25 mark of the first half.

Again, the parallels to 2000- 2001 season were unmistakable.

"Every game last year was really close, and what we did was pull them out. That's what we ended up doing right here," Epton said. "It's nice that this team has the heart and soul to pull games out like that."

The Red and Blue were vulnerable, however, at the end of the second half. Up 67-62, and then 71-67 with 1:09 remaining, Columbia showed some fire in equalling the score at 72 as time expired.

The overtime session, though, belonged to Penn.

More precisely, it belonged to Jones, who had earlier hit an enormous three-pointer from the left corner late in the second to ensure that the Quakers would do no worse than play a five-minute extra period.

Jones had scored 16 points in regulation and went right back to work in overtime. With just 19 seconds having elapsed, the 6-foot forward hit a quick jumper from the right side to break the tie.

A free throw and another jumpshot later, Jones had accounted for five of Penn's seven points with 1:54 left to play. By that point, the Quakers led, 79-74, and felt the game was pretty well in hand.

"I hope I can be more consistent now," said Jones, who has been relatively quiet this season. "I just need to come into the game focused and play simple basketball."

"Jenn was huge tonight," Greenberg said. "Her three in the corner was the biggest shot of the game."

While Jones finished the game with 21 points, it was no surprise that sophomore guard Jewel Clark led all scorers in the game with 22.

And with her 16 rebounds, Clark recorded her fourth consecutive Ivy League game in which she had scored at least 20 points and pulled down a minimum of 10 rebounds.

As difficult as she was to contain offensively, Clark also contributed to the win with a couple of terrific defensive series.

In overtime, specifically, she shut down Columbia three-point machine Megan O'Neill at critical times, not allowing the deep threat any kind of room to shoot.

"I think you take things personally," Clark said of O'Neill, who hit five threes and finished with 18 points.

"If you know a player is going to do a certain thing every time, then you need to say to yourself, 'You're not gonna do this. I won't let you do it.'"

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