With 3:02 left in Saturday's game at Cornell, Karen Habrukowich hit a clutch three-pointer to put Penn up by four, 49-45.
The shot ended a six minute, 11 second scoring drought during which Cornell scored 15 points. The three upped Penn's lead to four and allowed them to escape Ithaca, N.Y. with a 51-50 win.
Despite positive talk, the close game has to be considered a huge disappointment for the Quakers (12-8, 5-2 Ivy) agains bottom-of- the-barrel Cornell (2-19, 0-8).
"Even though Cornell is at the bottom of the league, ... they're a young team," Penn forward Monica Naltner said. "They got a lot of energy, a lot of spirit, they're not gonna lay down and die."
Cornell was led by Katherine Stritzl who had 15 points on a night when the usually reliable Penn shooters simply disappeared.
"If we're the best three-point shooting team in the Ivy League, and the stats say that, we didn't shoot like it this weekend," Penn head coach Patrick Knapp said. "If you look at the combined percentages it was a tough weekend, Jen Fleischer really bailed us out."
Fleischer was simply sensational in a game in which the Quakers desperately needed it. The junior center finished the contest with 13 points and an astonishing 21 rebounds, giving her 40 for the weekend, which included Friday night's win over Columbia. Her single-game rebound total is the fourth highest all-time for a Penn woman.
Fleischer's partner on the inside, Naltner, also had a good game, recording her first career double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Cornell hung around the entire first half, going into the break behind by only six, a surprisingly small margin. But a 14-4 Penn run to start the second seemed to secure victory for the heavily favored Quakers.
Penn led 42-26 with 14:29 left in the game.
But then the shots just stopped falling, allowing Cornell to tighten its inside defense.
Cornell's Stritzl sparked the Big Red run and the young Cornell team scrapped together the 15-point spurt to pull within one.
After the Habrukowich three, Fleischer scored again on a put-back to give Penn the lead for good, 51-50.
The close game demonstrated just how competitive the Ivy League is this year.
"Ideally we'd like to play a better game and not have it so close," Naltner said. "But am I surprised it was close? No, because the Ivy League is so tight, you can't take a game for granted."
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