W. Hoops recap: Friday choke tempered by Saturday recovery

The two women's basketball games this weekend started off similarly. Their endings could not have been more different.

One night after blowing a 16-point lead in a heartbreaking 67-58 loss to Cornell (6-9 2-0 Ivy), the Quakers (5-9, 1-2) played strong for all 40 minutes and cruised to an 80-62 victory over Columbia (3-12, 0-2).

Saturday's win snapped the Quakers' five-game losing streak in grand fashion, as they put together their largest margin of victory in over a year. They dominated Columbia on the boards, dished out 27 assists and only committed nine fouls.

An 18-5 run at the end of the first half left the Quakers up by 12 at the break, and they never looked back. Four Quakers reached double-digit scoring, and the 80 points were the most scored in a game since coach Pat Knapp took the helm three years ago.

"27 assists, no moving screens and the rest of the team - other than Joey [Rhoads] and Monica [Naltner] - scored 58 points," Knapp said. "Other players on our team stepped up, saw our offensive opportunities and shot with confidence. So you gotta be very happy."

Fifty-eight points is more than the entire team scored in six of their games this season. But it is even more significant for a team that has struggled to find a third offensive weapon all year long - Rhoads and Naltner have combined for 57.5% of their team's points.

Scoring came every which way on Saturday night, but the standout performer was neither Rhoads nor Naltner, nor any of the Quakers' starting five.

Senior forward Ashley Gray, in just her second game of the season, exploded for a career-high 21 points in just 24 minutes off the bench. The 5-foot-11 player has been in 40 games for Penn over the past three years, including nine starts last year. But she took a leave of absence last spring, and was academically ineligible to play before this weekend.

In her first game action on Friday, she looked overmatched. She got into foul trouble early and netted just two points before fouling out with four minutes remaining.

"Obviously she's not used to the pace of the game - there are times she needs to slow down," Knapp had said after losing to Cornell. "It's a work in progress."

Twenty-four hours later, she was Penn's leading scorer and Knapp had different words.

"She played slower Saturday night, and we got her the ball, where she's dangerous," he said. "Ashley's hurt Columbia in the past, so I think she had a positive mindset going in too."

Gray was pleased as well.

"It feels good to be back with the team; it feels better to win," she said.

The mood was a lot better than on Friday, when the players were devastated after letting the game slip away.

A reverse layup by Rhoads had extended Penn's early lead to 22-6 and the Quakers were dominating Cornell. They were making all of their shots, while the Big Red did not look so big after all.

But poor defensive rebounding and several missed shots, combined with a couple of Cornell three-pointers, fueled a mini-comeback. Although their lead was shrinking, the Quakers still led by seven at the break. At the time, Penn was 3-1 at protecting its halftime leads, while Cornell had gone 0-9 when trailing at half.

Yet the Quakers continued to struggle when they returned to the court. More turnovers, missed shots and fouls helped the Big Red tie the game five minutes into the half. Penn never saw the lead again. When the Big Red's 20-4 run ended, Penn found itself down by nine.

Penn tied the game at 49, and with three minutes left was down by just one. But the Quakers were unable to regain their early form - shooting just 25 percent in the second half, compared to almost 60 percent in the first - and Cornell pulled away in the final minutes to complete its comeback victory.

"When you look at this game in a nutshell, I think we could've shot the ball better, we could've shot free throws better, and that's the second half," Knapp said. "The first half clearly we were putting it up offensively. We let their post players get to the basket and we gave up too many offensive rebounds."

"I don't think there's a better win since I've been here," Cornell coach Dayna Smith said. "It's a gut check for us . We believed in ourselves. We didn't show up the first half, but for us to stick with it, and come out in the second half the way we did, I'm just very proud of them."

Even though Knapp took nothing positive away from the loss, he was proud of how his players' ability to come out strong the next night.

"They did a great job. The kids are usually more resilient than the coaches. It hurts me for a while. But I dropped it, moved forward for Saturday, and all the way around, we all did that."

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