W. Hoops | No win this timeout

Penn sophomore Erin Power jumped on the loose ball with seven seconds left. With Penn up by one, she called a timeout thinking that the Quakers had secured a victory over Lafayette.

Unfortunately, the Quakers had no timeouts remaining.

That devastating error allowed Lafayette senior Cristin Zavocki to shoot two technical foul shots for a chance to put the Leopards ahead. She sunk both free-throws, giving the Leopards a 50-49 lead over Penn.

On the ensuing extra possession, the Leopards inbounded the ball to Zavocki, who was immediately fouled and sent to the line for the chance to shoot two more free-throws and pushed the lead to three.

She missed the first. After sinking the second free-throw to put the Leopards up by two, the Quakers inbounded the ball to freshman Tyler Cumbo, who pushed the ball up the court and passed it to senior Kelly Scott on the right wing. Scott drove to the basket and hit a running layup at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

But the Red and Blue were unable to pull a victory out in the extra period, falling to the Leopards, 59-55, and to an overall record of 0-6.

"It's obviously very heart-breaking," senior forward Carrie Biemer said. "We fought so hard to come back and we played really well down the stretch with a few mental mistakes and turnovers, but it proved to be too much."

Biemer and Scott led the Quakers with a combined 41 points. They also scored all of Penn's field goals in the second half and overtime. In fact, Penn only got five bench points.

"We were targeting them, but it's evident that we do need other people to score," said Penn coach Pat Knapp.

The Quakers shot terribly, hitting only 25.4 percent of their shots from the field compared to the Leopards' 38 percent. Junior Sarah Bucar epitomized Penn's offensive woes, shooting 0-for-7 from the field.

"We struggled the whole game to score, and we just kept getting the ball up to people and telling them to keep their head up and keep trying to score," Knapp said.

Although the Quakers had trouble putting points on the board, their play was highlighted by outstanding free-throw shooting - they made 84.2 percent from the charity stripe - and a full-court press that forced 22 turnovers.

Penn's pressure proved to be especially dominant in the first half of the game, during which the Leopards (2-5) turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 16 points for the Red and Blue.

"We knew we could pressure their ball handlers and it could [force] a couple of turnovers and a couple of deflections," Scott said of the press.

The Quakers trailed 29-20 at halftime, but a late second half rally kept them alive until the final buzzer.

"We came out and we knew we didn't play well in the first-half," Scott said. "We knew how well we could play, so we just came out and we were going out strong."

But the Quakers' late rally didn't earn them their first win of the season, as Lafayette sophomore Elizabeth Virgin's 17 points sent the Quakers back to Philadelphia still winless on the young season.

But Knapp believes that the Quakers will put this devastating loss behind them.

"I'm going to tell them on the bus again what I told them in the locker room," he said. "'We showed courage all night, came back all night. You should feel bad about losing. You should feel damn bad about losing. But when we get up tomorrow morning, we've got to shake it off and get ready for Navy [on Friday night].'"

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