Dec. 28, 2000
Box Score
Philadelphia, Pa. -
The Penn women's basketball team survived a dog fight
in its first game since Dec. 12 with a 68-56 win over Stony Brook in The
Palestra. Senior Diana Caramanico (Blue Bell, PA) recorded her seventh
consecutive double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Quakers
improved to 2-5.
The first half of play was not a thrill ride for the fans in The
Palestra. Stony Brook's Sherry Jordan opened the scoring at the 19:16
mark, but not another point was scored by either team until Penn's Julie
Epton (Ann Arbor, MI) scored on a layup at 16:27. The Quakers took the
lead when senior Erin Ladley (Pittsfield, MA) grabbed a steal and then
drove the lane on a fast break at 16:07. Penn pushed the lead to 6-2 at
15:40 on a Caramanico jumper, but the four-point lead would be the most for
the Quakers until the second half.
The Seawolves came storming back and each team went shot-for-shot until the
6:28 mark when Kelli Cofield picked up her third personal foul and sent Ima
Abia to the line to convert the three-point play, tying the game at
15. Stony Brook made another mini-run to go up four at 5:09 on layups by
Jordan and Jill George, but the Quakers answered back with a 3-0 run by
freshman Jewel Clark (Waldorf, MD) to pull Penn within one at 4:20
(18-19). Turnovers by Penn and missed free throws by Stony Brook resulted
in another two minutes of non-scoring, but the Seawolves turned up the heat
after a timeout and scored six straight points to take their largest lead
of the game, 26-20, with 1:41 remaining in the half. Stony Brook kept that
lead until it put Caramanico on the line with one second left in the
game. Penn's co-captain made the first free throw, then missed the second,
but freshman Jackie Froatz (Trumbull, CT), seeing her first collegiate
action of the season, grabbed the rebound and put it back for her first
collegiate points. Stony Brook went into the locker room with a
three-point lead, 27-24.
Foul trouble would be the demise of both teams in the second half. Stony
Brook went up by as many as seven points (31-24) with 19:13 remaining, but
would fall silently by the way side. Penn stepped up its offensive prowess
and tied the game at 34 on a Clark layup at 13:11. Theresa LoParrino
scored for the Seawolves on the other end, but Froatz found Caramanico
underneath to once again tie the game (12:42). The turning point of the
night came when Epton completed a three-point play at 10:36, giving the
Quakers a three-point lead (39-36) that they would not relinquish.
Three Stony Brook players (Erika Shipley, George and Cofield) fouled out of
the game in succession and put the Quakers on the free throw line for the
final 3:41 of the game. Penn came through its free throw shooting test,
connecting on eight of 10 shots from the stripe and recording its second
win of the season.
Penn outrebounded its opponent, 48-39, with Caramanico's 10 leading the way
for the Quakers. Sherry Jordan led the Seawolves with a 27-point,
12-rebound double-double, while Penn's Jewel Clark added another 15 points
and eight rebounds to her rookie season totals. The Quakers shot 37
percent from the floor, but made up for some of that at the free throw
line, hitting a respectable 75 percent. Stony Brook shot 36 percent from
the floor and just 48 percent from the stripe.
Stony Brook falls to 7-5 overall and will travel to Coppin State for their
next contest on Saturday. Tip-off is 4:00 p.m.
