Caramanico just too much for women's basketball to handle

PHILADELPHIA — Entering last night's season finale at the Palestra, fans and observers wondered which women's basketball team would show up. Would the team that lost 15 of its first 18 games don the black road uniforms? Or would the Tigers who had won five of their last six — including an upset against Ivy-leading Dartmouth on senior night at Jadwin — ruin Penn's fourth-years' farewell game?

Despite some occasional flashes of brilliance from the latter, the former squad stumbled to a 68-54 loss at the hands of the Quakers.

"We didn't play a lick of defense in the first half," head coach Liz Feeley said. "[Penn] shot the ball really well. But with 12 turnovers in the first half, we weren't giving ourselves a chance to stay in the game."

Princeton's offense in the first half was stymied by Penn's fast, swarming defense. The Quakers smothered the Tigers' outside threats, holding sophomore Hillary Reser — whose inspired shooting helped knock off the Big Green — and senior captain Maggie Langlas to a combined seven points. During the course of the game, Penn constantly disrupted the flow of the offense by deflecting passes and closely guarding Princeton's cutters. When the Tigers were able to complete a pass close to the basket, they missed the ensuing layup on several occasions.

"Our communication wasn't there tonight," Langlas said.

On the other end of the court, the Quakers nearly burned the nets down in the first half. The home side shot 61.5 percent from the floor en route to opening up a 15-point lead at halftime. Penn set itself up for high-percentage shots by using quick short passes to free up junior Diana Caramanico inside. The dominating six-foot, two-inch center led all scorers in the game with 22 points, and became Penn's all-time leading scorer (male or female) in the second half.

"We tried doubling down [on Caramanico], but our doubles were a little late," senior captain Kate Thirolf said.

Though held to seven points on the night, Langlas played solid defense in the early going, containing Penn's quick senior guard Mandy West. However, the rest of Princeton's box-and-one defense faltered, and the Tigers had to abandon that defense, thereby removing Langlas, their best defender, from West.

West proceeded to attack Princeton's defense for the remainder of the first half, scoring 10 points before intermission. The lone senior on the Quaker team, she received an ovation from the crowd when she was removed from the game in the waning moments.The large deficit on the scoreboard did not deter Thirolf from ending her stellar career with a flourish. On consecutive possessions midway through the second half, Thirolf hit a running baseline jumper and then drained a three from the left corner. This acted as a final curtain call for the power forward, who fouled out with one-minute, thirteen seconds remaining.