Women's Basketball Falls to Harvard, 54-51

Courtesy: University of Pennsylvania

Release: 02/04/2005

Philadelphia - The last Ivy League squad to beat the Penn
women's basketball team in 2003-04 was the first Ancient
team to achieve that feat in 2004-05 as Harvard defeated
the Quakers, 54-51, in another heart-stopper at The Palestra
on Friday night. Monica Naltner led all scorers with 16
points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field. Jennifer Fleischer
rebounded from earlier this week with nine points and 16 boards.

In the second half, Penn (10-7, 3-1 Ivy) used one minute and
57 seconds of clock time to build a 48-41 lead, its largest of
the game, at the 7:55 mark. Cat Makarewich hit her only
three-pointer of the game to spark the run and Naltner added a
jumper sandwiched between a Joey Rhoads field goal and trey.
Rhoads also finished in double figures for the Quakers with 10
points on 4-of-10 shooting.

From that point the Crimson (11-6, 3-1 Ivy) chipped away at the
lead, holding Penn to just three points over the final eight
minutes to close the game on a 13-3 run. Reka Cserny and
Jessica Holsey sparked the run, each scoring in double figures,
Cserny with 15 (7-of-13) and Holsey with 13 (5-of-16), but it
was Cserny's strip of the ball and knocking it out of bounds
off Naltner with 2.8 seconds remaining that sealed the Quakers'
fate. On the inbound, Holsey was fouled, hit both free throws
and Habrukowich's three-point attempt fell short as time expired.

Penn's downfall in the first half was allowing the Crimson 15
offensive rebounds, which led to 11 second-chance points.
Despite this, the Red and Blue found themselves down only four
points, 26-22, on the strength of Naltner's 10 first-half points
(4-of-5).

The Quakers look to bounce back on Feb. 5 against Dartmouth,
knowing a win at The Palestra, tip off at 7 p.m., will earn them
at least a share of the Ancient Eight lead heading into next week.

Tomorrow night's game can be heard live on www.pennathletics.com
with Brian Seltzer delivering the play-by-play and former Quaker,
Mikaelyn Austin (C'04) with analysis.

Written by Mat Kanan, associate director of athletic communications