Courtesy: University of Pennsylvania
'05 (Cat, Maria, Karen, Amanda and Katie) finished their
Palestra careers with a 58-52 win over Columbia.
Philadelphia - Karma would not allow the Class of 2005 to finish its
career at The Palestra on a sour note as senior guard Karen Habrukowich
scored seven of Penn's final 11 points to push the Quakers past
Columbia, 58-52, on Saturday night.
Having not led the entire game, the Red and Blue's (15-10, 8-4 Ivy)
final 1:10 against the Lions (11-14, 4-8 Ivy) was something to be
remembered. Trailing 52-48, Habrukowich hit her fourth three-pointer of
the night to pull Penn to within one at 52-51. On the subsequent
inbound pass, Habrukowich and fellow senior Cat Makarewich trapped
Columbia's Lisa Copeland in the backcourt, forcing a jump ball with the
possession arrow pointing in Penn's favor. Habrukowich took little time
giving Penn its first lead of the night, draining a mid-range jumper
from the rightside elbow to put the Quakers on top, 53-52. The Lions
were hit with a shot clock violation, forcing them to foul Habrukowich.
The Newtown, Pa. native calmly hit both free throws to put Penn up 55-52
with :28 seconds remaining. Monica Naltner, who finished with seven
points and seven rebounds, secured a defensive board and also hit both
her free throws to put Penn up by four. Jennifer Fleischer made good on
two shots from the charity stripe to give the Quakers their winning
margin.
Columbia dominated throughout the game, leading by 15 points, 26-11, at
one point of the first half. The Lions took a 30-20 lead into the break
on the strength of eight points by Megan Griffith. Griffith finished
with 10 points to join Adia Revell (11) and Susan Kern (14) in double
figures for Columbia. The visiting Lions held a double-digit lead for
the final time at 44-34 when Kern hit a jumper with 9:37 left in the
second half. From there, Penn widdled away at the lead before finally
overtaking its opponent in the final moments.
Fleischer joined Habrukowich as the junior center scored 12 points to go
along with seven rebounds. Habrukowich led all scorers with 20 points
on the night, shooting 4-for-8 from beyond the arc and a perfect 6-for-6
from the charity stripe. Her second trey of the game passed Mary
LaMacchia of Cornell for fifth on the Ivy League all-time three-point
fielg goals list.
Prior to the game the five members of '05 were honored at center court.
Moments later they were able to experience something they had never been
able to before tonight. All five seniors started tonight's game,
marking the first time the quintet had ever shared the floor
simultaneously as one unit. They played three minutes, 23 seconds
together before the first substitution was called.
Penn takes its final road trip on March 4-5 when the Quakers take on
Dartmouth and Harvard to close out the 2004-05 season.
Written by Mat Kanan, associate director of athletic communications
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