Temple women’s basketball fell to 13-9 (5-4) Wednesday night after their 85-75 loss to conference foe Wichita State. The Shockers sweep the Owls 2-0 in the season series, but the Owls still lead the all-time series 4-3.
After getting off to a strong start, with a 23-15 lead after the 1st quarter, the Owls went a bit off the rails in the second quarter, getting outscored 24-9. The 9 points was tied for lowest in a quarter this season (occurred 3 other times). It felt like the lack of offense affected the Owls play defensively as they allowed the Shockers to go off for a 55.6% night beyond the arc.
On the other end, the redshirt sophomore Ashley Jones led the team with an impressive 24 points. However, she didn’t receive much secondary scoring help, outside of Marissa Mackins. The sophomore had 18, but her strength is from the 3pt. line (leads AAC in made 3pt att.) and she was only able to hit two 3 point shots on 7 attempts.
The key of tonight’s game were clearly the turnovers. The Owls gave up the ball 20 times throughout the game, which led to 34 points off of turnovers for Wichita State. Cut that turnover number in half, and we may be singing a different tune. The bench was also outscored 43-12.
Owls Head Coach Tonya Cardoza was not pleased with her team’s effort. “Right from the start our body language was not of a team that was upset that we lost at their place….when we’re making shots, everything is great. When we’re not making shots, we don’t bear down and focus on the defensive side of the ball.”
There is still plenty of season left for the Owls to win key conference matchups to build their season resume. They look to get back on track this Sunday, when they travel to Tampa to take on the USF Bulls at noon.
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