After a three-game losing streak, the women’s basketball team finally revived their winning ways with a victory over Villanova, 61-55.
Feyonda Fitzgerald led the charge with 23 points, while Erica Coville had a big night of her own with a 10-13 point-rebound double-double. In this game Temple held the lead from the start, and rather than squandering it like last time, they held it from start to finish.
They showed complete dominance over Villanova in a a game, which had to bring their confidence back up after three consecutive losses, especially the last one where they were supposed to win.
At the starts of the game, Temple’s offense proved impressive, while Villanova struggled to keep up. The first six minutes had Temple on a 15-2 run, where Villanova could not seem to get anything going, while Temple wound up getting nearly every look they wanted. This ended in a 21-7 first quarter where Villanova could only make three shots.
The second quarter consisted of padding on to the already big lead, as Temple went on a 19-13 run for the quarter, leaving Villanova behind by 20 at halftime. In the entire half, nobody on Villanova’s team had over four points, while three players on Temple’s team were already in double digits.
Donnaizha Fountain came up big in the half in addition to her 10 points, by getting eight rebounds. She almost had a double-double at halftime! At this point in the game, Temple was up 40-20.
The first two minutes of the third quarter did not feature any scoring, and another four minutes passed before either team scored a single point. This worked in Villanova’s favor, though, as they cut the 20 point lead down to 13 by the end of the quarter.
The second half collapse which doomed Temple last game almost occurred again when Villanova came within three points of the lead, with about half a minute left. However, this time around, Temple staved off the comeback by converting all of their free throws, and never letting Villanova take the lead.
For Temple to improve on strong showings from the last two games, though, they will have to find a way to stop collapsing in the fourth quarter – a practice dooming them during the past couple of games. However, their strong play in the first three quarter does help them from being too worried about it when they’re on their game.
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