A Chance for Success for as Long as Dawn Rises

Before the start of the 2007 season, I could never have imagined the women’s basketball team doing as well as it did.

No one could. The Owls were predicted to finished fourth in the Atlantic Ten Conference.

Man, was that wrong. The team finished first in the A-10 and advanced to the A-10 Championship game. And though they failed to win the final match-up with Xavier, leaving the decision in the hands of the selection committee, which coach Dawn Staley has always hated, the Owls will be on the bracket.

Senior Lady Comfort will get her wish, which she stated after the loss to the Musketeers.

“[We] just want another chance, want another opportunity to play,” she said. “Show everyone else we can win.”

The reason I could not foresee the success of Staley’s squad, quite possibly the reason those who selected Temple to finish fourth in the A-10, had a lot to do with players who had left the team in recent years.

Names like Candice Dupree, now on the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, Kamesha Hairston, a member on the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, Cynthia Jordan, a three-point phenomenon in her time at Temple, Ari Moore, Jennifer Owens, Fatima Maddox…these were names on the team with the likes of Lady Comfort and Ashley Morris.

So when those players don’t see anything beyond the second round of the NCAA Tournament in their time in a Temple uniform, how does it seem realistic that the 2007 lineup could possibly make it to the big dance?

But Staley got her team to defy reality and pushed her team to play above and beyond what any onlooker could have ever expected.

She made Morris, who in 32 games as a junior averaged just 3.3 points per game, the team’s leader. Sure, the Philadelphia native did receive the Sixth Women Award despite the lack of scoring, but to move up to a leadership role? What kind of positive outlook could that give someone who has watched the team since the beginning of the 5-foot-5 guard’s collegiate career?

But Morris was at the center of resisting reality. She raised her 3.3 ppg to 15.1 (ninth in the A-10) during the regular season in which she started all 30 of Temple’s contests. She also dished out 4.3 assists per game.

These numbers, along with her importance to the Owls, were enough for the team’s leader to be recognized as the A-10’s Most Improved Player.

That award doesn’t say enough about Morris’ season. Often times, she was remarkable – for instance, 17 second half points, which helped Temple erase a 14-point deficit with about 10 minutes to go on Jan. 23 against Richmond, and 10-for-17, 7-of-10 threes, 32 points, five assists on Feb. 6 against Charlotte.

And though she did not come through in the A-10 finale, that can’t take away from what she did all year.

Even her own words, though she was taking complete blame for the loss, showed what a great season she had.

“Me struggling offensively makes everyone else struggle,” Morris said after the heartbreaker against Xavier on Monday. “When I struggle, nothing goes good for this team.”

And Staley had no regrets riding on Morris’ back.

“She got us here,” Staley said before Morris placed blame on herself. “We wouldn’t be here without Ashley.”

While Staley’s words were undoubtedly correct, the truth is, the Owls would have been lost without Staley.

“I think coach Staley is the best coach in our league,” Dayton coach Jim Jabir said prior to facing Temple in the A-10 semifinals. His comments were just one of many praises she received from coaches during the tournament.

When the Owls had a bye in the first round of the A-10 Tournament and did not need to show up at Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse on March 7 because they did not have a game, Staley was there in the stands. She wasn’t only there to scout the game between Richmond and Duquesne, the one that would determine who Temple would play in its first game; she was there for all four of the day’s games, along with her coaching staff.

Staley and her fellow coaches were there for every game, every day of the tournament.

One of the people who fill the role as a coach is the aforementioned Jordan, who is currently a graduate assistant for the team.

Another great move Staley made. It’s always inspiring for players to see the faces of and be assisted by former players.

“We have a real support system behind us,” Morris said after the Owls shot down Dayton in the A-10 Tournament Sunday. “It’s good to have somebody like that behind you that’s been through it and dealt with the same things you did and has won A-10 championships.”

So no, the Owls were not able to follow the shirts – there was no REPO. But they went further than analysts projected prior to the season. They went further than I anticipated prior to the season.

Who knows if we’ll see another Dupree or another Hairston? But indisputably, we’ll never see another Dawn Staley at Temple. And we shouldn’t want to see another, because this is the Staley we want for as long as she’s able to get out of bed in the morning.

With coach Staley, I realize I could never doubt a successful season again, no matter who will be on the court.

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.

“REPO” Halted

Ice. Cold.

The women’s basketball team shot just 25 percent from the field as they lost to Xavier, 47-42, in the Atlantic Ten Conference Championship game Monday evening at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse on the campus of Saint Joseph’s University.

Senior guard Ashley Morris had a disastrous night shooting the ball, finishing a paltry 4-for-20 in the contest. She also turned the ball over eight times, finishing with 12 points and four assists. Senior center Lady Comfort added only five points, turned the ball over four times, in addition to being physically dominated down low by Xavier’s tag team of freshman center Ta’Shia Phillips and sophomore forward Amber Harris.

Even though Staley blamed her team’s poor shooting on rushed shots and playing too out of control, she actually went as far as to praise them after the game, saying the better team didn’t come out victorious.

And this was coming from a coach who repeatedly got on her team— following wins— during the regular season.

“I told them that the best team and the hardest working team didn’t win this game tonight,” Staley said. “They didn’t. The team that couldn’t score lost the basketball game … Offensively, we couldn’t get it going.”

And along with Morris and Comfort’s poor performances, the Owls’ complementary players also had severe off nights. Freshman guard Lindsay Kimmel missed seven of her eight three-point attempts, sophomore guard LaKeisha Eaddy missed all six of her shots and sophomore forward Jasmine Stone was just 1-for-5 off the bench.

After the game, a distraught and dejected Morris took full responsibility for the team’s untimely offensive performance.

“We just struggled, I struggled,” she said. “I’m the head of this monster and when I struggle, nothing goes good for this team. Me struggling offensively makes everybody else struggle, so I take full responsibility for that part of the game.”

It wasn’t all Morris’ fault, though.

Comfort was also well-off her game, finishing 2-for-8 from the field and picking up four fouls in just 23 minutes of action. The play of Harris and Phillips, two taller and more athletic players, certainly had something to do that.

“[Harris and Phillips] putting a body on me [caused my struggles], but for the most part, I think I was just trying to force it so much,” Comfort said. “[I] just wanted to make the easy shot and I kind of made it hard for myself. So just missing real easy buckets made it kind of hard.”

But despite the Owls’ offensive woes, they still had a chance to win the game or force overtime in the final minute.

Down by three with 25 seconds to go, Morris had the ball in hand and a play designed for her to tie the game. But while receiving a pass from Comfort, Morris had the ball stolen by Xavier’s junior guard Jerri Tyalor, who then sunk two foul shots to seal the game.

The fact that the Owls’ had a chance to win the game was because of their defense, as Staley’s squad forced 20 Musketeer turnovers and held them to 34 percent shooting.

“Defensively, I’m very proud,” Staley said. “47 points? You hold somebody to 47 points, you’re supposed to end up winning the game. We just couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”

But now, the Owls must wait until Selection Monday to see if they’ll get one of the 33 at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. Most projections do put the Owls’ in the field, but that still didn’t stop Staley from making a case for her team.

“We’ve done everything the committee wants,” she said. “They want you to play a tough schedule, they want you to beat some Top 25 teams, they want you to play well at the end of the season, they want you to get to your conference championship. We did all of those things, we did all of those things. And probably a little bit more.”

And for Comfort, the senior center just wants one more shot in the Big Dance.

“[We] just want another chance, want another opportunity to play,” she said. “Show everyone else [that] we can win.”

Game Notes

The Owls are now 4-1 in A-10 title games under Staley … Xavier won their second straight A-10 title and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament … The Temple men’s basketball team was in attendance, sitting behind the Owls bench … Temple will find out officially if they are in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Monday, which will be broadcast March 17 at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Todd Orodenker can be reached at todd.orodenker@temple.edu

Also read: “Seniors can’t help Owls win A-10 title”

Also view a photo slideshow: “The A-10 Women’s Tournament by Ron Davis” and listen to post-game comments and an audio presentation from Monday night’s game. 

Seniors can’t help Owls win A-10 title

Though they’ve played in an Atlantic Ten Conference Championship game three out of their four years at Temple, seniors Ashley Morris and Lady Comfort faced a completely different title experience this season.

In 2008, Morris and Comfort were at the head of the realm. And although the teammates produced more than they did in 2006, the last time Temple was one of the A-10’s finalists, they didn’t do enough for the same results as that year — a win.
This time around, Xavier outplayed the Owls, winning the 2008 A-10 Championship, 47-42, at Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Monday night.

The 2006 match-up with George Washington was led by current WNBA stars Candice Dupree and Kamesha Hairston. But the 2008 Owls looked at Morris and Comfort, who combined for only three points — all from Comfort — in 2006, as the leaders of the current squad.

For that reason, Morris was extremely hard on herself after the loss in which she shot 4-for-20 from the field.

“It was a different feeling all season, going from following to leading. It’s a tremendous change,” she said. “I failed as a leader tonight.

“Me struggling offensively makes everyone else struggle, so I take full responsibility for that part of the game,” the guard from Philadelphia added. “I’m the head of this monster, and when I struggle, nothing goes good for this team.”

But Comfort doesn’t want all blame placed on Morris.

“I wouldn’t put it all on her, it’s a team effort,” the 6-foot-4 center said. “We all just needed to step up a little bit more, and it really didn’t happen.”
Comfort managed to grab 11 rebounds, seven of them offensive, and she blocked four shots, but she shot only 2-for-8 and scored just five points.

“I was just trying to force it so much,” Comfort, who turned the ball over four times, said after the game. “I just wanted to make the easy shot, and I made it kind of hard for myself. I just wanted to get [A-10 Championship Most Outstanding Player Ta’Shia Phillips and Amber Harris] out of the game, get them in foul trouble. But I also wanted to get on the scoreboard.”

No matter how poorly Morris played, coach Dawn Staley knows the Owls rely on Morris significantly, and she wouldn’t change that.

“She had a lot of energy, and she didn’t know where to put it,” Staley said. “There were more times than not she was going a little bit too fast on offense. I tried to calm her down a little bit, but sometimes when you get it going and you want something so bad, you go a little bit quicker than what your decision making capabilities are.

“But she got us here. We wouldn’t be here without Ashley. I know she feels bad about the game, but she put us in the position to continue to play.”

NEXT THE MEN WILL TRY

With its first A-10 Tournament game this week, members of the men’s basketball team were in the stands at Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse to watch Staley’s club.

“We just came out to support the girls, because they always come out to support us,” junior Dionte Christmas, the leading scorer in the A-10, said at halftime. “It’s always good when one of your teams makes it to a championship. Hopefully we can be in the same situation they’re in.”

Senior Mark Tyndale talked about how important a women’s victory would be.

“It would give us a little boost going into conference play,” the 6-foot-5 forward said. “And it would help us out dramatically going into the first game.”
Junior guard Semaj Inge agrees.

“Watching them motivates me a little bit more to try to go out there and go hard when we get our chance to go after the Atlantic 10 Championship,” he said.

The men’s first game will be at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City Thursday. The Owls, who finished second in the A-10 standings, will meet the winner of the La Salle-Duquesne game.

“We’re just looking ahead to see who we’re going to play this week, and once we find out, we got to focus and go ahead with our game plan,” Christmas, who was named to the All-Conference first-team, said. “We just want to take one game at a time. Hopefully we can make it to the championship, but we’re taking it one game at a time.”

Tyndale, who made the All-Conference second-team, is looking straight to the finish.

“Our minds are strictly on what we have to face right now,” Tyndale said. “It will be a challenge whoever we play.

“We have one goal, and that’s to win the A-10.”

AMBER, AMBER, AMBER

During the game vs. the Owls, every time sophomore Amber Harris touched the ball, the students sitting in Temple’s “student section” chanted “Amber.”
Two and a half minutes into the second half, Harris turned to the students and waved her arms as if to say “louder.”

“I was telling them to keep doing that,” Harris said while laughing about it after the game. “I like it when crowds do that, because it actually helps me play better.”

THE TROPHY

The A-10 Championship Trophy spent the game sitting on the bleachers behind press row. Coincidentally, it was the same spot in which Staley and the rest of the Owls’ coaches sat during the tournament when Temple wasn’t in action.

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.

Also read: “REPO” halted

Also view a photo slideshow: “The A-10 Women’s Tournament by Ron Davis” and listen to post-game comments and an audio presentation from Monday night’s game.

The sights and the sounds

Click here to view a photo slideshow of the A-10 Women’s Basketball Tournament by TTN photographer Ron Davis.

Also, listen to post-game comments and an audio presentation from Monday’s game.

Xavier to meet Owls in A-10 finals

The rivalry between Temple and Xavier continues to grow year-by-year, and at this rate, it doesn’t look like it will slow down anytime soon.

Following the Owls’ dismantling of the Flyers Sunday at the Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, No. 3 Xavier went out and upset No. 2 George Washington, 63-59.

With 6-foot-5 sophomore Amber Harris and 6-foot-6 freshman Ta’Shia Phillips dominating in the middle, George Washington could not keep its premiere bigs on the court in the second half due to foul trouble.

Junior Jessica Adair, who stands 6-foot-4, was limited to 20 minutes, as she picked up her fourth foul less than two minutes into the second stanza. Two minutes later, her twin sister Jazmine, who looks up an inch at her sister, also picked up her fourth.

Even when the taller Adair, who scored 10 points on 2-of-8 shooting, convinced coach Joe McKeown into leaving her on the court, her consistent foul trouble hurt her defensive prowess.

“Having four fouls is tough,” she said. “But I didn’t want to get out of the game, so [on defense], I had to play off a little.”

It was apparent that McKeown was unhappy with the fouls called on his center, but he was reluctant to say much.

“I’ve got to coach two weeks from now, so I’m going to be careful what I say. I need to show up for those games” he said, predicting that his Colonials will be participating in NCAA Tournament play. “It’s difficult being in foul trouble the whole game against a team with Xavier’s front line.”

McKeown also refused to give Xavier too much credit.

“I congratulate Xavier, they played a great second half,” McKeown said. “They didn’t play a great game, but they played a great second half.”

But the only thing Xavier cares to be given credit for is a victory.

“We really wanted this win, so we decided to just buckle down and just play hard defense and talk and just do all the stuff that we need to do to pull out the win,” Phillips said. “I just went out and did what coach asked me to do, which is play hard the entire time, talk with the teammates, work as a team, get some rest, [and I] just did everything that needs to be done for a big game like this.”

Harris summed up the game in six words: “We pulled out a great win,” she said.

The same way the Muskateers avenged a 56-46 loss at the hands of George Washington on Jan. 13, Xavier realizes that Temple will be looking to retaliate against them Sunday in the championship game at 5 p.m.

“We’re not going to take anything lightly. [Temple’s] going to come out hard and ready to play,” Harris said. “We’re going to try to match their intensity and just go out there and try to get another win.”

“Temple’s had a terrific season,” Xavier coach Kevin McGuff added. “They’re talented, athletic and extremely well coached, so I think it’s going to be a great match-up, and a very difficult one for us.

“They’re a great defensive team, they really rebound the ball, [and] they play aggressively. We’re going to have to find ways to score and keep them off the glass.”

Owls coach Dawn Staley remembers the 64-55 loss at the Cintas Center on Feb. 9 well.

Before departing the Fieldhouse, Staley said, “We have the opportunity to avenge both of our losses.”

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.

Also read: “Owls back in A-10 title game” and “Moore watches as Owls try to repossess Atlantic Ten title”

Owls back in A-10 title game

The women’s basketball team is just one game away from pay dirt.

Behind four three-pointers from freshman guard Lindsay Kimmel and 14 points from senior guard Ashley Morris, the Owls defeated Dayton, 56-51, to advance to the Atlantic Ten Conference Championship game.

Senior center Lady Comfort added a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds and junior forward Shenita Landry came off the bench with nine points and five rebounds. The Owls also pulled down 14 offensive rebounds as a team in their semi-final win over the Flyers.

The Owls advanced to their seventh A-10 title game in program history and their fourth in the past five years. But for coach Dawn Staley, this year was a little different. Due to having a young team and a lot of inexperience, her past accomplishments really didn’t factor into her expectations for this season. So having a loose team that’s always joking around and having a good time only helped things.

“We didn’t know exactly what type of team we had,” Staley said. “Of course, you want the goal of being here and being able to compete for an [A-10] championship…But this was actually a fun year. Fun, frustrating, you can never take this team too, too seriously. They’ll say anything that would make you laugh in the middle of a game. They’ve done that on a number of occasions, even today.”

One of the leaders of all that joking around is Morris, but her mindset had already shifted to tomorrow’s game. Even though she is playing in the third A-10 title game of her career, the 5′5 guard didn’t look back on the past or try and focus on the program’s accomplishments when assessing this year’s squad.

“We’re just going to come out and play,” the Owls co-captain said. “Whatever team wins [the George Washington/Xavier game], we’re going to be ready to play for 40 minutes.”

The game itself was a back-and-forth affair for the first 26 minutes, with the teams answering each other basket-for-basket. Neither team held a lead larger than six, as the score was an even 28-28 at halftime.

But mid-way through the second half, Kimmel struck. The Binghamton, N.Y. product nailed back-to-back three’s to help propel the Owls go to a 14-5 run that lasted over eight minutes. Playing her best game since Jan. 19 against George Washington, Kimmel began the game by nailing a trey from the left wing might, which may have helped her have this kind of day.

“Confidence wise, when I hit the first [three], it helps,” Kimmel said. “But I know mentally I’m going to miss a few down the stretch, it happens. But I just keep positive, coach always tells me ‘don’t worry about the last shot, worry about the next one.’”

However, the Owls almost had a monumental collapse.

Leading by 13 with 3:41 to play, the Flyers struck for a 9-0 run to cut the lead to four with under a minute to play. But the Owls never wavered, coming up with a big stop when they really needed it, which put an end to Dayton’s miracle comeback attempt.

“I wasn’t worried at all,” Morris said. “This is what we do. We play in games like this and we hold people off. We’ve become that way, in the past, we couldn’t [hold the lead]. But now, we’re built like that.”

The Owls will play Xavier Monday at 5 p.m in the A-10 championship. The Musketeers downed George Washington 63-59, in the other semi-final game to advance to their second straight A-10 title game. The Owls can secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a win, but even if they lose, most projections still put them into the Big Dance.

Just don’t tell that to Staley.

“I think we were really fortunate last year to get an at-large bid,” she said. “And it’s tough, it’s tough. Like the [South Eastern Conference] and the [Atlantic Coast Conference], they get it-six, five [at-large bids].”

Game Notes

Tomorrow’s game will be televised nationally on ESPN2…Junior forward Shanea Cotton had three fouls-all offensive…Sophomore guard LaKeisha Eaddy shot just 2-13 from the field…Freshman forward Marli Bennett only made an one minute appearance, and when coming into the game, she delayed the pace a bit by not knowing what to do with her warm-up gear, before finally giving it to the exiting Kimmel.

Todd Orodenker can be reached at todd.orodenker@temple.edu.

Also read: “Moore watches as Owls try to repossess Atlantic Ten title” and “Xavier to meet Owls in A-10 finals”

Moore watches as Owls try to repossess Atlantic Ten title

Before graduating in 2005, Ari Moore had the opportunity to experience two Atlantic Ten Conference championships in 2002 and 2004.

Though she’s been done with classes at Temple, she is frequently back on campus or with the women’s basketball team during road games.

Moore was in attendance Sunday at Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, when the No. 1-seeded Owls knocked off No. 5 Dayton, 56-51 in the A-10 Tournament semifinals.

“It’s definitely a different perspective [for me],” Moore said while standing in the bleachers after Temple’s win, holding her son, Madden, who will be two-years-old at the end of the month. “But it’s still exciting, and I’m just happy I’m able to be a part of it in some form or fashion.”

As for what Moore is doing when she’s not in the crowd for Temple games, there are a few primary things.

“I’ve been raising my son,” and going to New York Knicks games to support her fiancée Mardy Collins, a 2006 Temple graduate, Moore said. The couple plans to get married in the summer of 2009.

“We live in New York, and we come to Philly for the off-season,” she said.

The players, particularly the seniors, appreciate seeing the faces of former players.

“Ari Moore comes to practice with us, [and] plays with us in the summertime,” senior guard Ashley Morris said after the victory. “She’s very supportive, and it’s good to have somebody like that behind you that’s been through it and dealt with the same things you did and has won A-10 championships, so she gives us a lot being out there.

Morris said 2006 graduate Khadija Bowens and 2005 graduates Jennifer Owens and Cynthia Jordan, who is now a graduate assistant on the team, are often in attendance at Owls games as well.

“We have a real support system behind us,” Morris said.

Moore said she definitely still feels like she’s on the team.

“It’s kind of like I’m still alive because this is actually my last class I played with,” she said about the team’s current seniors, Morris, Lady Comfort, Nicole Pittman and Candice Borrows.

“It’s kind of like I’m still part of it because my legacy lives on through them. Our team’s [legacy] I guess …We all kind of live it through them,” Moore said, referring to herself and other members of the 2005 Owls squad including Jordan and Candice Dupree, a 2005 graduate and current member of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky.

REPO SHIRTS

Over the course of the A-10 Tournament, the women’s basketball team has flaunted shirts reading, “REPO”.

The explanation is simple. The four letters stand for repossession of the A-10 trophy.

“Every year we wear a long-sleeve T-shirt to our tournament,” Temple coach Dawn Staley explained, referring back to last year’s “Owls don’t sleep, we rest one eye up” shirts. “We just have fun with it. We have a brainstorming competition to see who could come up with a good concept.”

Mary [Wooley], our director of basketball operations, came up with [REPO], and then we got a banner with it,” Staley said. “We feel like if we don’t instill confidence in ourselves, or have somebody else to do it, we’ll never get it.

“It’s our concept of motivating ourselves, keeping ourselves at a high level.”

But when Staley and her coaching staff sat in the stands to watch the Xavier-George Washington game, they had changed to shirts that read, “History repeats itself,” with A-10 banners from 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006 running down the sleeves.

KIMMEL’S KANDIES

Following the win, Morris revealed freshman guard Lindsey Kimmel’s unique ritual heading before game time.

“I asked Lindsey before the game ‘was she ready?’” Morris said. “She said, ‘one more candy bar and I’ll be ready, Ash,’ so I knew Lindsey was going to come out and have a great game.”

What kind of candy prepared Kimmel for nailing 4-of-7 treys?

“I love Starburst, but one of the girls on the team had a bunch of candy bars in a bag,” Kimmel said. “I was eating Hershey’s [before this game]. I always have a ton of candy before the game[s].”

SCOREBOARD MALFUNCTION

Also in the game, the day after the leak in the roof delayed the schedule, the Fieldhouse’s scoreboards couldn’t go without having at least one problem.

The large scoreboard over the middle of the court and the ones off to the sides of the arena, as well as the shot clocks on each basket turned off just over four minutes into the game. They went back on during a timeout, turned off again for about 10 seconds, and then remained on.

There were no further problems.

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.

Also read: “Owls back in A-10 title game” and “Xavier to meet Owls in A-10 finale”

Flyers advance to battle Owls

The delay due to the leak at the start of Saturday’s games did not affect Dayton at all. In fact, the Flyers looked like they wanted to be responsible for creating more of a delay by making their own rain. That is, raining in threes over Charlotte.

No. 5 Dayton shot 11-21 – 52 percent – from three-point territory, in a 77-53 domination of the No. 4 49ers.

Senior Nikki Oakland followed her 20 point, 13 rebound performance against Massachusetts the day before with another double-double – 13 points and 12 rebounds.

“We’ve been wanting this so bad this whole season,” Oakland said. “This is our goal right here, just to go to the finals and [try] to get to the [NCAA Tournament]. [We] seniors have been working for this since we’ve been here. We’ve all just been playing great as a team, [and] we win as a team. [But] we still have some work to do.”

But Oakland was not responsible for any of the threes. Those were dominated by seniors Karah Cloxton and Kiki Lund, who each made 4-of-6 attempts.

With another eight points added to the 12 she tallied from distance, Cloxton finished with a career-high 20 points.

“I was just trying to be really aggressive,” the 5-foot-8 guard said. “Coach [Jim] Jabir’s has been stressing ‘be aggressive, be aggressive.’ My teammates were knocking down shots too, which made the defense really have to work, so I [was] able to hit some [shots].”

Asked if they plan to try to pour in points from beyond the arc vs. Temple, Oakland says she doesn’t yet know.

“We just take whatever [our opponent] gives us,” she said. “If they pack the middle, we’re going to go outside. If they stay outside, we’re going to pack inside. Whatever we have opened, that’s what we take. We try not to force too much.

Temple coach Dawn Staley sat on the sideline watching the Flyers control the game vs. Charlotte.

“They were on all cylinders tonight. They are a very experienced basketball team with a lot of seniors, and they play well together,” she said. “[When we play them], we’re going to have to disrupt the flow of what they’re trying to do. I think we’re pretty good at not giving people what they want. We just have to disrupt them as much as possible.

Staley continued: “I think they’re going to play zone, pack it in on us, and not let us get the ball inside. That’s why it’s important for us to control the boards. I like the match-up. I’d like to avenge the loss that we had this season against them on Jan. 12 [at Dayton]. I didn’t care who we played, but since it is Dayton, I think we have the motivation factor because they did beat us [62-49].

Dayton’s seniors are also happy with its semifinal opponent.

“It gives us all confidence knowing that it’s not impossible by any means [to beat Temple], and that if we play our game, we can achieve anything,” Cloxton said.

“I think coach Staley is the best coach in our league,” Jabir said. “I think her kids are tough, and I have nothing but respect for what she does and how she does it.”

He added: “Our kids keep surprising me. I would have thought this [game vs. Charlotte] would go down to the wire, and [instead] we blew them out. We just stuck to the game plan and really played great.”

The game is set for Sunday afternoon at noon.

For more read: Owls Survive Weather; Spiders

And: Spiders disappointed after loss to Owls

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.

Spiders disappointed after loss to Owls

Who says a basketball game indoors can’t suffer a rain delay?

Due to a leak in the roof of Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, the starts of all of Saturday’s Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament games were forced to begin late.

The first contest of the day between No. 1 Temple and No. 8 Richmond, a game which the Owls won 70-62, scheduled to start at noon, was not underway until 1:30 p.m.

While Temple joked around in the lockeroom and were eventually happy with the outcome, they Spiders were feeling the exact opposite.

Richmond apparently didn’t have as much as Temple did during the delay, but senior Christina Campion wouldn’t blame the Spiders’ slow start on the delay.

“It’s going to affect you to some extent,” Campion said. “But they went through the same delay, so I don’t think you can really attribute our slow start to the delay.”

Richmond’s coach Michael Shafer compared this game to the contest on Jan. 23 in Virginia vs. the Owls, a game that Temple finished on a 25-4 run to win 47-40.

“I felt like the second half of our game at the Robins Center was the first half of the game [today],” Shafer said. “I told the [team], if we were to go out and do what it was that I thought we were capable of doing and play the way we needed to play, then we were going to be able to get back in this thing.

He added: “And I really felt like we did. I felt like we made a really great run at them. We made it a really good basketball game, and we had a good chance to win it.”

Following Richmond’s win on Friday vs. Duquesne, Staley said she knew Richmond freshman Brittani Shells would not play like she did vs. Temple the first time, a game which Shells remembers clearly, but should want to forget.

The 5-foot-7 guard scored just two points on 1-of-12 shooting in that one.

After hitting the game winning shot against Duquesne, Shells talked about her struggle that game against Temple, because she “couldn’t even get there mentally.”

Following Saturday’s loss, in which she scored 18 points on 5-16 shooting, Shells talked about how she never felt like she was on a lower-tier, skills wise, than the Owls.

“I never thought I couldn’t play with Temple,” she said. “There are no two days that are alike. Today I knew exactly what I needed to do to prepare myself for this game.”

The Owls advanced to their eighth-straight A-10 semifinals with the win. On Sunday at noon, barring another rain delay, they will be facing No. 5 Dayton, who embarrassed No. 4 Charlotte, 77-53 on Saturday.

For more read: Flyers advance to battle Owls

And: Owls survive weather; Spiders

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.

Owls survive weather; Spiders

There was a rain delay.

At a basketball game.

Due to a leak in the roof of Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, the women’s basketball team’s Atlantic Ten Conference Championship quarterfinal game with Richmond was delayed nearly 90 minutes before finally getting underway.

And after the very long, tedious delay on a very wet and rainy Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia, the Owls downed the Spiders, 70-62, to advance to Sunday’s semi-final doubleheader.

The Owls were, as usual, led by senior guard Ashley Morris who scored a game-high 19 points while adding seven assists and five rebounds. Freshman guard Lindsay Kimmel pitched in with 12 points and junior forward Shanea Cotton and senior center Lady Comfort each contributed 10.

But all of that was in doubt, as the maintenance crew spent over an hour trying to fix several leaks in the arena roof. There was one at the north side foul line and at center court, among others. The Owls tried to keep it loose during the long delay, focusing on basketball and staying within the game.

“We just tried to keep the energy level up,” Morris said. “We were in there, talking about the game, having a good time.”

Or not.

Coach Dawn Staley interrupted her star player and gave her account of what went on in the locker room as the team waited out the rain. And it had little to do with basketball.

“You want the truth now?” she asked the media. “I went to the locker room twice, the first time I went, [sophomore forward] Jasmine Stone had on [assistant coach] Lisa Boyer’s glasses in the middle of the locker room. The second time…I see Lady in the corner just moving around slightly, and Ashley…had my coat, my scarf, my coat was dragging on the floor. They were just having fun, keeping the energy level up that way. They weren’t focusing on the game at all, trust me.”

Once the game got underway, however, it was a tale of two vastly different halves. The Owls jumped out to a lead as large as 19, and wound up closing the first half with a 36-21 advantage. Perhaps all that joking and clowning around the Owls did in the locker room helped them take such a commanding lead.

“I think we were ready to play the game,” Staley said. “The players were tired of sitting in the locker room, I think part of it was the adrenaline of finally being able to play the game.”

But Richmond answered back in the second half, thanks in large part to 10 points from freshman guard Brittani Shells and seven three-pointers from the team. Shells paced the Spiders with 18 points in the contest, as she led her team to valiant comeback attempt in the final 20 minutes of play. Staley attributed the comeback to the Spiders’ defense, and at the same time, made note of her own adjustments to help that helped Owls hold on.

“The zone, I think the zone slowed us down,” she said. “Once we were pressing, turning them over a little bit, pushing the tempo, [our play improved].”

While it was a tale of two halves in many aspects, there was one constant: fouls. Both teams played a very physical, aggressive style of play. The Spiders finished with 28 personal fouls to the Owls’ 23. Each team had a player foul out, as freshman center Crystal Goring reached five fouls for the Spiders with Cotton doing the same for the Owls. That kind of game in that kind of environment with that kind of meaning only left Staley impressed with her squad.

“I thought we fought,” she said. “I thought we really fought for 40 minutes. There were plenty of opportunities where…we could have folded. [But] this team has been through a lot, and nothing good comes without a little adversity.”

The Owls will play Dayton in the semi-finals, Sunday afternoon at noon. The Flyers downed the 49ers, 77-55, to advance.

Todd Orodenker can be reached at todd.orodenker@temple.edu.

For more read: Flyers advance to battle Owls

And: Spiders disappointed after loss to Owls

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