McCarthy’s 42 puts Temple past 49ers

Sophomore guard Kristen McCarthy broke three different scoring records in the women’s basketball team’s (19-6, 8-2) 79-68 win over reigning Atlantic Ten Conference champion UNC Charlotte (15-10, 8-3).

She set a new career high in points as she had a double double with 42 points and 11 rebounds. Her 42 points are the most points scored in the Liacouras Center by a women’s basketball player since Natalie Issac scored 38 points against Massachusetts in the 2001 season.

With less than a minute left in the game, McCarthy had 39 points, which was two shy of the team record for most individual points scored in a game, which was set by Marilyn Stephens against George Mason during the 1983 season. McCarthy had the opportunity to tie the record with 55 seconds left.

“I honestly didn’t know how many points I had till the second to last free throws, my teammate got my attention on the bench and said ‘If you get these two free throws, then you’ll get 40,’” McCarthy said. “Then I got nervous on the I missed the first free throw.”

She made the second free throw and was fouled again at the 33 second mark, where sank the two more free throws she needed to surpass the record.

“I’m proud of her, she put her team on her back and took them to victory.” Coach Tonya Cardoza said.

“I just want to keep improving, I don’t want to be satisfied with anything that I do.” McCarthy added. “My goal is to play professional basketball and while I’m here I just want to make my teammates better and make myself better as much as I can so that we can win the A-10 and go far in the NCAA [tournament].”

Senior guard LaKeisha Eaddy also had a good game for the Owls with 14 points and five assists. Charlotte was able to keep the game fairly close with a 26-point performance from junior guard Shannon McCallum.

“She’s a beast on the other side, she’s hard to defend, but I thought we did a good job as best as we could, but then we had someone who could score for us.” Cardoza said. “We scored 79 points, we haven’t seen the 70’s in a while, especially in this building [the Liacouras Center] too, we haven’t been shooting the ball well, but today was a good day for us.”

Senior forward Ashley Spriggs also chipped in 13 points for the 49ers.
Up next, the Owls face Duquesne, a team that they are currently tied for second place in the A-10. Tipoff is at noon in McGonigle Hall on Feb. 17.

Game Notes: The Owls have won 9 of their last ten games… Junior forward Marli Bennett is the reigning A-10 player of the week after averaging 11 points and eight rebounds a game in the team’s two wins last week against St. Joseph’s and La Salle… Temple’s next two upcoming opponents currently are among the top four teams in the A-10.

Brian Dzenis can be reached at brian.dzenis@temple.edu

McCarthy’s 42 lift Temple past 49ers

Sophomore guard Kristen McCarthy broke three different scoring records in the women’s basketball team’s (19-6, 8-2) 79-68 win over reigning Atlantic Ten Conference champion UNC Charlotte (15-10, 8-3).

She set a new career high in points as she had a double double with 42 points and 11 rebounds. Her 42 points are the most points scored in the Liacouras Center by a women’s basketball player since Natalie Issac scored 38 points against Massachusetts in the 2001 season.

With less than a minute left in the game, McCarthy had 39 points, which was two shy of the team record for most individual points scored in a game, which was set by Marilyn Stephens against George Mason during the 1983 season. McCarthy had the opportunity to tie the record with 55 seconds left.

“I honestly didn’t know how many points I had till the second to last free throws, my teammate got my attention on the bench and said ‘If you get these two free throws, then you’ll get 40,’” McCarthy said. “Then I got nervous on the I missed the first free throw.”

She made the second free throw and was fouled again at the 33 second mark, where sank the two more free throws she needed to surpass the record.

“I’m proud of her, she put her team on her back and took them to victory.” Coach Tonya Cardoza said.

“I just want to keep improving, I don’t want to be satisfied with anything that I do.” McCarthy added. “My goal is to play professional basketball and while I’m here I just want to make my teammates better and make myself better as much as I can so that we can win the A-10 and go far in the NCAA [tournament].”

Senior guard LaKeisha Eaddy also had a good game for the Owls with 14 points and five assists. Charlotte was able to keep the game fairly close with a 26-point performance from junior guard Shannon McCallum.

“She’s a beast on the other side, she’s hard to defend, but I thought we did a good job as best as we could, but then we had someone who could score for us.” Cardoza said. “We scored 79 points, we haven’t seen the 70’s in a while, especially in this building [the Liacouras Center] too, we haven’t been shooting the ball well, but today was a good day for us.”

Senior forward Ashley Spriggs also chipped in 13 points for the 49ers.

Up next, the Owls face Duquesne, a team that they are currently tied for second place in the A-10. Tipoff is at noon in McGonigle Hall on Feb. 17.

Game Notes: The Owls have won 9 of their last ten games… Junior forward Marli Bennett is the reigning A-10 player of the week after averaging 11 points and eight rebounds a game in the team’s two wins last week against St. Joseph’s and La Salle… Temple’s next two upcoming opponents currently are among the top four teams in the A-10.

Brian Dzenis can be reached at brian.dzenis@temple.edu

Owls seek revenge vs. Charlotte

The 49ers eliminated Temple in last year’s A-10 Tournament.

Last week, the women’s basketball team (17-6 overall, 6-2 Atlantic Ten Conference) rebounded from its 64-54 loss to St. Bonaventure on Jan. 30 by winning two straight games in the Big 5. Temple picked up a 58-56 win against Saint Joseph’s last Tuesday and a 55-34 win versus La Salle this past Saturday. The Owls finished 4-1 in Big 5 play, which locked them into second place behind Villanova. The Wildcats beat Temple, 44-32, back on Dec. 20.

“I didn’t realize how difficult it was going to be,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “Every game has been tough. It’s something that I’ve got to get used to. When it’s time to throw the ball up, all the Philadelphia teams want to beat the heck out of [each other], so we’ve got to make sure that we come out next year ready to fight and kill everybody to try to regain the title.”

Senior guard LaKeisha Eaddy scored the game-winning basket with 3.9 seconds left to give the Owls the win against the Hawks last Tuesday.

“With the St. Joe’s game, we fought hard, and it was a tough win, but it’s frustrating because we keep making the same mistakes,” Cardoza said.

Though the Owls have won their past two games, they have committed 20-plus turnovers in each of the contests – 23 against St. Joe’s and 21 against La Salle.

“A lot of our turnovers have nothing to do with what the defense is doing. It’s just losing our minds sometimes and not focused and not paying attention,” Cardoza said. “We just got to bear down and take care of the ball.”

Up next, the Owls begin a three-game home stretch that starts Wednesday at McGonigle Hall against Massachusetts (9-14 overall, 3-5 A-10). The Minutewomen are coming off a 60-50 win against Fordham and are led by sophomore forward Kristina Danella, who averages 13.6 points per game. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

Saturday, the Owls will face Charlotte (14-9 overall, 7-2 A-10), the squad that knocked them out of the A-10 Conference Tournament last season by beating them 70-53 in the semifinals. Both teams lost their respective leading scorers from their last matchup. Junior forward Lindsay Kimmel transferred to Villanova, while Charlotte’s Tracy Ray and Danielle Burgin graduated. Kimmel led the Owls with 10 points, while Ray scored 16 points and Burgin added a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The current leading scorer for the 49ers is junior guard Shannon McCallum, who averages 12.6 points per game. The location of this game works in the Owls’ favor, as Charlotte has struggled outside the Queen City. Eight of the team’s nine total losses this season have come on the road.

The key to victory will be limiting turnovers, as Charlotte ranks third in the A-10 in steals with 9.2 per game. Temple average 19.3 turnovers, which is more than any team in the A-10.

“We can’t have any slip-ups,” Cardoza said. “Right now, we have six games left, and all six teams are good enough to beat us, and we have to make sure we come out and play hard because if we don’t do the things that we need to, I don’t know what our future is going to look like. We put ourselves in good position early on, but we have to finish strong.”

Tipoff is at 1 p.m.

Brian Dzenis can be reached at brian.dzenis@temple.edu.

Saturday’s main event belongs to Valli’s nine

Some years, Cherry and White Day has been similar to a large-scale music festival, with the football team’s annual scrimmage serving as the main stage while various other smaller acts, like the baseball and softball teams, perform on adjacent fields at the Ambler Sports Complex.

This year, the event has expanded to two campuses, with the football team highlighting the festivities with its scrimmage here on Main Campus at Edberg-Olson Hall. But just like all those music concerts, sometimes the main attraction isn’t always the best show.

Though it likely won’t draw a crowd like the football team will, the baseball team’s game against Charlotte, scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Ambler Sports Complex, is Cherry and White Day’s most unheralded show.

This is not meant to take away from the football team in any way. Football coach Al Golden has built excitement and optimism among fans of his football team. We all know that’s been no small task.
With that said, baseball coach Rob Valli – who, like Golden, happens to be in his fourth season with Temple – has led a transformation among the baseball program, which certainly deserves notice.

Though Saint Joseph’s knocked the baseball team out of first place in the Atlantic Ten Conference with a sweep in last Friday’s doubleheader, the Owls (13-17 overall) currently sit in second place with an 8-3 mark.

Temple hasn’t won a regular-season A-10 title since 1985, when longtime coach Skip Wilson’s program was just concluding its own Golden Era. Believe it or not, Temple consistently participated in the NCAA Tournament during the 1970s and 1980s, even finishing third in the College World Series in 1972.

But, by the time Valli took over in the fall of 2005, the Owls had finished above .500 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament just once in Wilson’s final 16 seasons at the helm.

Under Valli, the Owls got (much) worse before they improved.

Much like Golden, he suffered through a painful rebuilding process, as the Owls posted their worst mark in program history (12-41) in 2006. Their box scores, the worst of which went to the tune of 35-1 and 23-4, made one wonder whether the opposing batters were hitting off a tee.

Thankfully for Valli, those days are gone.

Valli, who was a proven winner at Gloucester County College before coming to Temple, has the Owls playing some riveting baseball, and the season is heating up.

While the football team is busy running post routes and halfback draws in a glorified practice session, the baseball team will be taking on the pride of its conference, Charlotte.

Traveling to the Ambler campus can be a pain in the butt. However, if there’s any baseball game to get to this season, it’s one of them this weekend (the Owls and 49ers also face each other on Friday and Sunday).

Though the 49ers have struggled this season, they remain the class of the A-10, having won the last two A-10 Tournaments, spent time in the national rankings and qualified for two straight NCAA Tournaments.

The Niners might only be 5-7, but the weekend series is crucial for the Owls.

First, they need to recover from their recent five-game swoon, which featured their only three A-10 defeats.

Secondly, taking the series against Charlotte would not only further secure the Owls’ positioning at the top of the A-10 standings, but hand the Owls confidence. There’s nothing better for a team’s ego than beating the reigning champs.

If the Owls hope to win this year’s conference tourney and advance to their first NCAA Tournament since 2001, they’ll likely need to get by Charlotte in the postseason. If that scenario indeed plays out, it certainly helps to know you’ve topped them before.

While the baseball team hopes to beat a division rival Saturday, at Edberg-Olson Hall, the football team will only be beating itself (which, you may recall, it did three times in the regular season last year, too).
If you’re an avid football fan who digs the Xs and Os, enjoy the scrimmage. Just know the football team likely won’t be the only athletics team going deep on Saturday.

John Kopp can be reached at john.kopp@temple.edu.

Upset helps squad climb A-10 ladder

AMBLER — For years, the baseball team has been hiding in the Atlantic Ten Conference basement.

Just a year ago, the Owls finished 9-18 against conference opponents and never seriously contended for a title.

Now with a 6-3 conference start and a weekend win over No. 18 Charlotte (23-5, 8-1 A-10), it appears the program may be turning a new page.

The 49ers came into town for a three-game set at Skip Wilson Field brimming with confidence. While Charlotte took two of three, the Owls (14-13 overall) were poised enough to hand them their first conference loss of the season, notching a 5-2 win in the second of the trio of contests.

“We just stayed composed,” said senior pitcher Tom Dolan, who started game two. “We just weren’t giving the game away. We were just very competitive, giving them a challenge. As long as I kept throwing up zeros, we were confident.”

After a 6-2 loss in the opener Friday, the Owls looked to pounce early in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader. However, the 49ers struck quick, giving Dolan trouble in the first. A two-run home run by Brad McElroy spotted Charlotte a 2-0 lead, but it wouldn’t last for long.

In the bottom half of the first, senior Mike Kelch belted a double that brought in a pair of runs while junior Carmen Del Mastro added another RBI single. Kelch is tied for the team lead with 18 RBIs this year.

After the first, Dolan settled down and tossed four solid shutout innings. Freshman reliever Ben White and senior closer Arshwin Asjes then combined to post four more scoreless frames.
While the Owls pitching staff kept the 49ers at bay, freshman Byron McKoy singled to the left side to bring home junior Jamie Abercrombie and freshman Ben Flanery  in the fourth inning. The insurance runs were enough to give the Owls the victory.

With the win, Dolan evened his record at 3-3, while Asjes secured his fifth save of the season.

The signature win is just further proof of the team’s notable turnaround.

“It just means that our program is moving in the right direction,” coach Rob Valli said. “We knew we had a lot of work to do coming in. The first season [2006], we played with the players that we had, and last year, we basically had a whole new roster out there. We have more consistency through our lineup this year.”

In the series finale, the Owls were out-muscled by a determined 49ers offense.

The Owls were handicapped by an untimely injury to senior pitcher Mike Mongiardini, who left the game with arm tightness in the second inning.

From there, the bullpen struggled to slow down the 49ers and the Owls defense committed five errors.

When the dust cleared, it was a 9-5 loss for the Owls.

Sophomore Ryan Thomas, who allowed seven hits, was branded with the defeat.

The Owls are now fourth in a tightly packed race in the A-10.

Anthony Stipa can be reached at anthony.stipa@temple.edu.