Owls fall to St. Bonaventure

The women’s basketball team (15-6, 4-2) remained neck and neck with St. Bonaventure (16-6, 4-3) for most of the game, but the Owls’ defensive miscues cost them down the stretch as they fell 64-54 to the Bonnies, snapping a five-game winning streak.

“This is a very tough loss to swallow.” Coach Tonya Cardoza said. “Obviously, St. Bonaventure is a great team and they know what our weaknesses are and took advantage of it.”

One of their weaknesses was their inability to contain St. Bonaventure senior forward Dana Mitchell. In the past season, Mitchell had two big games against the Owls and this game was no exception as she lead the team with 18 points and five rebounds. She was one of four other players who scored in double-digits for the Bonnies.

“She’s just unstoppable, you can’t guard her one on one.” Cardoza said. “Even when you do a good job and stop her, she can shoot over you whether it’s a fade away or whatever.”

The Bonnies got off to a quick 6-0 start in the game, but Temple quickly came back and the two teams traded the lead for most of the half. Most of the scoring for both sides was done inside and in the paint.

“Their style of play is to put the ball on the floor and get to the basket.” Cardoza said.

Neither side had much success from beyond the arc. St. Bonaventure finished 3 for 8 from three-point territory and sophomore guard Kristen McCarthy had Temple’s lone three-pointer out of the teams nine shots.

St. Bonaventure had a slim 26-25 lead going into halftime. Helping the Owls keep pace with the Bonnies were McCarthy and senior center Jasmine Stone. McCarthy led the team 16 points and Stone had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

As the second half rolled around, McCarthy and Stone continued to keep the game close and sophomore guard B.J. Williams had a second-half scoring surge. She would go on to finish with 11 points and 7 assists.

With about seven minutes left in the game, St. Bonaventure began to pull away as Stone and senior guard Lakeisha Eaddy were both tagged with fouls in less than a minute. The Bonnies took advantage of those two fouls and to take a 46-41 lead and things finally began to unravel for the Owls.

“I think we started getting a little bit frustrated because we didn’t get calls the we thought we should have gotten and sort of got rattled.” Cardoza said. “Then we lost concentration down at the other end where whether we were supposed to switch or stay and gave them wide open shots.

“It was almost like panic mode on the offensive end for us.” She added.

As time winded down, St. Bonaventure continued to stifle the Owls offense and rely on their near-perfect free throw shooting to hold on for the win. The Owls next two will be away games even though the team will never leave Philadelphia. The Owls will face St. Joseph’s on Feb. 2 and La Salle on Feb. 6.

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

Game Notes: Lakeisha Eaddy scored five points, which puts her at exactly 1,000 points for her career.

Hanging onto playoff hopes

The men’s soccer team traded shutouts during the weekend, defeating St. Bonaventure, 1-0, while losing 1-0 to Duquesne. The Owls currently hold the sixth, and last, Atlantic Ten Conference playoff spot.

With an inconsistent performance over the weekend, senior midfielder J.T. Noone and the men’s soccer team made their pursuit of an Atlantic Ten Conference playoff berth that much harder.

Entering the weekend, the Owls had gone on the road for their first three conference games, defeating Saint Joseph’s and Massachusetts before losing to Rhode Island, 4-1, on Oct. 18. Considering the Owls only play four conference home games all year, this weekend was of the utmost importance, Temple coach David MacWilliams said.

“You’ve got to win your home games,” MacWilliams said. “When you don’t win your home games, those are the teams that find themselves out of the playoffs.”

On Friday, the Owls faced off against the St. Bonaventure Bonnies. Temple’s lone goal came off the foot of senior forward Augustin Coly, who took a pass from freshman midfielder Homero Rodriguez at the 56:23 mark and drilled the ball into the back of the net. Ultimately, that one goal was enough, as junior goalkeeper Bret Mollon recorded his fifth shutout of the season and secured a 1-0 victory.

“Bret’s played well this year,” MacWilliams said. “On Friday, he won the game for us.”

The success stopped there for the Owls. They returned to the Ambler Sports Complex on Sunday to face the Duquesne Dukes, a team fresh off a 4-0 victory against St. Joe’s.

After playing the Dukes to a standstill for the majority of the game, the Owls let their guard down in the final minute, and Duquesne freshman forward Joshua Patterson made them pay for it. Patterson took a pass from senior defenseman Alex Trujillo at the 89:43 mark and arched his shot over the outstretched arms of Mollon. The Dukes scored the lone goal of the game. The 1-0 loss left an extra sour taste in the mouths of the Owls, as the Dukes entered the game fighting for a playoff spot.

Noone said that while the loss was obviously a devastating one, the Owls did manage to do many things well, primarily on defense.

“At times, we knocked the ball well,” Noone said. “I think we defended well. We just let our guard down for a minute, and in this league, you get punished for that.”

In the end, though, the Owls simply could not find the back of the net on offense. MacWilliams attributed that to one fairly simple reason.

“We didn’t get enough runners in the box,” MacWilliams said. “We can control the ball, and when the winger serves it, we need to have runners in the box.”

With the weekend split, the Owls find themselves with nine points in the A-10 standings, good for sixth in the conference. The top six teams make the playoffs, but there are still games to be played, and the Owls have put themselves in a situation that allows for little error.

“The split doesn’t help us,” MacWilliams said. “[The loss to Duquesne] is a very disappointing loss.”

The Cherry and White have a tough week coming up, as the team travels across town to face the La Salle Explorers before heading north to face the conference-leading Fordham Rams.

“All the A-10 games are tough,” MacWilliams said. “Those are only winnable games if we put our all into it.”

“Fordham is a big one for us. They’re doing well in the league,” Noone added. “La Salle, too. I think they’re a good team, so this’ll be a tough week for us.”

Kyle Gauss can be reached at kyle.gauss@temple.edu.

Men’s squad back on the bubble watch

Talk about your big weeks.

The men’s basketball team picked up two key road wins last week over Saint Joseph’s and Duquesne, improving its record to 15-9 overall and 7-3 inside the Atlantic Ten Conference.

But, almost more importantly, the wins put the Owls squarely on the bubble in the NCAA Tournament discussion.

The two victories last week were almost similar, as in both, the Owls fell behind early, chipped away and then used a big run to take a commanding lead. The problem was Thursday at the Palestra against the Hawks, the Owls couldn’t hit any free throws down the stretch.

A 10-point lead with 54 seconds to go turned into a two-point lead with five seconds left, but St. Joe’s junior guard Tasheed Carr missed his running 3-pointer, and the Owls hung on for dear life with a 61-59 victory over their archrivals.

Sunday in Pittsburgh, the Owls used a 12-3 late second-half run to beat Duquesne in a game that was a back-and-forth contest after the Owls rebounded from an early nine-point deficit. But, the story of the contest was freshman guard Juan Fernandez, who played 31 minutes and scored a career-high 19 points.

With those wins, the Owls moved into a tie for third place in the A-10 standings with St. Joe’s, a game and a half behind co-leaders No. 16 Xavier and No. 25 Dayton and a half a game ahead of Rhode Island.
Positioning inside the A-10 will be key for the Owls, as they need separation between themselves and the teams on the next peg of the conference ladder.

Basically, if Temple finished 12-4 in the A-10, then they would need the likes of St. Joe’s, Rhode Island and Duquesne to finish 10-6 or 9-7. That shows the selection committee the Owls are clearly in line with Tournament teams like Xavier and Dayton, and not with NIT teams like the aforementioned Hawks, Rams and Dukes.

With their RPI currently at 34 and their strength of schedule at 31, the Owls have a good enough résumé to warrant discussion for an at-large bid. But, with upcoming tilts against lowly Fordham and slightly less lowly St. Bonaventure, both of those computer numbers will most likely go down, regardless of the outcome.

Still, the Owls can boast about wins over Penn State on the road, then-No.7 Tennessee at home and even last week’s pair of victories, as both St. Joe’s and Duquesne entered the week with RPIs below 100. The fact that both came away from home is huge, as winning on the road in the A-10 has been no easy task this year (just ask Xavier).

The Owls’ 75-68 victory at La Salle Jan. 11 didn’t seem that big at the time but looks pretty good now, as the Explorers knocked off St. Joe’s Saturday at the Palestra and currently stand at 5-5 in the conference.

Despite all those things, none of it will matter if the Owls can’t take care of business in these next three games — all of which are at the Liacouras Center.

Losses to Fordham tomorrow night, St. Bonaventure this Sunday or La Salle Feb. 26 would cripple, if not end, any at-large bid talk for coach Fran Dunphy’s squad. They especially need those games with a road showdown against Dayton looming Feb. 28 — a team that just beat Xavier, stands at 23-3 overall and is projected by most to be in the NCAA Tournament.

Winning that game could take the Owls off the bubble and put them in, but with these two road victories last week, there is room to spare. A loss to the Flyers wouldn’t kill the Owls’ chances. All it would give them no margin for error.

The good thing for the Owls is that with the way the A-10 Tournament looks to be set up as of now, they’ll get another shot at Dayton in the semifinals — but this time on a neutral court in Atlantic City, N.J.

While that may be looking too far ahead, the Owls now know they’re going to be in the discussion come March. It looked bleak just a few weeks ago, but they withstood tough road challenges and didn’t slip up at home.

But there is no time to bask in any glory, as there is still plenty of work to do. And that begins tomorrow at 7 p.m. against Fordham.

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