The women’s basketball team knew coming into its game Wednesday night that it owed Stony Brook one.
After narrowly falling to the Seawolves on the road last season, the Owls, coming off a 1-3 road trip, also knew there was no better place to exact revenge then in the confines of their own home.
Led by senior Lady Comfort’s career high 25 points, the Owls did just that, topping Stony Brook, 72-58, at the Liacouras Center.
“It was in the back of our minds, what they did to us last year,” coach Dawn Staley said. “I just think we were able to put together a complete game plan.”
“Lady was feeling it,” said senior forward Kamesha Hairston. “[It was] ‘get big girl the ball [and] let her go to work.’ We did a good job of that.”
Along with her 25 points, Comfort, a junior center, added seven rebounds and a team-high three steals. The point total marked Comfort’s first time in double figures since the second game of the season, a Temple (4-3) win over Georgia Tech.
Hairston backed up Comfort with 19 points of her own, along with a game-high 14 rebounds. At the end of the first half, Hairston had already notched her third straight double-double, totaling 14 points and 10 rebounds before the intermission.
The guard trio of senior Fatima Maddox, freshman Lakeisha Eddy and senior Ashley Morris chipped in as well. The trio combined for 19 points, nine assists and six steals.
“They’re doing their jobs right now,” Staley said of the three. “Tonight they did a tremendous job of running our basketball team.”
Stony Brook (2-4) hung tough with the Owls for the first 20 minutes of the contest, finding itself only down by six at halftime.
Then the Owls got comfortable. Comfort came out in the second half and connected on eight of her 11 shot attempts, as the Owls pulled away.
Temple won’t have much time to enjoy its return home, as it is set to host No.1 Maryland Sunday at 2 pm at the Liacouras Center.
Jeremy Drummond can be reached at jdrum@temple.edu.
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