As time expired in the fourth quarter, sophomore forward Ines Piper made a skip pass to the corner to find her teammate sophomore forward Tiarra East, who connected on a three-point shot opportunity. The shot extended Temple’s lead to 73-67 and forced Cincinnati to call a timeout with two minutes left.
Temple Women’s Basketball (7-8, 2-1 American Athletic Conference) defeated the University of Cincinnati (7-8, 0-2 American Athletic Conference) 77-73 on Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati, Ohio, in their first road victory of their conference schedule. The win comes after Temple suffered their first conference loss of the season in a 77-55 defeat to the University of South Florida (14-4, 3-0 American Athletic Conference) on Jan. 3.
Sophomore guard Jasha Clinton led the offense in Saturday’s matchup, finishing with a career-high 28 points on 11-of-21 shooting. Clinton also involved other teammates in scoring, finishing the game with six assists.
“We depend on that,” said head coach Diane Richardson. “[Clinton] was using her speed and that’s what we expect from her.”
After being outscored 44-25 in the second half against the Bulls on Tuesday, the Owls began Saturday’s contest with more consistent offense, shooting 41 percent from the floor in the first half.
The Owls ended the first quarter 17-3 scoring run, which helped them establish a 33-26 lead heading into halftime.
In the early stages of the second half, Temple maintained their offensive momentum by scoring six straight points to start the third quarter. Cincinnati’s defense could not overcome Temple’s fast offensive approach, allowing Temple to go into the final quarter up 55-47.
“We had 20 assists on 31 baskets, that was pretty good,” Richardson said. “Again, we won the rebounding war. We shot 80 percent on the free throw line. So we are moving up in some of those categories that I want us to.”
Temple’s victories this season have all included strong perimeter defense. The Owls forced the Bearcats to attempt contested shots, resulting in Cincinnati shooting 40 percent from the floor, while forcing 16 turnovers.
“We try to make sure we secure the ball and that’s our game plan going into every game,” Richardson said. “Hopefully we’ll get those down even more.”
Temple’s forwards were successful in crashing the boards and grabbing rebounds after two straight games of being outrebounded by their opponents. The Owls won today’s rebounding battle 40-38 and finished with 38 points in the paint.
Temple will look to sustain their momentum when they travel back home for the first time in two weeks to take on East Carolina University (10-5, 1-1 American Athletic Conference) on Jan. 11 at noon.
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