Women’s basketball earned their 12th straight win on Wednesday night against St. Joseph’s with a 75-65 victory on senior night.
The Owls have been led by senior guards Kristen McCarthy and Shey Peddy all year and in this game it was no different. The duo combined for 50 points including a Temple career-high 31 from Peddy.
“This was a great win for us. St. Joe’s is obviously a really good team,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “We needed every one of Kristen’s points and every one of Shey’s points just to try to keep up with them.”
After the senior night festivities were over and the first half was underway it seemed McCarthy wasn’t done celebrating. She went off for 18 points in the first half on 9 of 15 shooting from the field, including a run where she was the only Owl to score for a four-minute span.
McCarthy and Peddy were responsible for the first four Temple buckets of the game as the Owls jumped out to a 13-9 lead.
The Hawks stayed in it as senior guard Katie Kuester scored eight points in the first 10 minutes and kept them from falling behind. McCarthy responded with eight straight points of her own, including an offensive put back that broke a 9-0 St. Joe’s run that had momentarily given them their first lead of the game.
Two straight scores by McCarthy and senior center Joelle Connelly gave the Owls the lead back at the half 34-31. Temple shot 52 percent in the first half compared to St. Joe’s 45 percent.
As much as the first half belonged to McCarthy, the second half belonged to Peddy. In the first three minutes she scored off of a steal and an offensive rebound, then followed that with a crowd-pleasing crossover and jumper to get Temple out on an 11-2 run to start the half.
Peddy continued to pace the Owls, scoring nine of the first 14 in the half and 16 overall in the first 7:40. She made a habit of going to the basket and finished with 24 points in the second half to set her career high in points at Temple since transferring from Wright State.
After the big scoring run in the first 10 minutes, the lead was stretched to 58-43. Both teams continued at the same pace as the Hawks refused to let the Owls make it a blowout, but couldn’t seem to make a run of their own.
“In the first half [McCarthy] definitely put us on her back and carried us through the first half,” Cardoza said. “In the second half [Peddy] did the same thing and put us on her back by just attacking.”
Both teams shot the ball well, with Temple finishing at 54 percent and St. Joe’s at 47 percent. McCarthy tallied 19 points to leave her two shy of moving into fourth place all-time at Temple. Junior center Victoria Macaulay also finished in double figures with 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds for the Owls. Senior guard BJ Williams had a game-high eight assists.
Senior guard Michelle Baker led St. Joe’s with 20 points on 10-18 shooting. The win improves Temple to 20-8 overall and 13-1 in conference play.
The Owls play their regular season finale on Saturday afternoon at La Salle before heading to the Atlantic Ten Conference tournament.
“If we come out and play the way we know we’re capable of playing, then [an A-10
Championship] is a goal we can attain,” McCarthy said. “It has been a while since we won one so we really want to bring one home.”
Brandon Stoneburg can be reached at brandon.stoneburg@temple.edu.
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