The Owls defeated St. Bonaventure last year.
From here on out, the women’s basketball team (14-5 overall, 3-1) will play only Atlantic Ten Conference opponents for the rest of the regular season. The Owls’ last non-conference game was a 55-31 win against Big 5 rival Penn last Saturday. Temple has 10 games remaining to move up in the A-10 standings. Currently, the Owls are tied for third place.
The team’s first matchup this week is Wednesday, when the Owls go on the road to face the Saint Louis Billikens (7-12 overall, 1-3 A-10). Temple enters the game with a four-game winning streak, while St. Louis’ most recent game was a 92-50 loss to first-place Xavier. The Billikens are led by senior center Amanda Kemezys and junior forward Lauren Woods, who both average 13 points per game. St. Louis has another double-digit scorer in Katie Paganelli, who averages 11 points per game.
The Owls return home to the Liacouras Center Saturday to face St. Bonaventure (14-6 overall, 2-3 A-10), in part two of a doubleheader with the men’s team. The Bonnies figure to be a challenge for Temple, despite the fact that they currently sit in fifth place in the A-10. Both games last year were close contests. In the first meeting, Temple traveled to St. Bonaventure and came up short in a 55-52 loss. The Owls had a chance to win, as they were only behind by three points with 16 seconds to go, but senior guard LaKeisha Eaddy missed two 3-point attempts that could have tied and then possibly won the game. The two teams met again in the quarterfinals of the A-10 Tournament. This time, Temple came away with a close 67-63 victory.
The Bonnies come to Philadelphia looking for revenge and are led by senior forward Dana Mitchell. Mitchell, the Bonnies’ leading scorer, averages 16 points per game. Last season, she had big nights against the Owls in both games. She put up 16 points in the regular-season win and 24 points in the postseason loss. Following Mitchell are two sophomores who are double-digit scorers – guard Jessica Jenkins at 11 points per game and forward Megan Von Tatenhove at 10 points per game. St. Bonaventure is 2-4 during its last six games. Its most loss came against Xavier.
Not to be outdone, Eaddy and senior forward Jasmine Stone have had career games against the Bonnies. When the Owls knocked St. Bonaventure out of the A-10 Tournament, Eaddy scored a career-high 26 points to go with five assists and five steals. More importantly in that game, Eaddy clinched the quarterfinal win and redeemed herself from her previous game against the Bonnies by sinking two free throws with three seconds left in the game. Stone also put up a career-high in points with 12 and grabbed eight rebounds.
Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. after the men’s game at noon.
Brian Dzenis can be reached at brian.dzenis@temple.edu.
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