Every active player on the Owls’ roster played, as Temple extended its road winning streak to nine games with a 76-43 victory against East Carolina on Saturday in Greenville, North Carolina.
Temple (19-5, 9-2 American Athletic Conference) won in nearly every statistical category against the Pirates including rebounding, assists and fast break points.
Temple outscored the Pirates 46-20 in the first half and never trailed after junior guard Donnaizha Fountain’s 3-pointer with five minutes, 51 seconds left in the first quarter. Senior guard Feyonda Fitzgerald scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the first half, and Fountain added a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds.
“She’s been playing with a lot of confidence and she really creates a mismatch for other teams with that she’s able to hit the three and take the ball off the dribble,” Cardoza said of Fountain. “She’s just really hot right now and it helps us out.”
East Carolina outscored Temple 13-11 in the third quarter, but the Owls outscored East Carolina 19-10 in the final frame to coast to the 33-point victory.
Temple held East Carolina to 26.2 percent from the floor and just 16.7 percent from three. Graduate forward Kristen Gaffney was the only Pirate to finish in double figures and did so on 3-of-13 shooting from the field. No one else scored more than six points.
“We always try to take other team’s strengths and make it difficult for East Carolina to get the ball to [Kristen Gaffney],” Cardoza said. “We sent a couple of double teams Gaffney’s way to make it hard for her to get comfortable.
Temple shot 49.2 percent from the floor and 47.1 percent from 3-point range. Fountain and Fitzgerald led the team from behind the arc, combining to shoot 6-for-9.
“We just made a lot of our threes, we didn’t even take a lot of threes,” Cardoza said. “We really feed off of made shots, and they were just falling today.”
Junior guards Alliya Butts and Tanaya Atkinson both added 12 points. Freshman center Shantay Taylor had eight points, one short of tying her career-high.
Temple outrebounded East Carolina by 14 and had 17 offensive rebounds. Atkinson had three offensive boards.
“It is a natural for some of them to get the ball because they are so quick,” Cardoza said. “Some of them are just gifted at pursuing the ball.”
Temple’s next game is on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against Southern Methodist at McGonigle Hall. The game is the Owls’ Play4Kay Breast Cancer Awareness game.
Kevin Schaeffer can be reached at kevinschaeffer@temple.edu or on Twitter @_kevinschaeffer. Follow The Temple News @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.
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