Spiders disappointed after loss to Owls

Who says a basketball game indoors can’t suffer a rain delay?

Due to a leak in the roof of Saint Joseph’s Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse, the starts of all of Saturday’s Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament games were forced to begin late.

The first contest of the day between No. 1 Temple and No. 8 Richmond, a game which the Owls won 70-62, scheduled to start at noon, was not underway until 1:30 p.m.

While Temple joked around in the lockeroom and were eventually happy with the outcome, they Spiders were feeling the exact opposite.

Richmond apparently didn’t have as much as Temple did during the delay, but senior Christina Campion wouldn’t blame the Spiders’ slow start on the delay.

“It’s going to affect you to some extent,” Campion said. “But they went through the same delay, so I don’t think you can really attribute our slow start to the delay.”

Richmond’s coach Michael Shafer compared this game to the contest on Jan. 23 in Virginia vs. the Owls, a game that Temple finished on a 25-4 run to win 47-40.

“I felt like the second half of our game at the Robins Center was the first half of the game [today],” Shafer said. “I told the [team], if we were to go out and do what it was that I thought we were capable of doing and play the way we needed to play, then we were going to be able to get back in this thing.

He added: “And I really felt like we did. I felt like we made a really great run at them. We made it a really good basketball game, and we had a good chance to win it.”

Following Richmond’s win on Friday vs. Duquesne, Staley said she knew Richmond freshman Brittani Shells would not play like she did vs. Temple the first time, a game which Shells remembers clearly, but should want to forget.

The 5-foot-7 guard scored just two points on 1-of-12 shooting in that one.

After hitting the game winning shot against Duquesne, Shells talked about her struggle that game against Temple, because she “couldn’t even get there mentally.”

Following Saturday’s loss, in which she scored 18 points on 5-16 shooting, Shells talked about how she never felt like she was on a lower-tier, skills wise, than the Owls.

“I never thought I couldn’t play with Temple,” she said. “There are no two days that are alike. Today I knew exactly what I needed to do to prepare myself for this game.”

The Owls advanced to their eighth-straight A-10 semifinals with the win. On Sunday at noon, barring another rain delay, they will be facing No. 5 Dayton, who embarrassed No. 4 Charlotte, 77-53 on Saturday.

For more read: Flyers advance to battle Owls

And: Owls survive weather; Spiders

Jeff Appelblatt can be reached at the.jeff@temple.edu.