Women’s basketball is first in the A-10 with a winning streak.
The women’s basketball team continued to roll through its Atlantic Ten Conference schedule, routing Massachusetts and Richmond by a combined score of 56 points.
The Owls have now won eight-consecutive games, advancing to 6-0 in the conference and 15-6 overall. To top things off, senior forward Qwedia Wallace scored her 1,000th career point in a 76-48 win at UMass Wednesday night to become the third Owl to reach that milestone this season.
Junior forward Kristen McCarthy and junior guard Shey Peddy have also reached 1,000 career points within the past month.
“Having that type of scoring power on your team is always good because you never know when one guy is going to have an off night,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “Since they’ve all been able to score so many points in their career, you know that you can always count on somebody to step up.”
Wallace was the one with the hot hand at Massachusetts, scoring a game-high 21 points. She also grabbed a team-high seven rebounds and dished five assists for the Owls.
As a team, Temple got off to a slow start in the contest, shooting 3-of-12 from the field but picked up the pace midway through the first half to grab a 15-11 lead. It was all Temple from then on as the Owls rattled off a 20-2 run to take a 12-point lead before halftime.
Temple never allowed UMass to come within 15 points in the second half and was highly efficient in posting a 26-15 assist-to-turnover ratio on the night. The team tallied a season-high 20 steals and forced the Minutewomen to turn the ball over 32 times.
Peddy chipped in 19 points and swiped a career-high eight steals while junior guard BJ Williams dished a game-high nine assists. Junior center Joelle Connelly added 11 points in the win, which became her career-high as an Owl.
Temple continued its A-10 domination by defeating Richmond, 84-56, at McGonigle Hall Saturday afternoon, setting a program record for three-pointers with 14.
McCarthy led the team with a season-high 23 points and was a perfect 5-for-5 from behind the arc while Peddy posted another solid performance for Temple with 12 points and nine assists. Senior forward Marli Bennett scored double digits with 11 points.
“It’s important to me because I feel that I’ve been struggling as of late so hopefully I can build on this momentum,” McCarthy said. “This was a really important game for our entire team.”
McCarthy, Peddy and Wallace combined for 43 points on the night, which was a showing Cardoza had been looking forward to all season.
“This is definitely what I’m looking for,” Cardoza said. “That’s definitely a great team effort but not just from those three. When you have Marli being offensive minded and BJ coming in off the bench and looking to score, you have a balance attack that makes it hard for teams to beat us, especially when we’re playing defense like that.”
Temple held Richmond to 36.2 percent shooting from the floor and scoreless from beyond the arc. The Owls also held Richmond’s leading scorer Brittani Shells to only 10 points, which is almost 10 points below her season average. The senior guard was the nation’s 14th leading scorer heading into Saturday’s game.
Temple’s senior forward Danielle Brinkley set the teams’ new three-point record by scoring the team’s final two baskets from beyond the arc. As a team, Temple shot an impressive 12-of-13 from the free-throw line and out rebounded Richmond, 39-27.
Temple has given up an average of just 44.2 points per game across its six conference wins this season while averaging 70.8 points per game themselves. The Owls hold conference opponents to only 32.3 percent shooting. Those numbers prove how dominant the Owls have been since A-10 season play began.
The women will attempt to remain undefeated in the conference by hosting a struggling Saint Louis team Wednesday afternoon.
Jeff Janiczek can be reached at jjaniczek@temple.edu.
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