After trailing for much of the first half, Temple seemed to enter the second in another gear. The Owls outscored Villanova by nine points in the third quarter and were on the verge of breaking the game open.
However, the Wildcats refused to go down quietly and continued to hang around midway through the final quarter of play. Looking to put the nail in Villanova’s coffin, the Owls turned to their star guard Tiarra East.
With five minutes left in the game, East hit a long three-pointer off a Villanova turnover to push the Owls’ lead to 13. Just one possession, later East struck again. The senior guard got the ball in the right corner and buried her second straight three to give Temple a 14-point lead. Temple fended off the Wildcats for the remainder of the game to claim the win and the Big 5 Classic championship.
“This is awesome,” said Temple head coach Diane Richardson. “The feel of it is really great and it’s great that Philadelphia is shining a light on women’s basketball. We’ve probably played in the shadows for a long time, but this kind of exposure, and this tournament can shine the light back onto women’s basketball, and we can catch the wave.”
Temple (5-3, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) took down Villanova (5-4, 0-0 Big East) 76-62 Friday night at Finneran Pavilion in the championship game of the Big 5 Classic. The Owls shot 67% from the field in the second half to surge to a city crown in its first year of existence.
The narrative surrounding Temple all season has been its inability to start games on the right foot. The same story unfolded again for the Owls in the first three minutes. Villanova shot out to a 9-0 lead behind five quick points from forward Lara Edmanson.
It looked as if the Owls were doomed from there, but they were able to punch back with a run of their own. Temple scored eight straight points, with six coming from East to get back in the game.
Villanova looked like it was going to pull away again near the end of the first quarter as it had pushed its lead back up to seven at 19-12. However, the Owls had a response in the form of forward Anissa Rivera, who made a free throw and the game’s first three-pointer at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter continued to be a back-and-forth battle between the two teams, as neither could gain an edge. With four minutes remaining until halftime, the Owls went on a 7-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 29-28. But the lead was temporary, as Villanova ended the half on a 6-1 run and went to the locker room leading 34-30.
Temple’s deficit was largely due to self-caused mistakes. The Owls gave the ball away 13 times in the first half which Villanova converted into 12 points. The Wildcats struggled mightily from three in the first 20 minutes, missing their first 11 attempts from beyond the arc.
Coming out of the half, Villanova finally solved its three-point woes and hit its first attempt of the second half to grow its lead to seven points. However, the Owls pushed their play into another gear from there.
”We were down four at half so we were doing okay, but I knew that we had to step up our defense to be able to turn it around,” Richardson said. “I think our defense is what really turned it around. It also gave us the momentum and it gave us the confidence to just keep pushing.”
East made a pair of layups to tie the game at 39. She was followed by guard Tarriyonna Gary making a mid-range jumper and guard Tristen Taylor hitting a three-pointer. Taylor’s deep shot put the exclamation point on a 14-2 run for Temple to take a 44-39 lead midway through the third quarter.
Villanova called a timeout to slow the Owls down and it worked perfectly. The Wildcats clapped back with a 6-0 run of their own to take the lead at 45-44. Temple once again responded and went on a 9-2 run capped off with a three from Gary to retake the lead at 53-47. The Owls shot 71% in the third quarter to open up a 55-50 lead entering the final quarter of play.
“It brings a lot of momentum just to be able to go on runs like that,” East said “We want those runs because we haven’t generally been doing that. It really brought us a lot of energy.”
The Owls’ hot shooting carried into the beginning of the fourth quarter. Guard Kaylah Turner had 17 points last game against La Salle and hit three consecutive jumpers off of turnovers to push the lead into double digits Friday. A few minutes later, East looked to put Villaova’s chances to rest.
East drilled a long three as the shot clock was expiring to extend the lead to 67-54. On Temple’s next offensive possession, East received the ball in the right corner and connected on another three to electrify the crowd and push Temple’s lead to 70-56. Temple held off Villanova the rest of the way to pick up the win. Temple had four players score in double figures, led by East with a game-high 26 points.
“[East is] a very good basketball player,” Richardson said. “We want her to be able to do the things that we know she can do. She did that today and she’s continuing to do that each and every game, whether it’s scoring or assisting or defending.”
The Owls will look to keep the momentum going when they return home to take on No. 15 West Virginia (9-1, 0-0 Big 12) on Dec. 15 at 2 p.m.
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