Temple University women’s basketball (3-2, 0-1 The American Athletic Conference) was only able to score 54 points Sunday afternoon against Connecticut (3-0, 1-0 The AAC).
Both teams’ offenses came out firing in the first quarter. The Huskies hit two wide open three-pointers in the first minute of play. Junior forward Mia Davis weathered the storm, hitting two threes for the Owls and scoring 10 points in the first quarter.
The rest of the Owls helped Davis go shot-for-shot with the Huskies. They shot 52.9 percent but were overpowered by the Huskies who shot 70.6 percent, enough to go up 11 after the first quarter.
“I didn’t like the way we started, looked a little sluggish,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “But we found a way to get ourselves back into the game.”
The Owls started to struggle on offense in the second quarter. Their only points in the frame came on corner threes from freshman guard Asonah Alexander.
Eight of the Owls’ 15 shots in the quarter landed inside the arc where Huskies sophomore forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa made her presence known.
The Owls shot just 17.6 percent from the field during the second quarter. Temple was down 46-30 at halftime.
The Owls’ scoring production relied on whether their shots from outside were falling. On the other hand, UConn’s scoring came from all over the court—a reason Cardoza cited for the Huskies 10 more free throw attempts than the Owls.
The third quarter was better for the Owls but still not enough for them to redeem themselves. The lowest they were able to cut the lead was 10 when Davis and redshirt sophomore point guard Ashley Jones provided a flurry of scores.
Davis had eight in the quarter, including a mid-range jumper with one minute and 30 seconds left in the quarter which marked her 1000th point as an Owl.
The Huskies completely overshadowed the Owls in the fourth quarter, holding them to just nine points in the frame.
While this game’s offensive production might be more of an outlier, a sluggish offense has been negatively impacting the Owls on the defensive end—something Cardoza has been trying to improve all season.
“We get off on we’re making shots and when we’re not making shots, we relax on the other end,” Cardoza said. “And that has to change.”
The Owls will travel to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on Wednesday to take on Bucknell University (2-2).
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