The Owls outscored Tulane by 18 points in the third quarter of Sunday’s game and held the Green Wave to just three points.
On top of a successful defensive quarter, junior guard Alliya Butts scored 12 points in the third quarter alone.
Several Owls caught the hot hand, with junior guards Donnaizha Fountain and Tanaya Atkinson scoring a season-high 26 and 20 points, respectively. Atkinson also pulled in 10 rebounds to record a double-double.
Three Owls finished with 20 or more points in Temple’s (17-5, 7-2 American Athletic Conference) 76-50 victory against Tulane in New Orleans. Tulane is in fourth place in The American, one spot behind Temple. Connecticut and South Florida hold the top two spots.
“We needed a bounce-back game,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “This was a great one against a really good team.”
In the first quarter, Fountain and Atkinson scored all of Temple’s 25 points, but Tulane led the Owls by one point. Temple outscored the Green Wave 40-10 in the next two quarters.
“I thought we played great defense today,” Cardoza said. “I mean, when you have a quarter where you hold them to three points, it’s good.”
Temple kept Tulane to single digits in the second and third quarters. The Owls finished the night with 10 steals, with Fountain grabbing a season-high seven.
Temple shot 45.2 percent from the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Butts hit five 3-pointers, just one shy of tying a season-high. Meanwhile, the Owls held Tulane to 25.4 percent shooting and just 17.4 percent from behind the 3-point line.
Tulane’s defense held Temple’s leading scorer, senior guard Feyonda Fitzgerald, to zero points. Fitzgerald found other ways to contribute other than scoring, as she recorded five assists and three rebounds.
The Owls’ depth allowed them to win without the help of Fitzgerald’s 16.6 points per game. Instead, they found the players that were scoring and fed the ball to whoever had the hot hand at the time.
“We’re good and recognizing those things and we have so many guys that score for our team,” Cardoza said. “That’s what makes us so good because we have other guys that can score the basketball.”
Maura Razanauskas can be reached at maura.razanauskas@temple.edu or on Twitter @CaptainAMAURAca. Follow The Temple News at @TheTempleNews and @TTN_Sports.
Be the first to comment