The women’s basketball team has been on fire, winning eight-consecutive games and has set its sights on its upcoming Atlantic Ten Conference matchups against Saint Louis and Duquesne.
Junior guard Shey Peddy has been white hot during the current winning streak, averaging a stellar 16.2 points per game in her last six contests, as well as 4.7 steals per game during the same span.
Temple will host the Billikens at noon on Wednesday in a weekday afternoon game. If recent trends continue, the Owls should be in for another big win.
Saint Louis is currently on a big skid, losing seven of its last eight games. For the most part, the games haven’t been close, as the Billikens have lost by an average of 18.1 points in each defeat. Their most recent loss came at the hands of Charlotte, a team the Owls barely beat a few weeks ago, in a 75-38 blowout.
The Billikens’ only win came last week when they hosted Fordham in a 64-54 victory. Temple trounced Fordham on Jan. 15, 71-28.
To make things worse for Saint Louis, the Owls have been dominating every opponent since the start of January. In each of their eight straight wins, the Owls’ average margin of victory has been 23.4.
Temple will look to take care of business early in front of the home crowd and give their reserves – who saw extended action in Saturday’s win against Richmond 84-56 – more playing time. If the starters can rest heading into the final stretch of the season, opponents might not be ready for a fresh attack.
If all goes according to plan, the Owls will then focus their efforts on extending their streak to 10 games against Duquesne.
The game at Duquesne will be crucial for both teams in the A-10 and in the national rankings. Duquesne will likely enter the game 19-3 overall and 6-1 in the A-10 if it takes care of business against a beatable Massachusetts squad before Duquesne hosts the Owls.
But the game also has national rankings implications, as the two squads’ recent hot streaks have them recent Top 25 votes in the polls.
If the Owls can come away with a victory, which will be tough on the road against an equally tough team, they will only have to worry about No. 7 Xavier, which will also likely be 7-0 in the A-10 at that time.
The Dukes are led by their own dominant trio, consisting of junior guard Alex Gensler who averages 12.5 points per game, redshirt-senior forward Samantha Pollino, who averages 11.7 points per game, and freshman forward Wumi Agunbiade, who has 11 points per game. Agunbiade is also the team’s leading rebounder at 7.7 rebounds per game.
It will be up to Peddy, junior forward Kristen McCarthy and senior guard Qwedia Wallace to match the Dukes point-for-point. Peddy will also need a great defensive performance, as will the rest of the Owls, if they are to shut down Duquesne’s high-scoring attack.
After this week, it only gets tougher for the Owls as they search for an A-10 title. Temple’s last game of the season is against Xavier on Feb. 27 in what is shaping up to be the prequel to the A-10 Championship game.
-Jake Adams
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