Women's Basketball Cruises to Win Over Georgetown

Friday, November 21

Lawrence, Kan.

9:30 p.m.

Temple University

2-1

Georgetown

2-2

Georgetown

Temple

Tyonna Williams scored a season-high 21 points

Photo by: Paige Ozaroski

Women's Basketball Cruises to Win Over Georgetown

11.22.14 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- The Temple women's basketball team cruised to victory over Georgetown Friday night, opening the Naismith Hall of Fame Challenge with an 81-58 win over the Hoyas. The Owls improve to 2-1 on the season, while Georgetown evens its season mark to 2-2.

Temple got a big game from senior Tyonna Williams who battled through an eye injury to score a game-high 21 points, also adding four assists and a pair of steals. Three other Owls also netted double-digit point totals, as freshman Tanaya Atkinson poured in 15, sophomore Feyonda Fitzgerald scored 13, and junior Erica Covile added 10. Covile rounded out her night with a team-high 12 rebounds, nine of which were offensive, to complete a double-double. The Owls out-rebounded Georgetown, 51-39, with Atkinson adding eight boards, sophomore Sofiya Martin adding seven, and junior Mama Traore chipping in with six.

"This was a big game for Tyonna, she got poked in the eye yesterday and her eye is completely shut, so we weren't even sure she was going to play today," noted head coach Tonya Cardoza. "But she had a great night from the floor and definitely got us on the run. She was huge for us, she was a confidence booster for our young guys and she set the tone in the game."

Temple led from start to finish in the game, holding the Hoyas to just 33.3% shooting. The Owls again had a fast start, sprinting to a 14-5 advantage which included five points from Fitzgerald and four from Martin. Georgetown scored the next eight points to cut the Temple edge to one at 14-13 with 12:09 to play, but the Owls didn't relinquish the lead. Williams connected on three from beyond the arc to boost the Owls, who opened up their largest lead of the half at 33-21 with 4:51 until the break.

Georgetown cut the Temple lead to seven points (39-32) with 41 seconds remaining in the half, but Temple scored four straight to go into the locker room with a double-digit advantage of 43-32. Williams led all scorers with 15 at the break, while no Georgetown player had more than three points after 20 minutes of play.

"I thought right from the start we took it right to them and we didn't back down," said Cardoza. "We were on the offensive boards and that's what they're really good at. They're a pressing team and early on they couldn't even press us, so there were some really good things that happened."

Temple's lead quickly grew to 18 points, just under five minutes into the second half. The Owls got an early boost from Atkinson, who picked up five points, making it 56-38 with 15:45 remaining. Temple kept pushing, growing the advantage to 27 points on a lay-up from Taylor Robinson that made it 73-46 with 6:11 on the clock. Georgetown was able to cut the lead back down to 19 (73-54) with 4:07 left, but that's as close as it would get, with Temple closing out the 23-point win on a pair of free throws from freshman Alliya Butts, settin the final to 81-58.

Cardoza was happy with the team's performance, especially coming off a loss. "It was a huge win after having such a close game with Saint Joe's on the road," she said. "I thought our guys handled themselves well. I know after the game at Saint Joes's they were bothered by that and they wanted to make sure they came out today and proved a point."

The Owls have little rest, returning to Allen Fieldhouse to take on host Kansas at 5 p.m. tomorrow. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.

Box Score (PDF) | Post-Game Interviews