Temple University Athletics
Hairston Milestone Spoiled By 86-67 Loss to Bowling Green
11.24.06 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2006
Bowling Green, Ohio- Senior Kamesha Hairston had two reasons to celebrate on Friday night. She became the 15th person in program history to score 1,000 career points. This weekend also marks the first time that the Toledo, Ohio native has played in front of a hometown crowd since graduating high school. Hairston's 22 points weren't enough, however, to stop the two-time defending Mid-American Conference champions, who rolled to an 86-67 win and extended their home winning streak to 19 games on Friday night at Anderson Arena. Fatima Maddox led Temple (2-1) with 24 points.
Kate Achter and Ali Mann led Bowling Green (4-1) with 23 points a piece to lead four Falcon players in double figures. Achter was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field to help BGSU's 61.2% shooting percentage. The 86 points were the most allowed by a Temple team since the 2002-03 season when the Owls fell 89-80 in overtime to Massachusetts on January 16, 2003.
Hairston scored five straight points to get the Owls started and give the squad an early lead but the team was jittery and quickly fell behind due to five turnovers and a three minute scoreless drought. The Falcons continued to stifle the Temple offense, taking a 33-22 lead and keeping the Owls quiet for over four and a half minutes. Maddox finally broke the scoring drought at 2:41 but BGSU had already extended its lead to as much as 18 points before taking a 42-26 advantage into the locker room. Achter was on fire, scoring 14 points, while Mann contributed 11. Temple did help itself much, however, as the Owls committed 11 first-half turnovers to the Falcons' three.
Temple knew it would have to play a near perfect game in the second stanza to give itself a chance to win. The Falcons weren't about to let that happen, however, forcing a Temple turnover and hitting the first of six second-half treys to make it 47-26 at 18:36. Hairston did all she could to chip away at the Falcons' lead but the Owls could get no closer than 13 points and suffered their first loss of the season, 86-67.
Hairston led Temple with seven rebounds, while Ashley Morris dished four assists and had three steals before fouling out with two minutes to go.
Amber Flynn finished with 12 points for BGSU and Carin Horne rounded out double-figure scoring with 10 points.
Temple continues its Ohio road trip with a game against Toledo on Sunday at 2 p.m.
