Temple University Athletics
Women's Basketball Looks For 17th Straight Big Five Win When It Hosts Saint Joseph's Wednesday
1.28.08 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2008
PHILADELPHIA-Temple women's basketball (11-10, 4-1 A-10) continues its quest for a fourth straight Big Five title when it hosts Saint Joseph's (10-9, 2-2 A-10) on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The Owls, currently on a four-game winning streak, are 2-0 in city series play after defeating Penn and Villanova earlier in the season, while the Hawks are 1-1. The game can also be heard live on WPHT The Big Talker 1210 AM.
Series Record
This is the 64th meeting between the Temple Owls and the Saint Joseph's Hawks. Saint Joe's leads the series, 39-24, which began in the 1938 season. The teams last met on January 28, 2007, when Temple defeated the Hawks, 78-71, in overtime.
Leading by just two points early in the second half, the Temple women's basketball team used a 17-0 run to break the game wide open and earn a 48-34win over the Rhode Island Rams on Sunday. Lady Comfort was a monster on the boards, grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds to give the Owls their fourth straight win. Ashley Morris was TU's top scorer with nine points and five assists, while Shenita Landry and LaKeisha Eaddy each contributed eight points. The Owls had a 44-26 advantage on the boards and had 12 steals as opposed to URI's six.
Morris leads Temple in scoring and assists, averaging 14.2 ppg and dishing 79 assists. Comfort is averaging 8.5 ppg and a team-high 8.0 rpg. Eaddy has a team-high 33 steals, while Landry is contributing a solid 21 block, 19 steal performance.
Trailing Dayton for a majority of the game, Saint Joseph's had a chance to win the game in its final possession. Unfortunately for the Hawks, a three-pointer by Timisha Gomez hit the rim, but failed to fall through as the Flyers came away with a 56-54 win Saturday. Down 52-43 with 6:47 to go, Saint Joseph's slowly chipped away at Dayton's lead. The Hawks cut the deficit to 54-50 with 2:43 to play as Amy Gillespie collected two of her team-high 15 points from the line. Gomez added 12 points and six rebounds. Alexis Johnson added a career-best 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting to go with four rebounds and a steal off the bench.
Sarah Acker leads two Hawks in double figures with 11.9 ppg, and a team-high 7.9 rpg. Gomez is second with 11.5 ppg, while Mary Kate McDade has dished a team-high 74 assists thus far this season. Amy Wold is not far behind with 64 assists and a team-leading 23 steals.
GIMMIE Five...A Big Five
Temple has won the last three Philadelphia Big Five titles and four of the last six. The Owls have gone a perfect 4-0 through the city series for three straight seasons and have won a record-setting 16 consecutive Big Five games.
We Built This City
After topping Villanova and Penn, the Owls are on their way to capturing their fourth straight Big Five title. Since round robin play began in the 1979-80 season, no team has won four straight titles. If that occurs, seniors Ashley Morris, Lady Comfort, Nicole Pittman and Candice Borrows with become the first players to win all of their Big Five games.
