Four Players Score in Double Figures as Women’s Basketball Cruises Past Western Michigan, 68-41

Monday, January 7

Liacouras Center

7:00 PM

Temple University

6-8

Western Michigan

4-9

Western Michigan

Temple

Victoria Macaulay celebrating a big win for the Owls. She led all players with 22 points.

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Four Players Score in Double Figures as Women’s Basketball Cruises Past Western Michigan, 68-41

1.7.13 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

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PHILADELPHIA – Dominating in the paint from start to finish, Temple women's basketball snapped its losing streak in convincing fashion with a 68-41 win over Western Michigan (4-9). Victoria Macaulay's 22 points led four Owls who scored in double figures, along with Tyonna Williams who notched a double-double with 13 points and a career-high 12 assists.

Temple (6-8) outscored the Broncos 42-8 in the paint, and at one point in the second half the Owls were outscoring Western Michigan 24-5.

Rateska Brown and Erica Covile scored 13 points apiece, with each also pulling down nine rebounds. Natasha Thames led all players with 12 rebounds. Macaulay hit 11-of-19 from the field en route to her game-high 22 points, while also blocking three shots.

Making Williams' 12-assist effort even more impressive was her zero turnovers. As a team, Temple committed a season-low 12 turnovers.

Courtney Haley led WMU with 10 points off the bench, while Marquisha Harris scored nine off the bench.

“I'm a very happy person right now,” said Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza. “We got the monkey off our back. We really needed this win for our confidence and sanity. We were down a few players tonight but you wouldn't have known it, because all seven guys we had played with lot of energy and hustle and did a lot of really good things out there…I thought in the second half the way we came out and shut them down defensively was really key for us.”

The Owls trailed in the early going, but a three-pointer from Williams at 13:16 put Temple ahead 12-10 and it was a lead the Owls would not relinquish. Over a five-minute stretch starting with the trey by Williams, Temple used a 14-4 run to take a nine-point, 23-14 lead at 8:03.

The Owls lead extended to as many as 14 points in the final two minutes of the first half, when Macaulay reached double digits with a layup at 1:31 for a 35-21 advantage. The Broncos closed the half with two baskets including one from behind the arc to cut the deficit to nine, 35-26 at the break.

Williams and Brown each scored eight first-half points, and as a team the Owls shot 43 percent from the field while holding Western Michigan to 28.6 percent shooting. Temple also committed just six turnovers while scoring 14 points off 10 Bronco turnovers.

Three different players scored in a 7-0 run to open the second half, giving Temple its largest lead of 16, 42-26, near the 17-minute mark.

After two field goals by the Broncos, the second of which was scored at 15:51, the Owls exploded on a 17-0 run. They held WMU scoreless for eight minutes and increased their lead to 28 points, 59-31 just past the midway point of the second half. Macaulay scored four layups over six possessions during the run, bringing her total to 20 points.

Just under the five-minute mark, Covile made a layup for the Owls' first 30-point lead, and they led by as many as 32 in the final minutes.

Temple finished with a 47-36 edge on the glass, and recorded a season-high 22 assists to go with its season-low 12 turnovers.

The Owls' next game marks the start of Atlantic 10 play, as Temple heads to St. Bonaventure for a 1:00 p.m. contest on Sunday, Jan. 13.