Women's Basketball Closes out Regular Season with Three Games in Six Days

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THIS WEEK
Temple closes out the regular season with three games in a six-day span. TU travels to longtime rival No. 24 Rutgers on Wednesday, Feb. 26. Tip-off at the Rutgers Athletic Center is set for 7:30 p.m. The American Digital Network will televise the game live online with Tara Petrolino calling the action and Debbie Antonelli providing analysis.

SCOUTING TEMPLE
The Owls, under sixth-year head coach Tonya Cardoza, stand 12-14 overall and 6-9 in American Athletic Conference play after a 72-69 loss to USF on Feb. 22.

After 26 games, freshman Feyonda Fitzgerald (Norfolk, Va.) is the Owls' leading scorer with 12.4 points and 4.0 assists per game. Senior Natasha Thames (Port Huron, Mich.) follows with 10.7 ppg and a team-best 7.7 rpg. Junior Tyonna Williams (Fort Washington, Md.) adds 9.8 points and a Conference-best .895 shooting from the free throw line. Senior Shi-Heria Shipp (Salisbury, N.C.) adds 9.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg. Junior Rateska Brown (Alvin, S.C.) comes off the bench for 8.5 ppg and 2.6 rpg, while sophomore Erica Covile (Detroit, Mich.) averages 8.4 ppg and 6.0 rpg.

Temple is the only school in the American Athletic Conference to have five scorers among the Top 30 best scorers in the league.

SCOUTING RUTGERS
The No. 24 Scarlet Knights, under the guidance of 19th-year head coach C. Vivian Stringer, stand 20-6 overall and 11-4 in American play after a 73-58 loss at No. 3 Louisville on Feb. 23.

Sophomore guard Kahleah Copper is the Knights' top scorer with 16.0 ppg and 5.8 rpg. Freshman guard Tyler Scaife follows with 13.8 ppg and 3.2 rpg. Junior guard/forward Betnijah Laney adds 12.6 ppg and a team-best 9.2 rpg.

SERIES VS. SCARLET KNIGHTS
This is the just the second meeting between Temple and Rutgers as conference opponents. In series action, dating back to the 1977 season, the Scarlet Knights hold a 36-11 series edge.

On Jan. 25 at McGonigle Hall, Rutgers claimed a 74-68 win. [full boxscore on p. 48]

Temple led 24-22 at intermission. In the second half, Temple went up by five points early. Rutgers responded with a 10-2 run to take a seven-point advantage, 50-43, and never trailed again. RU pushed its lead to as many as 15 points, 63-48 with 4:55 to go. Temple never gave up. The Owls then went on a 7-0 run to cut the gap to six, 65-59, with 1:34 to go. TU came within four points, 72-68 with four seconds left after two free throws by junior Rateska Brown, but ran out of time.

Freshman Feyonda Fitzgerald led the Owls with 25 points. Freshman Taylor Robinson was the only other Owl in double figures. She finished with a career-high 18 points. Senior Natasha Thames grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Betnijah Laney paced Rutgers with a double-double of 24 points and 10 boards. Kahleah Copper added 20 points, and Rachel Hollivay had 11.

Last season at McGonigle Hall, Rutgers won its second straight game over Temple, 66-50. The Scarlet Knights were led by Erica Wheeler with 14 points and Betnijah Laney with 13, while Tyonna Williams scored a then-career-high 15 points for Temple.

Williams scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half, leading a push that had the Owls threatening but ultimately not making enough of a dent in the Scarlet Knights' lead. Rateska Brown came off the bench to score 12 points for Temple, and Sally Kabengano led all players with 10 rebounds.

In 2011, hot shooting by #11/12 Rutgers, particularly in the first half, lifted the Scarlet Knights to a 71-50 win over the Owls. For Rutgers, its 54.9 percent shooting percentage was the best since 2009, while for Temple the loss was its fifth straight at the time.

Shey Peddy scored a team-high 16 points, also leading the Owls with six rebounds and four steals. Then-freshman Tyonna Williams came off the bench and hit her first three three-point attempts en route to scoring a then-season-high 11 points.

UP NEXT
The Owls make their final road trip of the regular season with a stop at UCF on Saturday, March 1. Tip-off at CFE Arena is slated for 4 p.m.

In the regular-season finale, Temple hosts Houston on Monday, March 3 at 7 p.m. at McGonigle Hall. The Senior Class will be honored in a pregame (6:45 p.m.) ceremony.

Temple University Athletics

Women's Basketball Closes out Regular Season with Three Games in Six Days

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