Women's Basketball Faces Florida on Saturday

PHILADELPHIA -- The Temple women's basketball team hits the friendly skies for its first true road trip of the season, heading south to take on the University of Florida on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in Ocala, Fla.

ESPN PICK-UP
Saturday's game between the rv/rv Owls and the #19/23 Gators will be broadcast nationally by ESPN3.

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SCOUTING THE OWLS
The Owls returned four double-digit scorers from last year's 23-12 team that advanced to the WNIT Quarterfinals. Leading the way is junior Alliya Butts, a returning first team All-American Athletic Conference and All-Big 5 player, as well as the only unanimous first team pre-season All-Conference selection in The American. Butts averaged 15.1 points per game last season, while leading the Owls in steals and threes. She is joined by senior Feyonda Fitzgerald, who was Temple's top play-maker last season (5.31 assists/game), while averaging 13.6 points per contest.

Juniors Tanaya Atkinson (13.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg) and Donnaizha Fountain (10.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg) also return for the Owls as top guards from a year ago. Temple will also rely on seniors Safiya Martin (1.1 ppg, 1.9 rpg) and Ruth Sherrill (1.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg) to provide veteran experience this season.

LAST TIME OUT
Temple played its first home game of the 2016-17 season against fellow Big 5 team La Salle on Monday night. The Owls topped the Explorers, 86-70, shooting 45.9% from the field.

Feyonda Fitzgerald led the team in scoring (27), rebounds (9) and assists (9), for the third time in her career, also shooting 100% (3-3) from beyond the arc. Tanaya Atkinson finished her night with 20 points, while Alliya Butts contributed 17 points, including the 1,000th of her career. Elsewhere, Khadijah Berger tallied nine points and a career-best six assists.

SCOUTING FLORIDA
Florida returned four starters from their 22-9 squad last season, including Ronni Williams and Eleanna Christinaki who were named to the preseason All-SEC Team. Williams (11.1 ppg) and Christinaki (10.4 ppg) are the top scorers returning from last year's Gator team that was the highest-scoring squad (77.4 ppg) in the SEC.

Florida, who tied with Kentucky last year for fourth in the final regular-season SEC standings, was picked by the league's coaches to finish fourth again.

LAST TIME OUT
Florida knocked off Southern Conference favorite Chattanooga 72-61 in Tennessee on Monday night. The Gators closed the game on a 9-0 run that included a big three from Dyandria Anderson and four points from Hayley Lorenzen, to earn the 72-61 road victory.

Eleanna Christinaki led the team with a career high of 29 points, clocking a total of 36 minutes in the battle against the Mocs. Lorenzen and Ronni Williams also finished with double digits, tallying 16 and 10 points respectively.

TEMPLE VS. THE GATORS
Florida leads the all-time series against Temple, 5-2. Since the first meeting in 2003, the Owls have two wins over the Gators -- one in 2003 at Florida and the other last season at the Liacouras Center.

LAST TIME THEY MET: 11/13/15 - Temple 97, Florida 91
Backed by four double-digit scorers, Temple posted a 97-91 win at home over Florida in the season opener. Fitzgerald led the squad with a career-best 32 points and four assists. Atkinson and Butts both put up 20 points each for the Owls, while senior Erica Covile rounded out the scoring with 11 points and Fountain chipped in with nine rebounds.

For Florida, two players finished with double-digit scoring totals, led by Cassie Peoples with 18 points and eight assists. Simone Westbrook contributed with 14 points while Lorenzen brought down seven rebounds.

1,000-POINTS
After Temple's 86-70 win against La Salle, the team now boasts two 1,000-point scorers on the roster. Junior Alliya Butts hit the milestone against the Explorers and became the 24th player in program history to do so. Butts was also the third-fastest in program history to reach 1,000-points, behind only Kelly Lane and Marilyn Stephens.

The Owls' other 1,000-point scorer on the roster is senior Feyonda Fitzgerald, who reached the milestone last season. Fitzgerald and Butts could also be joined in the 1,000-point club by junior Tanaya Atkinson, who to-date has amassed 891 career points.

NATIONALLY-RANKED OPPONENTS
Temple, which is receiving votes in both national polls, will play its first nationally-ranked opponent of the season, #19/23 Florida. Last year, the Owls finished 1-5 against nationally ranked teams, with the only win coming on February 6 in a 68-66 victory against #19/17 USF. Prior to Temple's win over USF, it had been seven years since the Owls had upset a team in the national polls.

The last time that a Temple team was nationally ranked was the 2005-06 season when the Owls closed out the year ranked No. 19 (AP) and No. 23 (USA Today) in the final poll. Temple's highest ever national ranking came during 2004-05 season when the Owls reached No. 15 on both polls.

Game Notes (PDF)

Women's Basketball Faces Florida on Saturday

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Players Mentioned

Tanaya Atkinson

Khadijah Berger

Alliya Butts

Erica Covile

Feyonda Fitzgerald

Donnaizha Fountain

Safiya Martin

Ruth Sherrill

Temple University Athletics