Women's Basketball Earns Program Win No. 800 with Victory Over Tulane

Tuesday, February 23

McGonigle Hall

7:00 p.m.

Temple University

18-9, 12-4AAC

Tulane

18-10, 10-6AAC

Tulane

TEMPLE

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Women's Basketball Earns Program Win No. 800 with Victory Over Tulane

2.23.16 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA -- A second-half surge propelled the Temple women's basketball team to program win number 800, as the Owls topped conference-rival Tulane, 72-67, on Tuesday night at McGonigle Hall. Temple won the battle between the third and fourth-ranked teams in The American, moving to 18-9 overall, 12-4 in conference play. Tulane dips to 19-9, 10-6 against American opponents.

The Owls, who donned pink uniforms in honor of the Play4Kay breast cancer initiative, trailed by as many as 10 in the first quarter, and faced a 33-27 deficit at the half. In the third, Temple out-scored Tulane 24-18, knotting the game at 51-51. Hot shooting from beyond-the-arc gave Temple a boost early in the fourth quarter, as the Owls went up by nine at one point. Temple then held off a late Tulane surge to seal the win.

Sophomore Alliya Butts led all players with 22 points, while junior Feyonda Fitzgerald had 13 points and nine assists. Sophomore Khadijah Berger had a season-high 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting, while senior Erica Covile rounded out the double-digit scoring with 12 points.

Temple held a 39-36 rebounding edge over a taller Tulane team, and also out-shot the Green Wave by a slim margin, 39.6% to 38.7%. Sophomore Tanaya Atkinson led all players with 12 rebounds, while classmate Donnaizha Fountain added eight boards, in addition to seven points and two steals.

Temple fell behind early, as Tulane quickly built a 15-5 lead in the first quarter. The Owls offense rebounded to cut into the lead before ending the frame on a 7-1 run to make it 20-15.

Tulane went up 24-17 early in the second half before an 8-2 Temple surge cut the deficit to 26-25 on a Berger three. Tulane countered with seven unanswered, all from Morgan, taking their advantage back to 33-25. Temple was then able to close the quarter with an Atkinson drive to make it 33-27 at the break.

At the half, Butts led the Owls with 11 points, while Berger had six points and Atkinson had six rebounds. Tulane's Morgan had 14 first-half points to lead all players.

A 10-3 Temple run to start the third quarter gave the Owls their first lead of the game at 37-36 with 6:13 on the clock. From there, the frame featured five more lead changes before settling on a 51-51 tie at the end of three.

Temple's Fountain and Berger hit threes on back-to-back Owl possessions to open up the fourth quarter, giving the hosts the lead for good. Tulane cut the deficit to 57-56 before an 11-3 surge saw the Owls go up by nine, 68-59, with 2:29 to play.

From there, an 8-2 Tulane run, including threes from Morgan and Leslie Vorpahl sliced the Owls advantage to just three with 25 seconds on the clock. Temple then got a pair of free throws from Covile to go up 72-67 where it would stay, as time expired before Tulane was able to find the basket again.

Morgan tied Butts for game-high honors with 22 points, while center Chinwe Duru had 18 points for the Green Wave. Courtnie Latham finished with eight points and eight assists in the loss, while Taylor Emery had nine boards to lead Tulane.

Since 1923, the Temple women's basketball program has recorded an all-time mark of 800-654 for a .550 winning percentage.

The Owls are back in action on the road on Saturday at USF. Temple is just one game back of the Bulls for second place in The American and would hold the tie-breaker with a victory on Saturday.

Box Score (PDF) | Video Highlights | Post-Game Press Conference