PHILADELPHIA, PA 12/22/2013 – The Villanova Wildcats appeared to be in control late in the game taking a five-point lead with under a minute to play. The Temple Owls responded with scoring six points in just over twenty seconds to take a 58 – 57 lead. Villanova got a jump shot by junior forward Taylor Holeman to get a 59 – 58 win at McGonigle Hall. The Wildcats got a career-high 19 points from sophomore guard Caroline Coyer, 14 in the second half to lead her team in scoring.
“They (Temple) started making shots, so we had to step up,” said Coyer. “Each game it is a different person for us. It happened to be my turn. We needed a bit of a run.”
The first half of the game was even in score at 18 – 18 and statistically. In the second half Temple broke out to a 30 – 23 lead at the 16 minute mark behind 7 straight points by freshman guard Feyonda Fitzgerald who led the game in scoring with 23 points. Villanova answered by turning up the defense, creating turnovers and made shots. An 18 – 4 run gave the Wildcats a 41 – 34 lead with 10 and a half minutes to play. Caroline Coyer scored 10 points in that stretch. Sister Katherine Coyer scored 2 points that gave the lead back to Villanova at 33 – 32.
The Owls were also missing shots and turning the ball over during the critical stretch. In the Villanova run Temple had 4 turnovers. Temple Coach Tonya Cardoza felt the Villanova run was due to her team’s mistakes.
“We had some really bad turnovers there,” said Cardoza. “We were up 7 and had two really bad turnovers that were just a
layup for them. We also started putting them on the free throw line.”
Temple fought back to tie the game at 49 with just over six minutes to play outscoring Villanova 15 – 8. The Wildcats took the lead back getting the advantage up to 57 – 52 on a basket by Holeman with 51.5 seconds on the clock. The Owls did not go away as Fitzgerald scored 4 straight, then a basket by junior guard Tyonna Williams gave the lead back to Temple at 58 – 57. Holeman hit the game winner, with 8.5 seconds remaining. Temple turned the ball over for the 16th time in the game to take away their last good attempt to win the game.
In the game Villanova scored 41 second half points and made 14 of 25 field goal attempts (56%), and made 3 of 5 from beyond the arc compared to making 8 of 28 in the first half (28.6%).
“The difference in the game was because Caroline (Coyer) started making shots in the second half,” said Villanova Coach Harry Perretta. “In the first half and the beginning of the second half we missed a ton of shots. We started making them, then almost gave the game away because we stopped playing defense.”
“You can’t give up 41 points in a half to a team like Villanova,” Cardoza said.
Villanova had a 17 – 6 edge on Temple in points off turnovers. The game had 9 ties and the lead changed 12 times. Holeman was the only other Villanova player in double figures with 10 points. Sophomore guard Erica Coville scored a career-high 16 points for Temple who are 6 – 4 on the season, and are 1 – 2 in the Big Five. Villanova is 9 – 1 with a 2 – 1 Big Five record.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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