PHILADELPHIA, PA. 12/2/2015 – The Temple Owls men’s and women’s basketball teams played on their home courts on the same evening, and won both games. The women defeated their city rival Villanova Wildcats in a game starting at 5. After that game ended one could walk across Montgomery Avenue to the Liacouris Center where the men were ready to take on the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinson. Two games, two wins, one night of basketball. Let’s take a look at what happened.
Women’s Basketball
Temple Owls 61 Villanova Wildcats 55 – Temple bounced back after a tough loss to Saint Joseph’s on Sunday holding off Villanova at McGonigle Hall. The Owls Feyonda Fitzgerald iced the game making 7 of 8 free over the last 37.7 seconds. She finished with a game-high 23 points. Still, the Wildcats got to within one possession three times, the last with 18 seconds to play.
Temple appeared to be in control leading 40 – 20 at halftime. The Wildcats mounted a charge in the third quarter outscoring the Owls 11 – 4 to get to within 13 points. Then Nova would make it interesting down the stretch. With just under 4 minutes to play in the fourth quarter the Wildcats got a layup from Jordan Dillard that was the start of a 10 – 0 run for the Cats. A layup from Adrianna Hahn brought Villanova to within 51 – 46 at the 49 second mark, and would get as close as three points.
The Owls got off to a fast start jumping ahead of the Wildcats by a 15 – 2 margin in the first quarter. The score after one was 21 – 7 in favor of the Cherry and White. The teams went into the locker with the Owls leading 40 – 20.
The Cherry and White (3 – 3, 2 – 1 Big Five) got a double-double from Erica Coville, 10 points and 13 rebounds. Alliya Butts and Donnaizha Fountain also broke double figures with 13 and 10 points. Fountain finished one rebound shy of a double-double.
Villanova (4 – 2, 1 – 1 Big Five) had one double digit scorer as Dillard had 13 points. However, 8 of out 10 Wildcat players scored in the game. Caroline Coyer had 6 points and added 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and committed no turnovers.
The Owls travel to Florida State for their next game on Sunday. Villanova travels west to play on the Cal Classic in Berkley, CA.
Now, it was off the Liacouris Center, just in time for the opening tip.
Men’s Basketball
Temple Owls 79 Fairleigh Dickinson Knights 70 – The Owls broke open a close game in the second half en route to a nine-point win, and evened their record at 3 – 3. Temple got a team-high 22 points and 8 rebounds from Quenton DeCosey. Jaylen Bond added 18 points.
The Owls held a 36 – 34 lead at halftime. The Cherry and White opened the second half with an 11 – 5 run to get a double-digit lead within the first five minutes of the half. Temple immediately followed with the decisive 19 – 4 run to take control leading 66 – 43 with 8:23 to play. The game-deciding span was keyed by Bond and DeCosey who accounted for 13 of the 19 points.
Fairleigh Dickinson made the score close by scoring eight consecutive points in the last minute.
Josh Brown handed out 7 assists and had a career-high 4 blocked shots for the Owls. Temple had a decisive 39 – 24 edge in rebounds.
For the Knights Earl Potts, Jr. scored 29 points, a career-high. Stephan Jiggetts scored 12 points and handed out a career-mark 6 assists. Darian Anderson scored 11 points and dished 8 assists.
The Owls prepare for a game against the national runner-up Wisconsin Badgers in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday at 12:30 PM.
At the same time the Temple football team will be playing Houston for the AAC Championship starting at Noon. There should be a few watch parties on campus that day.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
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