The Owls Made 24% Of Their Shots in a 59 – 41 Loss to the Tigers
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 11/23/2021 –
When playing against a team like the Princeton Tigers the need is to get the ball in the basket. If your shots don’t fall, the advantage goes to the Tigers. Temple got off to a cold start, falling behind early. It was too steep of a hill to climb and the Owls lose 59 – 41 at McGonigle Hall. Temple connected on 15 of 62 attempts and hit only 3 of 20 from outside the arc.
“Princeton is a tough team to play against,” said Temple Coach Tonya Cardoza. “We’ve got to find a way to put the ball in the hole. When you hold a team to 59, you have to find a way to score. If you can’t score you have to stop them from scoring.”
And that was a difficult task for the Cherry and White as the Tigers connected early and late to withstand an Owls push, and pull away at the end. Let’s look at the offense for the Owls. They missed their first 12 shots and five of them were from three-point land. The Owls got 4 first quarter points and fell behind 17 – 4.
“We were taking ill advised shots, not good shots in our offense,” Cardoza said. “The offense broke down because we were holding the ball too long.”
And Princeton defended the paint against the Owls forward duo of Mia Davis and Alexa Williamson. Davis eventually scored a team-high 11 points.
“We took our chances with some of their guards and their outside shooting,” said Princeton Coach Carla Berube. “Our team was dialed in and knew how we wanted to defend.”
It got better for Temple in the second quarter. Then in the third the visitors began to have difficulty finding the range hitting on just 2 of 12 from the floor. The Owls put together a 9 – 0 run at the beginning of the second half keyed by guard Jalynn Holmes who scored 7 of her 9 points in those ten minutes.
“The run opened it up for me a little to get shots and better shot opportunities,” said Holmes.
The Owls climbed to within two points at 27 – 25 with 5:22 remaining in the quarter. The Princeton offense in that ten minutes came at the foul line.
“We were in tune with that we were trying to accomplish in that third quarter,” Cardoza said. “We started getting stops and were actually scoring and gave ourselves a great chance of getting back into the game.”
Temple trailed 38 – 31 going into the final quarter. Then Princeton guard Abby Meyers, who was held scoreless for three quarters, found the range. She made three from distance in the fourth quarter as the Tigers pulled away. Princeton made 8 of 14 from the floor, Temple 4 of 15.
“Abby Meyers came out in that fourth quarter and gave us the lift that we needed,” Berube said.
The rebounding also aided the Tigers who won the boards 49 – 34 and Meyers hauled down 10 rebounds to go along with her 11 points.
“They literally did not allow us to get an offensive rebound,” Cardoza said. “They were in the paint not allowing it. They outrebounded us by 15 and we missed the shots and not allowing ourselves second chance points.”
Julia Cunningham paced Princeton (4 – 1) with 12 points and took down 7 rebounds.
Temple falls to 2 – 3 and take to the floor on Saturday at Villanova. The two teams shared the Big Five title in 2019.
Written By: Glenn Papazian
Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com
Be the first to comment