Women's Basketball Falls Just Short Against VCU, Losing 53-51 In A-10 Home Opener

Wednesday, January 16

Liacouras Center

7:00 PM

Temple University

7-9, 1-1 A-10

VCU

8-9, 1-1 A-10

VCU

Temple

Pregame ceremony: Tonya Cardoza receiving a commemorative ball from Athletics Director Bill Bradshaw, marking her 100th career win.

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Women's Basketball Falls Just Short Against VCU, Losing 53-51 In A-10 Home Opener

1.16.13 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Unable to overcome a long cold spell in the second half, Temple women's basketball fell just short in a 53-51 loss to VCU (8-9, 1-1) in its Atlantic 10 home opener on Wednesday night in the Liacouras Center. Rateska Brown shouldered the load for the Owls (7-9, 1-1) with a career-high 22 points including a career-high six three-pointers.

After an eight-minute scoreless drought down the stretch of the second half, during which VCU went on a 10-0 run, Temple still had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds but couldn't get a shot to fall.

Erica Covile pulled down a career-high 12 boards to lead all players. Brown added a career-high six steals along with four assists to her impressive numbers. Victoria Macaulay finished with eight points and eight rebounds, and Tyonna Williams tied for game-high honors with five assists.

Robyn Parks led VCU with 14 points, while Adaeze Alaeze notched a double-double for the Rams with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“This is a tough one to swallow,” said head coach Tonya Cardoza. “I felt like right from the start that we were trying to play catch-up, and we didn't really get a lot of production from a lot of guys. We obviously allowed them to get almost anything they wanted, and I feel like they beat us off the dribble a lot and got offensive rebounds. We got some too, but we weren't scoring off of them. It all comes down to there's a game to be won and we had opportunities, and we didn't take advantage of them.”

Temple had trouble finding the bucket early on, missing its first 10 attempts from the field before Brown ended the drought with her first three-pointer at 16:36. VCU was unable to take advantage of the Owls' struggles, going up only 4-0 in that stretch.

The four-point lead would prove to be the largest for either team until the final five minutes of the first half. Temple's three-point shooting kept the Owls close, as they hit four of their first 10 attempts from behind the arc even while struggling inside, going 3-of-16 to start.

After the second tie of the game, 21-21 on a jumper from Macaulay, the Rams used a 13-2 run for an eight-point, 29-21 lead. The Owls were scoreless for over three minutes, until Brown ended VCU's run by hitting her third trey of the game with 2:15 left in the first half.

Brown hit one more jumper in the final minutes, finishing the half with 13 to lead all players, but the Rams took a 31-26 lead into the break.

With a steal and another three-point bucket on Temple's first possession, Brown started things off well for Temple in the second half. Two minutes later the Owls tied the score at 31-31, but things began to go downhill after that.

VCU used an 8-2 run to take a 39-33 lead after six minutes of action. Brown once again ended the run with a three-pointer, her fifth of the game, and a layup from Jacquilyn Jackson got the Owls to within a point, 39-38 at 12:59.

The bucket by Jackson would be Temple's last for eight minutes, until a layup from Natasha Thames broke a 10-0 run for the Rams. Williams followed with a layup, narrowing VCU's lead to 49-42 with just under four minutes remaining. Meghan Roxas made it a 6-0 run for the Owls, getting Temple to within five points at the three-minute mark.

The Rams halted Temple's run with a layup by Parks, but Brown came up with two steals in the next minute, leading to two buckets for the Owls. Down 51-48 with 27.5 seconds remaining, Temple was forced to foul.

After VCU hit 2-of-2 at the line, Brown came up with her biggest trey of the game on Temple's next possession, putting the Owls within two, 53-51 with 19 seconds remaining. The Rams missed the front end of a one-and-one after Temple committed a foul, leaving the Owls with 17 seconds to tie or win.

Temple got two shots off in the final seconds, but came up short. The Owls finished with their lowest field-goal percentage of the season, 28.6 percent, but hit 8-of-25 (32 percent) from behind the arc.

The Owls will travel to Duquesne for their next contest, set for 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 20.