Women’s Basketball Gets Big Numbers from All Five Starters to Hold off Saint Louis, 54-50

Sunday, February 10

Liacouras Center

2:00 PM

Temple University

11-12, 4-4A10

Saint Louis

10-13, 4-4A10

Saint Louis

Temple

Victoria Macaulay scored 16 points and blocked a career-high nine shots

Photo by: Mitchell Leff

Women’s Basketball Gets Big Numbers from All Five Starters to Hold off Saint Louis, 54-50

2.10.13 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Victoria Macaulay scored 16 points and blocked a career-high nine shots to lead Temple women's basketball to a 54-50 win against Saint Louis (10-13, 4-4) on Sunday afternoon. Macaulay had a lot of help from her teammates in a game that was close throughout, with three other players scoring 11 points apiece for the Owls (11-12, 4-4).

There were eight ties and 10 lead changes in the contest. The Owls led for the final seven minutes, but never by more than three until the final seconds. Sally Kabengano, Natasha Thames and Meghan Roxas all scored 11 points, with Thames adding a team-high nine rebounds.

Roxas got the starting nod and made it count, hitting her first three attempts from behind the arc en route to shooting 4-of-8 from the field overall. Tyonna Williams dished 10 assists and hit 3-of-4 from the line including a pair of three throws with two seconds remaining.

Macaulay's nine blocks are the most for any Temple player since the 1982-83 season, and are just two shy of tying the program record for a single game. The Owls finished with 13 team blocks, also two shy of the program record set back in 1987.

“I feel like this is probably one of the better games that we've played all year from start to finish on the offensive end and the defensive end,” said Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza. “Our guys fought and competed and stuck with the game plan, and they gave every single thing that they had. That's all you can ask for as a coach…In the last two minutes we came up with some crucial plays, where in the past maybe we let the tired get to us. I felt like today they really wanted to play for each other and they went out there and did that.”

The game was tied at 4-4 three minutes in, but a 7-0 run for the Owls gave them an 11-4 lead at 13:39 which would prove to be their largest of the game. Temple held Saint Louis scoreless for over four minutes, and still led by six at 12:31 after a layup from Macaulay made it 13-7.

Saint Louis responded with an 8-2 run that included a pair of three-pointers for Bradley in a 30-second span, and the Billikens were within a point at 13-12 with 11:44 left in the first half. The game saw its second and third ties at 14 and 16, and stayed close the rest of the half.

After a fourth tie at 21-21 with 3:40 remaining, the Billikens made back-to-back buckets for their largest lead of four, 25-21 with just less than two minutes remaining.

Macaulay would close out the half with a jumper at 1:24 and a layup at the buzzer, tying the game for a fifth time at 25-25. Thames led the Owls with nine points and six rebounds at halftime, while Bradley had 12 for Saint Louis to lead all scorers.

Two more ties came in the first two minutes of the second half before the Owls got a lead and held it for almost the first 10 minutes.

Kabengano had seven points in the first five minutes of the second half to help Temple stay in the lead, and Roxas hit her third of three attempts from behind the arc to give the Owls a 38-34 lead at 14:36. The lead was four points yet again at 11:54, 41-37, before a 5-0 run gave the Billikens their first lead of the half just before the midway point.

Five lead changes followed in the next four minutes, and neither team led by more than a point until Thames scored a layup at the six-minute mark to make it 49-46 in favor of the Owls. The three-point advantage was as big as it would get, and it was matched one more time by Macaulay at 3:14.

With 1:34 remaining, a three-second violation on Saint Louis gave the ball to the Owls, who were clinging to a 51-50 lead. While a three-pointer missed the mark, the Billikens were called for a foul under the basket, and with 48 seconds remaining, the Owls had a fresh shot clock to work with. Another miss followed, but the ball went off Saint Louis and out of bounds to once again give Temple the ball back.

The Owls had trouble getting the ball in play, calling two timeouts on the sideline with 21.4 seconds remaining. With only four team fouls to that point, the Billikens had to rack up the fouls quickly in order to send Temple to the line. Macaulay was the first to go, for a 1-and-1 at 19 seconds, but made just the front end for a 52-50 lead.

Saint Louis missed its next attempt, and also missed after a jump ball gave the Billikens another chance. They sent Williams to the line for 1-and-1 with two seconds remaining, and she hit both for the final score.

Temple's next contest is its annual School Day game, set for Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 12:00 p.m. against Rhode Island in the Liacouras Center.