Fitzgerald Nets Her 1000th Point in Women's Basketball Loss at SMU

Tuesday, January 5

Dallas, Texas

8:00 p.m.

Temple University

8-5, 2-1

SMU

6-7, 1-1

TEMPLE

SMU

Photo by: Julia Martin

Fitzgerald Nets Her 1000th Point in Women's Basketball Loss at SMU

1.5.16 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

DALLAS -- The Temple women's basketball team shot a season-low 44.4% from the free throw line (12-27), falling 69-67 to SMU on the road on Tuesday. The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Owls, who move to 8-5 overall, 2-1 in The American. SMU improves to 6-7, 1-1 in conference play.

Despite the shooting woes from the line, SMU needed a pair of free throws with five seconds to play grab the win. The Owls led for over 26 minutes of play, with SMU taking a five-point lead with under three remaining. Temple tied the game with 18.7 seconds on the clock, but after the Mustangs made their free throws, the Owls couldn't convert on their final possession.

Temple was led by 22 points and a career-high seven steals from sophomore Alliya Butts, while junior Feyonda Fitzgerald scored 11 points with eight assists and two steals, with her fifth point of the game marking the 1,000th of her career. She is the 22nd player in program history to reach the milestone.

Senior Erica Covile notched her 11th career double-double recording 10 points and 10 rebounds, despite playing with four fouls for most of the second half. Graduate student Ugo Nwaigwe finished with season highs in points (8), rebounds (9), and blocks (5), while sophomores Donnaizha Fountain and Tanaya Atkinson each added eight points and seven rebounds in the loss.

SMU scored the first points of the game, but the Owls quickly scored 10 unanswered, including threes from Fountain and Butts, to make it a 10-2 game with 7:30 on the clock. SMU cut Temple's lead to just three (16-13), but the Owls ended the quarter with an 11-2 run, including number 1,000 for Fitzgerald, setting the score to 27-15.

Temple increased their advantage to 35-19 on a Nwaigwe bucket midway through the second quarter. But from there, SMU scored 15 unanswered points, and Temple went to the locker room with just a one-point advantage, 35-34.

At the break, six players had six or more points for the Owls, led by seven from Fountain. Butts, Atkinson, Fitzgerald, Nwaigwe, and Covile all had six, while Covile added seven first-half rebounds.

SMU briefly took over the lead early in the third quarter, but a Butts three put Temple back on top, 42-40 with under five left in the frame. From there, the lead changed hands twice more before settling at a 51-51 tie at the end of the period.

The Mustangs took a two-point lead early in the fourth quarter, before Temple battled back to make it 56-55 on a Butts three. SMU answered with a three of its own, regaining the lead with 7:20 to play. SMU stayed on top and used a 6-2 surge to take a five-point lead, 67-62 with 2:34 to play. Temple battled back using tight half-court defense, forcing four-straight steals, with Butts converting a lay-up on the fourth, knotting the game at 67-67 with 18.7 on the clock.

SMU's Gabrielle Wilkins was fouled on the Mustangs' next possession, and converted both of her free throws to give the hosts a 69-67 lead with five seconds to play. Temple had a shot to force overtime on its next possession, but couldn't convert a lay-up with SMU's bigs clogging up the paint, and the Mustangs held on for the two-point win.

Temple returns home for two games in three days, hosting Tulsa on ESPNU on Friday and Cincinnati on ESPN3 on Sunday.

Box Score (PDF)