TTN: Owls blow chance in A-10 semis

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/03/19/owls-blow-chance-in-a-10-semis-2/

(March 19, 2012)
(In print: March 13, 2012)


Women’s basketball lose in A-10’s to Dayton.

The final 10 seconds of the women’s basketball team’s loss in the Atlantic Ten Conference tournament semifinals to eventually champion Dayton could have been the season’s defining moment.

Instead, with 10 seconds left, junior center Victoria Macaulay – looking to cap off her resurgent season – got the ball, ducked under the basket, under a defender and put up a layup that bounced off the rim and out. And the Owls were left empty handed and heavy hearted in a 66-63 loss.

“As a team we really wanted to be the first for coach [Tonya Cardoza] to get the A-10 Championship, and just for us, just to say that all that we’ve been through this season it paid off at the end,” senior guard Shey Peddy said. “So to end like this, it hurts a lot.”

Temple got burnt in the post by Dayton. A-10 first team selection senior forward Justine Raterman led the way for the Flyers with 16 points and eight rebounds. Dayton’s frontcourt accounted for 46 points and 26 rebounds, more than half the team’s totals.

“We got rattled, and on the defensive end we weren’t playing smart basketball,” Cardoza said.

Macaulay, who emerged as the Owls’ most dominant post player during conference play, continued her strong season with 12 points and seven rebounds.

Junior forward Brittany Lewis came through off the bench with a career game, recording a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds, both career highs.

Peddy gave it her all. But one day removed from breaking her nose against Duquesne and scoring 20 of her 30 points in the final nine minutes, Dayton found a way to limit her. She put up 10 points, six assists and three rebounds in another physical matchup.

“I don’t think any one person in our league can stop [Peddy],” Dayton coach Jim Jabar said. “It wasn’t going to be a one-on-one deal with her because she’s just too good.”

“I feel like I picked the worst day to have the worst game of my life,” Peddy said. “They did a good job of containing me, making sure I had no open shots.”

The senior guards did their job, though, keeping the game within reach. Kristen McCarthy, BJ Williams and Peddy combined for 32 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists and nine steals.

The problem for the Owls was senior center Joelle Connelly, who grabbed two rebounds, blocked three shots, but didn’t score.

Temple started Macaulay and Connelly at center and forward, respectively, and the duo played 12 minutes, 21 seconds together during the game. During that span Temple and Dayton tied 22-22, with the Owls allowing just 28.6 percent shooting.

Cardoza sat Connelly five minutes into the game for Lewis, as she rotated the three post players throughout the game. Macaulay and Lewis manned the front court for 20 minutes, five seconds, during the game, as the Owls’ shooting percentage jumped three percentage points to 40.5 percent. With them on the floor, Temple scored 1.84 points per minute, and allowed 1.64.

“Macaulay’s a force, and I think she blocked a couple of shots, and a great athlete,” Jabar said.

But the wheels fell off whenever Connelly replaced Macaulay at center. In the seven minutes, 34 seconds the Owls didn’t have Macaulay, they managed an abysmal 11.8 percent shooting while allowing 44.4 percent to the Flyers. The points per minute flipped dramatically as well, with Temple posting .53 per minute to Dayton’s 1.98.

In the second half, the Owls were outscored 6-13 with Connelly on the floor. With Connelly on the bench Temple put up 28 to Dayton’s 21. And when Macaulay subbed in for Connelly for the last time with six minutes, 57 seconds remaining the Owls made a 14-9 run that ended with one rimmed-out layup.

“Even playing horrible basketball, we still gave ourselves a shot to win at the end,” Cardoza said.

If Macaulay would have sat the entire 40 minutes, Dayton would have won handily, 79-21. But Cardoza didn’t want to call out anyone after the game, including Connelly.

“I don’t think it was because it was [Connelly],” Cardoza said.

“I think all five guys that were on the floor weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing,” she added. “There might have been four guys, three guys, that were probably doing what they were supposed to be doing but there was always someone that wasn’t paying attention and it hurt us.”

True, maybe the rest of the team slacked off. But Dayton’s defense was noticeably more effective with Connelly on the floor. In the limited time Macaulay wasn’t playing Temple was outscored 4-15. Open shots were at a premium.

Dayton knew they could focus on the perimeter with Connelly on the court because she didn’t have the athleticism in the paint to guard whoever came into the paint or the ability to score the way Macaulay can.

“They take on the personality of their head coach, and she’s tough, and they don’t quit,” Jabar said.

Temple has shown they’re more dynamic with Macaulay on the floor. If they want any chance going deep in the NIT tournament, versatility is their best hope. Connelly doesn’t provide that, unfortunately. Quick players blow by her. Big post players overpower her.

Cardoza needs to find a way to maximize what she’s getting from Connelly and keep Temple in games. Macaulay needs to be on the floor as much as possible, even if that means playing 40 minutes.

But, hey, it’s March Madness. Anything can happen.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Owls take care of Harvard, advance to WNIT Sweet 16

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/03/18/owls-take-care-of-harvard-in-wnit/

(March 18, 2012)

Senior guard Shey Peddy once again kept the women’s basketball team afloat in the Owls’ 64-59 victory over Harvard in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament second round.

Temple blew an 11-point first-half lead and at one point trailed the Crimson by four with just over five minutes remaining. But an 8-1 Owls run gave the lead back to the home team. Peddy sealed the deal in the final minute with four free throws to keep Harvard out of striking distance.

“Harvard is a great team,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “They play really, really hard. Watching them on film it made me nervous, because they play a lot like Villanova.”

“On offense, they work themselves around, they run all over the place just like Villanova, and they don’t stop moving,” Cardoza added.

Peddy led the way once again with 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including four treys. She also snagged five rebounds and had two steals. But 18 of her points came in the first half.

“In the first half I was making all of my shots, and in the second half I wasn’t and I think I was just rushing my shots and being anxious,” Peddy said.

But the 18 points was enough to give the Owls a lead at home heading into the break, 39-29. The Crimson came back strong, though, going on a 7-0 run to narrow the deficit to three, 39-36. With ten minutes remaining they took their first lead, 48-49, and eventually pushed it to five.

“All of their guys are capable of knocking down threes, so that’s what they look to do,” Cardoza said. “They were playing to their strengths: dribble-penetrate and kick.”

“We just got lucky down the stretch that we came up with some key rebounds and really fought in the last two minutes to win the game,” she added.

Junior forward Victoria Macaulay finished strong after a slow first half, knocking down 10 points to go along with seven rebounds. Junior forward Brittany Lewis had another strong game as well, with eight points and 13 rebounds, one basket away from her third straight double-double.

The Owls are currently without senior center Joelle Connelly, who Cardoza said has to work on her classwork.

“It’s pretty tiring, but you’ve got to hang in there,” Macaulay said. “All three of us—me, [Lewis and sophomore forward Nikki Works]—we all try to work together if somebody needs a breather.”

The Owls await the result of the Syracuse vs. Drexel game on Monday night. The Owls will travel to which team wins and will play sometime between March 21-23, depending on the WNIT’s scheduling decision.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Peddy leads women’s basketball to win in first round of WNIT

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/03/16/peddy-leads-womens-basketball-to-win-in-first-round-of-wnit/

(March 16, 2012)

Senior guard Shey Peddy set yet another milestone in Temple’s opening round matchup against Quinnipiac in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

The Atlantic-Ten Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year knocked down 21 points in the Owls’ 75-60 victory over Quinnipiac, giving her 1,001 points in just two seasons on North Broad.

“For her to be able to do that in two years is a credit to her and her teammates,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “And she’s played with [senior guard BJ Williams] the last two years and [Williams] should be credited for her thousand points as well because [Williams’] always going to find her.”

Williams, dished out six assists on the night, including two to Peddy. Williams now sits at 357 career assists, needing just two to move into fifth-place in school history. She’s also tied for fourth in single-season assists with 147.

Peddy, wasn’t nearly as excited about the accomplishment, simply looking forward to winning a WNIT championship.

“I’m happy,” she said. “I don’t know what to say. I mean, it’s a good accomplishment, but like coach said, we’re just trying to get a championship.”

Peddy was also nursing a broken nose, which she suffered in the A-10 quarterfinals win over Duquesne. She wore a facemask throughout the game.

“It’s a little irritating, but it’s something that I have to get used to and adjust to,” Peddy said. “By Saturday I’ll be fine.”

Cardoza also took the chance to continue the friendly rivalry she has with her star guard, as both hail from the same hometown.

“That’s an amazing accomplishment for anyone to score a thousand in two years,” Cardoza said with a smile. “I don’t think I did that, so that’s one step.”

The Owls were all smiles after the convincing first-round win over the Bobcats. After trailing 16-13 in the first half Temple went on a 14-0 run and never looked back. At one point they had a 27-point lead.

Peddy lead the way with 21 points, but she wasn’t alone in the effort. Junior center Victoria Macaulay converted seven of eight for 17 points, and grabbed eight rebounds. Senior guard Kristen McCarthy had another solid game, recording her sixth double-double of the season with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

But if it wasn’t for Peddy’s big night, junior forward Brittany Lewis would have stolen the show. Lewis was one assist away from her first career triple-double, tallying 11 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. This comes just one game after scoring a career-high 19 points and grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds in the A-10 semifinals loss to Dayton.

“I think just working hard and practice and carrying over to the game just being a little more aggressive going to the boards and also being aggressive to the basket,” Lewis said about the past two games.

Cardoza, though, was quick to poke fun that Lewis nearly had a quadruple-double, as she also had seven turnovers.

The Owls didn’t play poorly despite clearly being upset at not making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years. Instead they appear focused on trying to come away with the school’s first WNIT championship.

“We don’t blame the committee, we blame ourselves, because we put ourselves in that position,” Cardoza said. “Now there’s an opportunity to win this championship.”

Next up for the Owls is a date with the Harvard. The Crimson upset Hofstra 73-71 on Thursday. Temple will host the game on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Women’s basketball misses NCAA tourney

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/03/12/womens-basketball-receives-ncaa-tourney-bid/

(March 12, 2012) 

The women’s basketball team waited and waited in front of a small crowd in the Liacouras Center as they watched for their name to be called for the NCAA tournament.

But they never saw the Temple T.

“Obviously our players are disappointed, but that definitely doesn’t take away from the year that we had,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “We think that we played really good basketball, especially down the stretch. We’re just disappointed that the committee didn’t see it that way.”

“Definitely wasn’t expecting this,” she added. “You don’t ever want to leave something up for someone to vote for you.”

The players were unavailable for comment after the selection show.

The Owls watched the four brackets—Fresno, Kingston, Raleigh and Des Moines—get filled one by one but never heard their name as members of the Cherry Crusade, Spirit Squad and the athletic department watched with them.

Fellow Atlantic Ten Conference rivals St. Bonaventure and Dayton were both placed into the Raleigh region. The conference regular season champion Bonnies, who are making their first appearance in the big dance, landed the fifth seed against Florida Gulf Coast, who is also making its first appearance.

The Flyers, having upset St. Bonaventure in the A-10 Championship game, are an 11-seed facing No. 6 Arkansas.

“We thought that we would probably be a 10-seed or an 11-seed,” Cardoza said. Good luck to Dayton, obviously, and St. Bonaventure. I hope they do well.”

After the final matchup between No. 2 Tennessee and No. 15 Tennessee-Martin in the Des Moines region was shown senior guard Kristen McCarthy stood up and thanked the crowd for coming and for supporting them. Fellow seniors, guards BJ Williams and Shey Peddy and center Joelle Connelly, were more noticeably silent like the rest of the team.

“For the guys that are coming back, they don’t ever want to sit here and be in this situation,” Cardoza said. “So hopefully that’ll be fire underneath them so they make sure that they get the job done when they need to.”

Junior center Victoria Macaulay sat silently with tears in her eyes. Macaulay took the last shot for the Owls in their semifinal loss to Dayton which came up short in a tough game that Temple trailed in for much of the time.

Macaulay posted a solid line—12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks—and was far from the reason why the Owls came up short against the Flyers. Cardoza hopes her feature player on next year’s roster will be motivated to get the team back into March Madness.

“[Macaulay] knows that she wasn’t solely responsible for it,” Cardoza said. “But hopefully she takes that and grows from it and uses it as motivation to become a better player.”

Connecticut, where Cardoza was an assistant for 14 years, is the first seed in the Kingston bracket while former Temple coach Dawn Staley will lead her South Carolina Gamecocks as the fifth seed in the Fresno region.

Temple now awaits word of who they will be playing in the Women’s National Invitational Tournament on Wednesday, as they are almost assured to land a spot in the tournament.

“We just want to continue to play basketball and play good basketball,” Cardoza said. “We’re just going to approach the NIT and try do our very best in that as well.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Peddy leads Owls into the A-10 semi-finals

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/03/04/peddy-leads-owls-into-the-a-10-semi-finals/

(March 4, 2012)

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. –The entire season could have flashed before their eyes.

When senior guard Shey Peddy crashed into the stands face first on a layup attempt with 12 minutes left in the Atlantic Ten Conference Tournament second round match against Duquesne on Saturday, it was the Owls’ worst fear.

Would their star player be okay? And could the team survive without her?

“When [Peddy] went down, the look in [senior guard BJ Williams’] eyes said it all,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “I definitely knew that we were going to come out of here with a win.”

At the time the Owls were clinging to a rare two-point lead. During the next three minutes Williams and company managed to minimize the damage, as Duquesne merely tied the game 43-43.

Then Peddy returned, with tape on her nose, looking a little dazed. Everyone on the court was banged up in a physical game that had 36 combined fouls, but none more than the Massachusetts native.

“It was a very physical game,” Duquesne coach Suzie McConnell-Serio said.

It didn’t matter.

Less than 30 seconds after her return Peddy nailed a jumper, then a three, and another jumper that led to a three-point play. After five minutes it was Peddy, 8, Dukes, 1. And not one Owl knocked home a bucket.

“I realized I didn’t want this to be my last game,” Peddy said afterwards holding a towel to her nose.
“They had a player who took over the game, and there’s no doubt in my mind that that was the difference,” McConnell-Serio said.

When the final buzzer sounded Peddy knocked down 20 of the team’s 21 points—senior guard Kristen McCarthy made a free throw—off a combination of jumpers, threes and free throws. Peddy finished with 30 on the night, leading Temple to a brutal 64-55 win.

Temple escaped despite committing 12 turnovers in the first half and 15 overall (they forced 19 of their own) and despite McCarthy making just one of her 12 attempts for three points on the night.

“We played them in January, it was the same thing,” Cardoza said. “The first time we played them we had 27 turnovers, so this is an improvement.”

The battle between Duquesne and Temple may very well be just the beginning of this A-10 tournament for the Owls. Cardoza doesn’t believe the road to the championship will be any easier.

“I wouldn’t say easier,” Cardoza said. “You’re going to get everyone’s A-game, you’ve just got to make sure you’re doing the things you’re capable of doing.”

The Owls are surely going to get Dayton’s A-game, as the Flyers won another hard-fought battle against Saint Louis after Temple’s game, 69-51. The teams combined for 70 points in the paint, 35 fouls and went 24 of 35 from the stripe.

The last time Temple and Dayton faced each other was back in January, in the Flyer’s Arena. The Owls escaped with a 61-57 win behind Peddy’s 21 points and eight rebounds, but it wasn’t easy. Peddy had made both ends of her 1-and-1 in the final seconds to put the team up three and McCarthy made a foul shot a few seconds later to ice the game.

Last time the Owls held senior forward Justine Raterman to 10 points. This time she’s coming into the game riding a 25-point performance against Xavier, a 32-performance in an overtime win over the Dukes, and nine-point performance on Saturday.

Plus the game pits the preseason A-10 favorites. In the coaches’ poll before the season both teams tied for first place in votes. While St. Bonaventure stole the regular season title with a 14-0 mark, that doesn’t mean this game will mean any less.

Now that the team got the first game out of the way they have to refocus and not start out as slowly as they did in the first half when they shot a paltry 29.2 percent.

“We had jitters,” Peddy said. “Everybody was mostly excited just try to hurry up and score, and I think we were trying to win a game in one play.”

The Flyers won’t let them get away with that in the semi-finals. Raterman and company are too good at capitalizing on mistakes.

So the Owls get less than 24 hours to recover mentally and physically, get some rest, plan for one of the league’s best players in Raterman and try and get one more win.

“I’m just happy that we’re able to survive and advance,” Cardoza said. That’s what March Madness is all about, survive and advance.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.