TTN: Dayton continues streak, dismantles Owls

http://temple-news.com/sports/2013/02/24/dayton-continues-streak-dismantles-owls/

(February 24, 2013)
Dayton shooting too much for Owls in road loss.

For a little more than 23 minutes, the Owls had No. 14/14 Dayton under control.

For the other 16-plus minutes it was a completely different story.

In their last Atlantic 10 Conference meeting the Flyers (24–1, 12–0 in the A-10) easily disposed of Temple (12–15, 5–7 in the A-10), 67–47.

Dayton went on runs of 13–0, 12–0 and 13–0 for a total of 16 minutes, 33 seconds to keep the Owls out of reach.

“They have a lot of guys that can score, a very high-powered offense,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “I thought that we were right there with them, just hanging in there. I felt like they just had too much. We made too many mistakes and they capitalized on those mistakes.”

Temple shot 41.3 percent from the floor, including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc, but it wasn’t enough. Five Flyers scored in double digits, including four starters.

“It’s hard,” Cardoza said. “They way that they set up, every single guy on the court can shoot the three.”

“They’re a great passing team,” she added. “We’re doing the right thing where we’re trying to help out our teammates, but we couldn’t recover all the way out to the three-point line.”

Sophomore guard Tyonna Williams shot 50 percent and made three treys for a team high 13 points while dishing out four assists. Redshirt-junior forward Natasha Thames grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds to add to her six points. No other player was within 11 rebounds.

Senior center Victoria Macaulay struggled all game to make an impacted, fouling out with eight points and seven boards.

“Having our big, [Macaulay], out in foul trouble, that definitely hurt us,” Williams said.

The Owls jumped out to a 6–2 lead in the opening two minutes but Dayton’s first 13–0 run made it a 15–6 ballgame. Temple climbed back on the road to get within 20–18 with six minutes left in the half but the home team responded once again with a 12–0 run before heading into the locker rooms with the score 34–22.

Temple came out strong in the second half, chipping away at the Flyers’ lead. The Owls got to within 44–39 but couldn’t keep up the momentum. Dayton, with the score 54–45, went on their final 13–0 to ice the game.

“In the beginning of the game, in the beginning of the second half, when they went on those runs we countered them and we created some runs of our own,” Williams said. “We just didn’t put the dagger in them.”

The loss ensures the Owls finish with a losing record in the regular season for the first time since the 2002-03 season. That year they finished 14–15 (9–7 in the A-10) under then third-year coach Dawn Staley. It was the last time the Owls didn’t make the NCAA Tournament or Women’s National Invitation Tournament.

The only positive out of the loss is that their magic number to make the A-10 Tournament is down to one, after Virginia Commonwealth University lost Saturday to Xavier, 65–54.

Dayton extended its winning streak in the A-10 to 19, stretching back to Feb. 15, 2012 and includes their tournament run in which they defeated the Owls in the semifinals before downing St. Bonaventure for the conference title.

The Owls’ next game is at Butler (16–11, 7–5) on Wednesday. The game could have major implications on how the middle of the conference will shape up.

TTN: Adams: Macaulay's blocks present havoc for opponents

http://temple-news.com/sports/2013/02/19/adams-macaulays-blocks-present-havoc-for-opponents/

(February 19, 2013)

Victoria Macaulay has learned to utilize size to block shots, and not take fouls.

I almost feel pity for opposing guards these past few games.

“It’s awesome because, especially when she gets a good one, it’s clean, it gets everyone going,” freshman forward Meghan Roxas said. “We get so hyped after that.”

Roxas is talking about senior center Victoria Macaulay’s uncanny ability to block everything she sees of late.

It’s almost laughable at this point. Macaulay, who stands at 6 feet, 4 inches, simply has to put her hands straight up in the air and wait for a driving opponent to throw up a shot.

No emphatic swat at the ball, just an impenetrable wall.

“It just comes natural,” Macaulay said. “I’m [tall] as it is. I should be blocking shots like that. It just took me up to now to really get more blocks and just really take my time.”

For three years there hasn’t been a shot-blocker like her on the roster. It’s a refreshing change.

Women’s basketball, unlike its masculine counterpart, is not known for its physical, imposing style of player. Blocks at Temple are more synonymous with sophomore center Anthony Lee or senior forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson on the men’s side than Macaulay.

Well, guys, take some notes.

Macaulay doesn’t take a leaping swing at a shot most of the time the way you might see at a men’s game. She doesn’t have to jump really. With a wingspan that reaches higher than opponents can jump and get a clear shot over, it’s simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

“I think the last couple of teams that we played against have been teams that penetrate a lot,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “So because they’re penetrating there’s more opportunities for her.”

“And I think that she’s grown in the sense that her first couple of years she tried to block everything, and a lot of times she was off-balance and ended up fouling,” Cardoza added. “I think she picks and chooses when to go after them and the timing is a lot better and her body control is a lot better, so it [has] made her a better shot blocker.”

Women’s basketball doesn’t get attention largely because of its lack of the thunderous dunks and game-changing blocks. About the only player who has that impact is Baylor’s senior center Brittney Griner. Every time she dunks in a game it’s a big deal.

I’m not saying I want to see the women’s game become more like the men’s game. As much as I love watching a LeBron James chase-down block and gawk at old video of Michael Jordan dunks, I have a fond appreciation for the way the women’s game is played, with more finesse.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing to watch a nine-block game like the one Macaulay had Feb. 10 against Saint Louis, two shy of the Temple record.

“I never know how many blocks I have until after the game, and just realizing that I had nine blocks was really awesome,” Macaulay said.

The past few games have seemed effortless. A player drives into the paint, has to kick out to the edge to try and beat Macaulay to the backboard, stops before they hit the baseline to pull up and shoot something between a shorter jumper and layup, only to see Macaulay just standing there with arms high and no need to do anything else. The ball doesn’t go sailing into the stands but the point has been made nonetheless.

That has been the theme in the past five games. Macaulay has 29 blocks in that span, including five or more in four of those games. She set a career high with seven against Massachusetts on Feb. 3, and reset it a week later with nine against Saint Louis.

And she’s catapulted to the top of the Atlantic 10 Conference with 72, and was 12th in the nation with 2.79 per game heading into the game against St. Joseph’s on Sunday. She now stands in fourth place in career blocks (192), sixth in blocks per game (1.68).

“I think every team now should be scared,” Roxas said. “They can look at the scouting report and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, she had nine blocks.’ They should be scared to go in the paint. It gives us a little bit of an advantage in the scare-factor I think.”

Roxas would certainly be scared if she saw that coming up.

“I got blocked in Georgetown,” she said. “The wind was in my hair, my headband went back, but you just have to not let it get to you I think…I don’t like getting blocked.”

Macaulay must have the same effect on her opponents.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu or on Twitter @jakeadams520.

TTN: Hawks trump Owls in OT

http://temple-news.com/?s=Hawks+trump+Owls+in+OT

(February 17, 2013)
Temple can’t turn poor shooting day into upset as it falls below .500.

Tyonna Williams walked up the court in Hagan Arena with the Owls trailing 43–41 and a little over two minutes left in overtime against St. Joseph’s and fed the ball to Victoria Macaulay.

Only the feed wasn’t so much a feed, but a dribbler, that redshirt-senior forward Chatil van Grinsven easily stole and cruised to the other end. And suddenly the score was 45–41.

“I took a chance, I guess, just at the right time,” van Grinsven said. “I saw that she was going to pass the ball in the corner of my eyes. I guess I just took a leap of faith and I went for it and there it was.”

“I wouldn’t say that it [cost us the game],” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “I felt like even plays before that offensively we were just bizarre. There were things that we could have done and we did something different.”

And what was originally a hard fought game between two bitter Big 5 rivals become a walk in the park for the Hawks. Temple fell 49–41, falling to 12–13 and 5–5 in the A-10.

St. Joe’s entered the game 8–1 in conference play. Temple had a chance to make a serious impact in the standings by hurting a rival and dropping their magic number to just one, but couldn’t take advantage of a rough shooting performance by both teams.

The Owls shot 25.9 percent from the field, and held the Hawks to 29.4 percent shooting.

“I think it’s always going to be a grind out with Temple,” Hawks’ coach Cindy Griffin. “We just needed a little bit of a break. And we got it, and then we got stops down on the other end.”

“It’s just a different type of game,” Griffin added. “Maybe the rivalry of Xavier and Dayton has the same thing but I would argue that, and say that there’s nothing like a Big 5 game.”

The game started out just as physically as it ended. Both teams struggled to find open shots, consistently facing pressure on every shot. After St. Joe’s pushed the lead to 4–0 in the opening minutes the Owls respond with two treys from sophomore guards Tyonna Williams and Rateska Brown to tie the game 6–6. But that was in the first eight minutes.

The pace barely picked up for the remainder of the half. The Owls got six straight points from redshirt-junior forward Natasha Thames to push ahead 12–6 with over seven minutes remaining but the Hawks clawed their way back, tying it at 18 a piece with two minutes to go. The scoring woos continued as Kabengano made one of her free throws in the final minute to send the Owls to the locker room up 19–18.

The game within the game for the first half was the battle between van Grinsven and Macaulay. Neither found success, combining for four points and 12 rebounds. Macaulay tacked on two blocks but for the most part was irrelevant as the Hawks did everything they could to shut her down.

“It was very physical,” van Grinsven said. “My teammates were there to help me, though.”

“We were just trying to take away her strengths,” Thames said. “She likes to go to the baseline so we were trying to force her middle.”

Macaulay’s struggles continued in the second half making just one more bucket. She finished with seven points on 3-of-18 shooting, 13 rebounds and five blocks.

“I thought our defense was tremendous on their key players,” Griffin said.

Thames picked up much of the slack with 15 points and 13 boards, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Owls ahead. Temple jumped out to a 23–18 lead thanks to four more Thames’s points, but the Hawks eventually took the lead for a six-minute stretch off a jumper by redshirt-sophomore Natasha Cloud.

“I think because they were doubling and triple-teaming [Macaulay] that opened up a lot of opportunities for me, so I just wanted to make sure that I could contribute and help my team,” Thames said.

But over the final four minutes the Owls missed three of their final six freebies. The biggest miss came at the hands of Williams with the score 39–39 and 18 seconds remaining. Williams went to the line trailing by one and made the first, but couldn’t convert the second, sending the game to overtime.

In the extra session Macaulay made her final jumper to give Temple a 41–39 lead but it was all St. Joe’s from there. The costly turnover by Williams a few minutes later was the final straw, sealing the Owls’ fate.

“We knew coming into the game that it was going to be a nail-biter, because it’s always been that way,” Cardoza said. “I definitely thought we had the mindset to come out here and try to steal one, but once we got into overtime I felt like we started to panic when they took the lead.”

“I felt like for the first 42 minutes that we did everything we need to do to try to win the basketball game,” Cardoza added.

The loss snapped the Owls’ 13-game winning streak over their city rival. The game was also the final A-10 matchup between the two squads, although their yearly Big 5 battle will continue despite Temple moving to the Big East next season.

Temple returns home Wednesday to host Xavier (9–15, 3–7 in the A-10), which is coming off back-to-back wins over La Salle and Rhode Island. A win keeps the Owls in control of their own destiny to make the A-10 Tournament, where the opening rounds will be played at Hagan Arena.

TTN The Cherry: Owls need three wins

http://thecherry.temple-news.com/2013/02/12/owls-need-three-wins/

(February 12, 2013)

If Temple can pull off three more wins in the Atlantic 10 Conference, where it's currently 4-4, they lock up a spot in the A-10 Tournament.

Temple holds tiebreakers over St. Bonaventure and Richmond, meaning their magic number the rest of the way is three. Virginia Commonwealth University is 2-7 but holds the tiebreaker over the Owls.

Assuming they defeat Xavier and Rhode Island (a combined 1-14 in the A-10), the Owls must beat one of the following: Dayton, St. Joseph's, Butler or Fordham. That secures them a spot in the postseason.

Without three wins the Owls need serious help to get into the tournament.

Three of their remaining six games are at home, against Rhode Island, Xavier and Fordham.

TTN: Remaining schedule could halt progress

http://temple-news.com/sports/2013/02/12/adams-remaining-schedule-could-halt-progress/

(February 12, 2013)
The women’s basketball team has been playing better, but Owls’ toughest test lies ahead.

The easy part is over.

The Owls have six games remaining in the Atlantic 10 Conference season and it’s nothing short of a gauntlet to the finish.

Temple (11–12, 4–4 A-10) will face four teams with a record of 5–3 or better in conference play to close the season.

“It’s always important to play well down the stretch,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “We’re obviously not worried about what we’ve done in the past but what we’re doing now.”

“I feel like the last couple of weeks we’ve had some really, really good moments and sometimes been obviously that rock in the road where it’s a little bumpy,” Cardoza added. “But I feel like we find a way to get back on track.”

Temple took down Saint Louis (10–13) at home Sunday, 54–50. The Billikens came into the game 4–3 in the conference, so the win helped push Temple a few spots higher in the standings. Solid win, but nothing flashy.

Temple has a tendency this season to play its best against similarly skilled teams. They’re 8–3 (3–1 in the A-10) against teams with a winning percentage between .333 and .666. So the win against the Billikens was to be expected.

“I felt like our effort today was really good, and if we continue with that type of effort I’m sure good things will follow,” Cardoza said after the game.

Despite playing well against those opponents, the Owls are just 3–2 (1–1 in the A-10) this season against teams with a .333 or worse winning percentage. One of those losses came against a previously winless Kent State squad. La Salle was the other.

They simply haven’t shown up against easy competition. Senior center Victoria Macaulay said there’s an easy solution for it.

“Just trying to make sure we don’t play on their level,” Macaulay said. “Every game is a game, so every game we got to go out there, we got to play our best, bring everything to the floor.”

A-10 cellar dwellers Xavier and Rhode Island, a combined 2–14 in-conference, are easy trap games for a team that falls for the bait quite a bit. This team’s inexperience is likely to blame compared to previous seasons – when the Owls earned first-round byes in the A-10 tournament in 2011 and 2012.

“Sometimes it’s not always going to be the same as the last couple of years, but you still got to work hard and you’ve still got to fight for that position even thought things aren’t going well,” Macaulay said.

“We obviously don’t have past experiences,” freshman guard Meghan Roxas said of the young blood on the team. “We’re learning every game. I feel like every game we come in we know a little bit more about how the other team is doing.”

Then there are the big dogs to worry about.

Butler, Fordham, St. Joseph’s University and Dayton remain on the schedule and all are jostling for one of the four first-round byes in the A-10 tournament. They’re a combined 27–6. They won’t go down easy.

“We just go one game at a time, and right now we’re really happy with how we performed [against Saint Louis],” Cardoza said.

As would be expected from a young team, the Owls have had trouble this season against top competition. They’re just 2–7 against teams with better than a .666 winning percentage. One win came against a ranked Syracuse squad. Another came against then-2–0 Seton Hall.

The Owls already faced Duquesne and Charlotte, the other two teams fighting for a bye in the conference tournament with a combined A-10 record of 15–2, and lost by a combined score of 88–131.

The team is saying all the right things, right down to the “one game at a time” mantra, but their track record this season says this is going to be tough sledding. They could go 0–6. They could go 6–0. They could finish somewhere in between.

Depends which team shows up.

“You never know what happens,” Cardoza said. “For all we know we could go on a [six-game] win streak. You never know what can happen and I’m not going to count my team out.”

Don’t count them out, but you can’t dismiss reality.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu or on Twitter @jakeadams520.