Saint Joseph’s Second Half Surge Leads to Win over Owls
Written by: Adrian Maghacot
Photo by: Temple Athletics
Despite having a six-point lead to start the second half, the Owls (1-4) were defeated by Saint Joseph’s (5-0) 75-66 at the Hagan Arena in a Big 5 showdown.
After leading in the first half 38-32, Temple underperformed by scoring 28 points the rest of the way, and their shooting percentage was much worse in the second half at 31 percent. The third quarter, specifically, was not the best as the Owls had seven of their 16 turnovers occur during this period.
“I think we rushed those shots. Nothing against St. Joe’s, but we should have made those shots,” Temple head coach Diane Richardson said. “They’re a great team, but we could have made those shots inside.”
The entire game was very back-and-forth with five ties and five total lead changes. However, with 7:53 left in the third quarter, Saint Joseph’s never looked back and kept the lead until the final buzzer.
Despite having a fantastic game against Villanova where she went 7-9 from three, Temple junior guard Tarriyonna Gary only scored 10 points and shot 33 percent from the field. Senior guard Aleah Nelson led the Owls in scoring with 16 points while also having six assists and three rebounds.
“I’m not worried and we’re going to win,” Nelson said. “We’re gonna have a winning season and we’re going to win a championship. We have a lot of things to fix and it’s a brand new team. We need to be a lot more disciplined on defense.”
Saint Joseph’s sophomore forward Talya Brugler led the Hawks in scoring with 17 points on 50 percent shooting. However, most of the contribution came from freshman forward Laura Ziegler, who had 10 points, eight rebounds, five blocks, and three steals. Those five blocks are a season and career high for her.
“Brugler is a post player and we had some efficiency lately,” Richardson said. “We got to be able to defend against those post players like Brugler, Ziegler, and Villanova’s Maddy Ziegrist.”
Temple (1-4) will travel to Lewisburg and face Bucknell (2-3) at Sojka Pavilion on Sunday, November 27 at 4:00 p.m.
