Wednesday, February 1
Temple 72, Wichita State 59 – Box Score
Tulsa 64, Cincinnati 50 – Box Score
Recaps
Temple 72, Wichita State 59 – Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - The Temple Women's Basketball team. (10-11, 5-4 The American) took down the Wichita State Shockers (13-9, 3-6 The American) 72-59 Wednesday night at Liacouras Center. This is the Owls third straight victory and the first time the Cherry & White have won three straight this season.
Caranda Perea scored a career-best 17 points with four rebounds. Trajata Colbert led all scorers with 25 points and also grabbed 11 boards.
Temple kicked off the game strong. Going into the first media timeout the Owls hit four of their last five shots while shutting the Shockers down over the previous 2 minutes of game time (11-6, TU). Thanks to points from seven different scorers, the Cherry & White built a lead of as many as nine points. Wichita State hit two three pointers in the closing minutes of the period to cut into the advantage. Makayla Waleed and Perea tied for the team lead in points in the first with four each.
The Owls continued the diverse attack in the second quarter. Three different members of the Cherry & White scored the first five points of the quarter, while holding WSU to 31 percent from the field in the first five minutes (26-18, TU). Temple caught fire late in the second. Wichita State couldn’t stop Temple as each of the final four baskets of the half were scored by different Owls (35-22, TU). The Shockers scored the last five points of the quarter to trim the deficit down to seven. Six different Owls scored in the quarter, with none finding the hoop for more than four points.
The two sides traded punches for the first few minutes of the third quarter, with the lead never exceeding nine points. Free throws from Aleah Nelson and a three from Tiarra East extended the lead out to 14 at 48-34 TU. Wichita State managed to stop the bleeding until the final 90 seconds of the quarter, when Nelson and East combined for a quick five points to grow the lead to 16 points. Perea had her best quarter of the season, with 10 points. The forward broke her career-high of 15 midway through the frame (17 total).
The Owls scored four of the first six points in the final frame. Wichita State scored the next seven points as the Owls went cold from the field (61-50, TU). Tarriyonna Gary hit a three to snap the Cherry & White out of the cold stretch, but the Shockers kept coming to trim the lead to single digits (64-56, TU). The Shockers pushed but could not overcome the Owls' stout defense. Temple scored the last six points to earn the win, 72-59.
Tulsa 64, Cincinnati 50 – Box Score
TULSA - Temira Poindexter, Caroline Lyles and Delanie Crawford all scored in double figures to give Tulsa a 64-50 win over Cincinnati on Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The Golden Hurricane moved to 16-6 on the season and 6-3 in American Athletic Conference play, while the Bearcats fell to 7-14 overall and 0-8 in the league.
Poindexter had a team-best 22 points, while Lyles added a career-high 14 and Crawford scored 13. Hadley Periman contributed seven points, and a team-leading eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
Tulsa was without three of their top six scorers in the contest, including Maddie Bittle (11.1 ppg), Ahrray Young (8.6 ppg) and Jessika Evans (6.8 ppg).
Cincinnati jumped out to an 11-5 lead with 5:54 on the clock in the first frame as TU was 2-of-8 from the field to begin the game. The Bearcats then had a first quarter best seven-point advantage (18-11) with 3:10 on the clock and owned a 20-16 lead at the end of the frame.
Tulsa battled back in the second quarter, taking a 23-22 lead on a layup from Katelyn Levings with 7:26 on the clock and never looked back. The Golden Hurricane climbed to their own seven-point advantage, 31-24, at the 2:16 mark and took a nine-point lead, 36-27, into halftime.
A layup by Katia Gallegos to begin the third quarter gave Tulsa their first double-digit lead, 38-27, of the contest. Cincinnati cut it to seven twice in the quarter, but the Golden Hurricane had an 11-point advantage (51-40) with 10 minutes to play.
Temira Poindexter recorded a layup with just 21 seconds ticked off the clock in the final frame, but neither team scored for the next 3:21 off the clock when Lyles hit a long field goal to put TU up 55-40 with 6:18 left in the contest. The two teams nearly paced each other the rest of the way, with UC having a 10-9 scoring edge to end the contest with TU earning the 14-point victory.