Women’s Basketball Falls Just Short in Comeback Attempt at #24/25 Ohio State
Owls lose 70-66 after cutting a 15-point deficit to two in the final minute
COLUMBUS, Ohio – After cutting a 15-point deficit all the way down to two in the final minute, the Temple women’s basketball team fell just short of completing the comeback and suffered a 70-66 loss at #24/25 Ohio State on Friday night. The Owls (2-1) got 14 points from Kristen McCarthy and 13 points from both Brittany Lewis and Joelle Connelly.
Ohio State (2-0) was led by Tayler Hill with 24 points and Samantha Prahalis with 20. The Buckeyes largely won the game at the free throw line, shooting 25-of-31 at the stripe.
Temple kept the first half close and took a lead on four different occasions, but foul trouble along with an uncharacteristic 10 turnovers allowed Ohio State to pull ahead down the stretch.
Eight fouls on Temple sent the Buckeyes to the line for 14 tries, of which they made 10, while the Owls were just 2-of-5 at the stripe in the first half.
Connelly stepped up for the Owls in the post with six first-half points and five rebounds, and BJ Williams led all Temple players with seven points including a three-pointer. Temple shot 43 percent from the field to Ohio State’s 41.4 percent, but Prahalis was tough to stop and finished the half with 12 points to lead all players.
The Owls’ largest lead was two, 15-13 after the trey from Williams. Lewis hit Temple’s second three with 9:30 remaining in the first half to put the Owls within one, 23-22, but the Buckeyes out-scored Temple 13-6 the rest of the way to take a 36-28 lead into the break.
Temple used a 6-0 run that included a steal and some strong offensive rebounding to come within two, 36-34 in the opening minutes of the second half, but with an 11-0 run of its own, Ohio State took its first double-digit lead, 47-36 at 13:12. Natasha Thames stopped the bleeding with a layup for the Owls, but back-to-back fastbreak layups for Ohio State increased its lead yet again.
The Buckeyes led by as many as 15 before a pair of buckets by McCarthy put the margin back at 11. The Owls continued to chip away as they held Ohio State scoreless for a five-minute stretch, and without a field goal for over seven minutes.
Hitting 5-of-8 at the free throw line got the Owls within seven, 53-46 with 5:30 remaining before Prahalis struck again with two jumpers in a 6-0 Ohio State run that put the Buckeyes back up by 13.
The Owls refused to go away as McCarthy scored three points in a 5-0 run for the Owls that cut the margin back to single digits. After being held scoreless in the first half and for much of the second, Shey Peddy came to life for Temple and hit two three-pointers as the Owls continued to earn possessions with their defensive efforts.
The second trey from Peddy cut the margin to two, 68-66 with 14 seconds remaining, but Prahalis was solid at the free throw line hitting both attempts with nine seconds on the clock. The Owls had two chances on their final possession thanks to an offensive rebound, but could not covert either field goal attempt.
Temple will continue the weekend’s road trip on Sunday with a 4:30 p.m. (EST) game at Northern Illinois out of the Mid-American Conference.
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