FREEPORT, Bahamas – Despite a 12-point lead midway through the first half, the Temple women’s basketball team struggled in the second half and dropped a 59-53 decision to St. John’s in the Owls’ final game of the Junkanoo Jam. The loss is the fourth straight for Temple (2-4), while St. John’s improves to 3-3 overall.
Shey Peddy scored a game-high 16 points to lead the Owls. Kristen McCarthy scored 11 and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, while Victoria Macaulay added 10 points and five boards off the bench.
Nadirah McKenith and Eugeneia McPherson scored 13 points apiece to lead the Red Storm, and Amber Thompson hit 4-of-4 from the field and 4-of-6 at the line en route to 12 points.
St. John’s scored only at the free throw line for nearly the first seven and a half minutes of the game as the Owls built an eight-point, 13-5 lead thanks to buckets by five different players.
The Red Storm never cut the margin to fewer than six until the final minute of the half. With a 19-13 lead and nine minutes to go, Temple used a 7-1 run to take its largest lead of 12, 26-14.
McKenith hit a trey for St. John’s to pull her team back within single digits with 2:47 remaining, and the bucket started a 10-2 run that sent the Red Storm into halftime down by only four, 28-24.
The Owls out-shot St. John’s 45.8 percent to 25 percent from the field in the first half, but the Red Storm made 9-of-11 at the free throw line while Temple was just 4-of-7.
Peddy hit back-to-back layups early in the second half to open up a six-point lead for Temple, but St. John’s answered with a 6-0 run to tie the game at 32-32 at 14:31. The Red Storm did not take a lead during the next stretch of the game, but the Owls could not pull ahead by more than five and by the midway point of the half St. John’s had tied the score once more at 43-43.
The first Red Storm lead came with eight minutes remaining, 45-43. McCarthy hit a shot to tie the score at 45-45, but once St. John’s took another lead the Owls never recovered.
Temple trailed by as many as six, 53-47 but cut the deficit to two in the final minute, 55-53 after BJ Williams hit a pair of free throws. McKenith hit 1-of-2 free throws on her next two trips to the line for St. John’s, while the Owls missed the basket on one opportunity and then turned the ball over on their final possession.
Next up for the Owls is their sixth game of a six-game road trip, as Temple travels to #13/13 Rutgers for a 7:30 p.m. contest on Wednesday, Nov. 30.
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