PHILADELPHIA (Hagan Arena) – For the first time since 1989, three players scored 20 or more points as Temple women’s basketball held tough for an 80-70 win on the road at Saint Joseph’s. It was the sixth-straight win for the Owls (13-8, 6-1) who got 26 points from Shey Peddy, a career-high 21 from Victoria Macaulay and 20 from Kristen McCarthy.
The Hawks (14-7, 4-3) had four players reach double-figures in the high-scoring affair, led by Samira Van Grinsven and Ashley Prim with 13 points apiece.
BJ Williams dished a game-high nine assists for the Owls to reach 100 assists for the season- the most in her Temple career with seven regular-season games remaining. McCarthy added a game-high 10 rebounds to her 20 points to notch her second-straight double-double and fifth of the year. She also led all players with three steals.
Peddy hit 10-of-10 at the line on her way to her second-highest scoring performance of the season. Free throws essentially won the game for Temple as the Owls hit 21-of-25 at the line including 18-of-20 in the second half. Temple also out-rebounded the Hawks 40-29, leading to a 14-4 advantage in second-chance points.
Both teams shot the ball well early but it was Temple that really picked it up after trailing 8-7 three minutes into the game. The Owls used a 13-2 run to take an 11-point, 21-10 lead at 12:13. McCarthy scored seven points in the run, which was capped by Macaulay’s third bucket of the game.
The Hawks rallied back to within six with a 7-2 run, but back-to-back layups put the Owls back ahead by double digits with 8:25 left in the first. The run eventually extended to 8-0, giving Temple its largest lead of the first half with 6:30 remaining, 31-17.
The rest of the half was all Hawks as Saint Joseph’s closed out on a 15-4 run to trail by just three, 35-32 at the break.
Despite making just one of its last seven field-goal attempts, Temple finished the half shooting nearly 54 percent after its strong performance most of the way. The Hawks made five of their final six attempts in the half to improve their percentage to almost 45 percent.
Peddy opened the second-half scoring with her second trey of the game for a six-point, 38-32 cushion, but it vanished quickly as Saint Joseph’s scored on consecutive possessions to narrow the margin to two for the first time since the opening three minutes of the game.
The game of runs continued as the Owls went back ahead by seven only to see the Hawks quickly narrow the margin back to three.
Temple led by just four, 51-47 before pulling away yet again to take another 11-point lead just after the midway point of the second half. The Hawks were never out of striking distance and pulled to within seven four times under the five-minute mark, including for a final time with 52 seconds remaining.
The Owls were able to hold them off at the free-throw line as they sank 11 of their final 12 attempts including 5-of-6 in the final minute.
The Owls return home for their next game, a 2:00 p.m. contest against Fordham on Saturday, Feb. 4 in McGonigle Hall.
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