SAINT LOUIS, Mo. – BJ Williams scored a season-high 21 points to lead Temple women’s basketball to its eighth-straight win, a 66-50 road victory at Saint Louis (8-16, 2-7). The Owls (15-8, 8-1) got a career-high 12 points from freshman Rateska Brown as well as a double-double of 10 points and career-tying 13 rebounds from Victoria Macaulay.
The Owls took full advantage of 21 Saint Louis turnovers by scoring 22 points, while the Billikens got just five off Temple’s season-low nine turnovers.
Williams hit 7-of-14 from the field including 3-of-6 behind the arc, and went a perfect 4-of-4 at the line. Brown scored 10 of her points in the first half as she helped Temple recover from an early deficit. Shey Peddy scored nine points, all in the second half, and led all players with four steals.
Hitting just one shot from the field in the first four minutes, the Owls fell into a nine-point hole early on at 14-5, but they soon found their stride.
Two treys from Williams and one from Brown off the bench helped fuel a 15-3 run that gave Temple a 20-17 lead at the midway point of the first half. The Billikens recovered to take back the lead, 23-20 after a 6-0 run of their own, but the Owls’ pressure down the stretch would eventually make the difference.
Temple got 12 points off 11 Billiken turnovers in the half while committing just five of its own. Brown finished the first half with a career-high 10 points including five in a 12-4 Temple run that closed out the half and gave the Owls a five-point, 32-27 lead at the break.
Williams hit 3-of-4 behind the arc as well as 4-of-4 at the line and led all players with 15 points at the break. Macaulay grabbed nearly half of the Owls’ rebounds in the opening period, finishing with nine.
Peddy had picked up two fouls early in game and was benched most of the first half, but quickly made her presence known in the second half with a pair of buckets in the first minute and a half. With a little over five minutes gone, Peddy and Brittany Lewis hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Owls their largest lead to that point at 46-32.
The pair of treys would become part of a 12-0 run for Temple, and Brown’s fifth bucket of the game later gave the Owls a 21-point, 56-35 lead just under the nine-minute mark. The Billikens narrowed the margin to 16 over the next four minutes, but would come no closer despite matching that deficit on two more occasions.
Nikki Works factored into Temple’s second-half run, scoring two layups for the Owls in just seven minutes of action, and Lewis finished with seven points while also grabbing five boards.
Next up for the Owls is a home game against Massachusetts on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 5:30 p.m. Temple will be celebrating Play 4Kay Day and all fans are encouraged to wear pink to show support in the fight against breast cancer. Temple’s men’s team will play that night at home in the Liacouras Center as well, at 9:00 p.m. against Xavier.
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