Nov. 24, 2002
PHILADEPHIA, Pa. - The Temple University women's basketball team clearly had revenge on their minds as they applied perimeter defensive pressure and limited the Broncos to a poor outside shooting performance in a 65-54 win over Santa Clara this afternoon at the Liacouras Center.
The Broncos (1-1) were led by senior Tammy Annas ' 18 points, while Kendra Rhea scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Temple (2-0) was led by Tynechia Pam's 14 points, all scored in the first half of the game.
SCU defeated the Owls 86-66 last December at the Leavey Center as the Broncos went undefeated at home with a perfect 12-0 record. Tonight's win was Temple first against Santa Clara in three total meetings between the two teams all-time. Both teams were in the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
Temple's perimeter defensive pressure and rebounding on the offensive end were keys to the game as the Owls out-rebounded the Broncos by a 19-11 margin on the offensive end. SCU committed 27 turnovers and shot 22.2 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
"We were really sloppy with the ball today and we didn't shoot as well from the outside like we would have liked," said Michelle Bento, SCU head coach. "We did not rebound well on the defensive end and we didn't take care of the ball like we need to in order to win games.
"In the second half, I thought we really fought hard to get back in the game. We had a couple of runs that brought us close, but Temple's last run really deflated us. I thought at that point we ran out of gas."
After Santa Clara took a one-point, 26-25 lead into halftime, the Owls limited the Broncos to just two baskets in the first 3:37 of the second half and led by as many as five points during an 8-2 run. Temple stretched the lead to 11 at 43-32 on back-to-back baskets by Candice DuPree and a jumper by Ari Moore.
Annas and Kim Butler then combined to score 10 straight to push the Broncos back to within one point at 43-42 with 9:40 remaining on the clock. SCU then went scoreless for 3:00 until Butler connected on a putback under the basket to bring SCU to within five at 49-44 with 6:40 remaining.
The Broncos then allowed Temple to go on an 8-0 run over the next 3:30 to grow its lead to nine points at 57-48 before a media timeout stopped the clock with just 3:07 left in the game. The two teams traded baskets before Whitney Sutak and Annas connected on back-to-back layups to bring SCU within five at 59-54. Temple then outscored the Broncos 6-0 in the final minute.
The Broncos opened the game shooting a high percentage from the field, making five of their first six shots and jumping out to a 10-3 lead over the first 4:39 of the game. During that early stretch, Rhea scored six points, all of which came on open looks underneath the basket, and the stingy SCU defense limited Temple to just one basket in the first 6:50 of the game.
The Broncos stretched their lead to 11 on a layup by Rhea with 6:15 left in the half. The Owls then scored 11 straight points, keyed by an six-point outburst by Pam and a three-pointer by Moore, to tie the game at 23-apiece with 1:27 left in the half. Quinn Thomas then connected on the second of a two-shot foul to regain the SCU lead at 24-23 before Pam scored on a layup following an offensive rebound with just :50 seconds left in the half to give the lead back to Temple. After a held ball that gave SCU possession with just :02 seconds left on the clock, Kayla Huss connected on a fallaway jumper under the basket as the horn sounded to give SCU a 26-25 halftime lead.
Santa Clara returns to action Saturday at the Whataburger Classic in College Station, Texas. The Broncos will face Arkansas-Little Rock at 1 p.m. (Pacific) in the first round contest at Reed Arena. The other two teams in the tournament will be host Texas A&M and Indiana-Ft. Wayne. Saturday's consolation game is scheduled for 11 a.m., while the championship game will be played at 1 p.m. Both games will be available live on the Internet at www.SantaClaraBroncos.com
