Temple Women Ready For WVU Tonight In WNIT Semis

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- The Temple women's basketball team is down in Morgantown where tonight they will take on West Virginia University in the semifinals of the WNIT.

The Owls four wins in the WNIT have pushed their overall mark for the season to 20-16. With a roster that features just one senior, head coach Tonya Cardoza says all this post-season basketball has been a great experience for the squad.

"We could be practicing right now," Cardoza says. "But instead we're getting in-game experience on the road at some great environments. The Middle Tennessee game (in the quarterfinals) was a great environment for our guys to play in. So it's just great post-season experience for the young guys and for (the lone senior) Tyonna (Williams) to continue to play. It's just been great for our program."

Listen to the entire interview with Temple's Tonya Cardoza

Temple has really earned this semifinal berth. Three of their four wins have come on the road, including a second-round victory at the Palestra over Big 5 rival Penn. Their one home game in the WNIT was an 80-79 overtime win in the third round over North Carolina State. That was an incredibly dramatic victory as sophomore Feyonda Fitzgerald drained the winning shot with under a second to play in the extra session.

West Virginia is 22-14 heading into tonight's game. The Mountaineers are coming off a win over another Big 5 school, Villanova, in the quarterfinals. West Virginia beat the Wildcats in overtime on Sunday, 75-70. Cardoza says the Mountaineers have tough players who can really score the basketball and hurt you in other ways.

"They are really, really, quick," Cardoza says. "They get on you on the offensive boards. They're tenacious on defense, getting steals."

Cardoza talks about what the Owls have to do to move on to the WNIT title game.

"We're just going to have to do a good job of making sure we contain them on the boards, limit them to one shot and making sure we're taking care of the basketball," Cardoza says. "And being able to score against them."

Temple and West Virginia tipoff at 7:00pm in Morgantown.

The other WNIT semifinal features UCLA taking on Michigan. The two winners play for the WNIT title on Saturday.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.