Temple Runs With Michigan Tonight In WNIT Quarterfinals
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Temple University women's basketball team will look to continue its run in the WNIT tonight as the Owls visit the University of Michigan in the quarterfinals.
Temple is 23-11 overall this season and coming off a 75-61 win over Ohio University in the third round on Thursday. Temple did a great job in that game playing perimeter defense, holding Ohio to 3-21 shooting from behind the arc.
"I felt like we were really focused on not letting the nation's leading three-point shooter (Ohio's Kiyanna Black) get any open looks there," Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza tells KYW Newsradio. "She went 0-5 from the three-point line and actually held her to just five points, and she averages about 18. So I thought we did a really solid job of guarding the three-point line and making them do something different in trying to score."
Listen to the entire interview with Temple's Tonya Cardoza:
Temple will need to continue to play excellent defense tonight against the Wolverines. Michigan is 20-13 and they average 79.2 points per game. Here in the WNIT, that scoring average jumps up to 84.7 points a night.
"They have great shooters," Cardoza says. "Great players on the perimeter and they have a great post player that's tough to defend (freshman Hallie Thorne). She's 6-5, athletic, can score either way. And a great scorer in (sophomore guard Katelynn) Flaherty who is averaging (22.4) points a game."
This will be just the second all-time meeting between these two programs. The first came in November of 2005, Temple winning, 65-48.
The winner of this game plays the winner of Florida Gulf Coast and Hofstra in the WNIT's semifinals.
Tonight's game gets underway at 7:00pm.