Temple's Peddy Scores 17 as Women’s Basketball Edges Auburn, 62-61

AUBURN, Ala. – With a comeback in the final few minutes that concluded with a three-pointer from the Owls’ Brittany Lewis, the Temple women’s basketball team edged Auburn, 62-61 on Saturday afternoon. Shey Peddy led the Owls (4-4) with 17 points, while Kristen McCarthy and Qwedia Wallace added 15 points apiece.

Peddy added a team-high nine rebounds, tied the game-high with four assists and recorded a game-high three steals in addition to her 17 points. She shot 7-of-12 overall and 3-of-4 from behind the arc.

Alli Smalley led Auburn (3-5) with a game-high 22 points, and hit three treys in the game to set the all-time career record at Auburn with 185.

Peddy and Wallace combined for 11 points in a 13-3 opening run for the Owls, giving them a 10-point lead at 13:26 in the first half.

Back-to-back Auburn buckets narrowed the margin to five before Temple extended it back to nine, but Smalley scored six points on an 11-0 Auburn run that briefly gave the Tigers a lead with eight minutes remaining in the half.

Satoria Bell broke the three-minute scoring drought for Temple, and the Owls pulled back ahead by six after Bell’s second basket, a three-pointer at 6:39.

McCarthy scored eight points over a four-minute stretch as the Owls nearly held off the Tigers, but Auburn continued to improve its shooting. The efforts of Smalley tied the game at 33-33 with 1:19 remaining, and neither team scored the rest of the way. Smalley and McCarthy led their respective teams at halftime with 13 points apiece.

Marli Bennett hit two jumpers early in the second half to give Temple a four-point, 41-37 lead five minutes in, but the Tigers quickly tied the score once again at 41-41.

Foul trouble began to get the Owls in trouble even before the halfway point of the half, as Temple committed eight of them in the first 10 minutes and Auburn went 7-of-9 at the charity stripe in that time to stay in the lead.

Smalley’s third trey of the game gave the Tigers a six-point, 51-45 lead with eight and half minutes remaining, and Auburn would lead by as many as seven with 6:27 on the clock.

Down 54-47, Temple used a 9-2 run to tie the game at 56-56, a run which included three-pointers from Peddy and Wallace.

Auburn went back up by three before Peddy sank her third trey of the game to knot the score at 59-59. The Tigers’ Jordan Greenleaf hit a pair of free throws with 1:28 left to put Auburn up 61-59, but the Lewis gave Temple a 62-61 lead when she drained a three-pointer with just over a minute remaining.

Both teams missed shots on their next possessions, and Temple’s defense was solid as the Tigers failed to score after getting the ball back with eight seconds left.

Temple will continue its road trip with one more game, at Ohio on Monday, Dec. 6 at 7:00 p.m.