Peddy and Wallace Lead Temple Women’s Basketball in Big 5 Win at Villanova

PHILADELPHIA – Holding Villanova scoreless for a 14-minute stretch that began in the first half, the Temple women’s basketball team defeated the Wildcats 55-43 for a Big 5 road win on Sunday afternoon. Shey Peddy scored a game-high 19 points and Qwedia Wallace added 17 as the Owls (7-4, 1-0 Big 5) got their fifth straight win.

Villanova (5-6, 1-2 Big 5) was led by Laura Sweeney with 15 points and five rebounds.

Peddy added six rebounds and a game-high five assists to her 19-point effort, as well as tying her career-high with seven steals. Kristen McCarthy scored seven points and led the Owls with seven rebounds.

Temple’s defense was impressive in a low-scoring first half as the Owls held Villanova to just 11 points. With a two-point, 9-7 lead five minutes into the game, the Wildcats went cold and scored just one bucket the rest of the way.

The Owls outscored Villanova 12-2 in the Wildcats’ drought, taking a 19-11 lead into the break. Temple limited Villanova’s opportunities at the free throw line where the Wildcats are shooting 83.5 percent for the season, and the normally hot three-point shooting Wildcats went without a single trey in the half.

Wallace led Temple with five points in the first half including the only three-pointer to that point in the game.

The Owls continued their run in the second half, scoring 15 points to take a 23-point, 34-11 lead before the Wildcats finally put another point on the board.

Until sending the Wildcats to the free throw line eight and a half minutes into the second half, Temple had held Villanova scoreless for nearly 14 minutes.

Sweeney and Devon Kane combined for Villanova’s first 15 points to end the drought which included eight points at the line. Rachel Roberts then hit Villanova’s first and second treys of the game, pulling her team to within 11, 45-34 with 4:27 remaining, but after Kane hit a free throw to narrow the margin to 10, the Wildcats would come no closer.

Peddy hit 4-of-4 at the line in the final two minutes and scored a total of eight points in the last three minutes to help hold off a Villanova comeback.

Temple will play one more game before taking off for the holiday break. The Owls will travel to Eastern Michigan for a 7:00 p.m. contest on Tuesday, Dec. 21.