Temple's Wallace Hits 1,000th Point in Women’s Basketball’s Win at UMass

AMHERST, Mass. – Qwedia Wallace scored a game-high 21 points to hit exactly 1,000 for her career in leading the Temple women's basketball team to a 76-48 win at Massachusetts (6-15, 2-4) on Wednesday night. The Owls (14-6, 5-0) got their seventh straight win while remaining undefeated in Atlantic 10 play.

Wallace becomes the 19th player in the program's history to record 1,000 career points. She also tied for team-high honors with seven rebounds.

Shey Peddy scored 19 points for Temple and was close to a double-double with eight steals, a career-high. Joelle Connelly was Temple's third player to hit double figures with 11 points, her career high as an Owl. BJ Williams dished a game-high nine assists for the Owls.

Cerie Mosgrove led the Minutewomen with 13 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

After a slow start that saw the Owls go 3-of-12 from the field and just 1-of-9 from behind the arc, Temple started to pick up the pace in a big way.

Making all four of their next four attempts including two fastbreak layups, the Owls went from an 11-7 deficit to a 15-11 lead at 11:42 of the first half.

The furious pace continued as those buckets started a 20-2 run that saw the Owls take a 14-point, 27-13 lead with 7:17 left in the half. The Minutewomen pulled within 10 a few minutes later, but were never again able to cut the margin to single digits.

Wallace hit Temple's fifth trey of the game to give Temple what would be its largest lead of the half, 36-19 near the four-minute mark. The Owls continued to take advantage of UMass turnovers, of which there were 19 in the first half alone, and at halftime Temple was just one shy of its season high with 12 steals.

Peddy led all players with 14 points, five assists and five steals as the Owls led 40-24 at the break. Wallace also finished the first half in double figures with 10 points.

Temple started the second half on a 6-2 run, finishing with an old-fashioned three-point play by Wallace that gave the Owls their first 20-point lead.

UMass pulled to within 15 but never closer. The Minutewomen shot over 50 percent for much of the game, but struggled mightily with their ball-handling thanks to the Owls' defense tallying 20 steals, by far a season high. UMass finished with 32 turnovers to Temple's 15.

Wallace hit the 1,000th point of her career with 4:44 remaining in the game, on a layup that put the Owls up by 28, 69-41.

Connelly went 2-of-2 at the line just under the three-minute mark to put Temple up by 30.

The Owls will be back at home for their next two A-10 games. On Saturday, Jan. 29, Temple will face Richmond at 2:00 p.m. in McGonigle Hall.