Today the Woman’s Basketball team hosted Temple at Fifth Third Arena. The Bearcats were coming into today looking for a series sweep against the Temple Owls. The Bearcats were playing without guard Destiny Haymer for tonight’s matchup as well. Temple came into tonight sitting 4th in the AAC ahead of tonight’s game.
The Owls started the game off fast and aggressive scoring 21 points in the first quarter. The Owls made their first nine points off free throws to start the game before making a field goal. The Owls made it a priority to start quick and drive to the basket as much as possible. The Owls fast offensive pace set them up for 14 free throw attempts in the first quarter where they shot 11-of-14 compared to the Bearcats three free throw attempts. The Owls established the scoring early, but the Bearcats never gave up and cut the big big deficit very quickly in the 2nd quarter to seven behind sophomore guard Caitlyn Wilson’s 10 second quarter points including a 7-0 run of her own.
The sophomore guard really set the tone early on in the second half for the Bearcats as she came out continuing her hot shooting knocking down two consecutive threes to bring the Bearcats within one. The Bearcats really found momentum after Caitlyn Wilson started scoring. The shooting from Wilson really opened up the inside game for center Arame Niang as she grabbed four rebound and finished with six points in a span of three minutes to cut the Temple lead to one at one point in the 3rd quarter. The Bearcats fought hard to cut the deficit after the Owls big first quarter, but unfortunately ran out of gas late. The Bearcats were struggling to find a spark on offense tonight as senior forward Ilmar’i Thomas was held to just eight points on 3-of-8 from the field. Temple did a great job making sure Thomas didn’t get many touches inside like she did the first time they met earlier on in the season when Thomas finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds. It seemed like the Owls just had a great game plan and had an answer for everything the Bearcats threw at them tonight. The Bearcats played solid on the defensive side out rebounding the Owls 43-38. The big statistic that stood out to me was the Bearcats allowed 40 points in the paint compared to only scoring 20 for themselves. The Owls just seemed to find the basket, drove inside as much as they could and it worked to their advantage tonight in their 69-53 win.
The Bearcats leading scorers for tonight’s contest were sophomore guard Caitlyn Wilson who finished 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field (5-of-10 3’s). Senior center Arame Niang finished with a double-double as she scored 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field. Niang dominated the glass in tonight’s matchup as she notched 16 rebounds not only a team high, but a game high. The Bearcats were struggling to get the offense going at times tonight as senior forward Ilmar’i Thomas finished with just eight points. The Senior will bounce back though after tonight’s performance, as many people know Ilmar’i Thomas is a great leader for this young Bearcats team and a key player for the Bearcats on both ends of the floor. Thomas is averaging 23.1 points a game and has continued to show why she was the Preseason Co-Player of the Year. Thomas leads the AAC in scoring so far this year as well. The senior forward will look to bounce back this Sunday when the Bearcats take on Tulane.
The Bearcats will be back in action this Sunday as they travel to New Orleans to take on Tulane at 3 pm on ESPN+.
