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Temple women roll St. Thomas Aquinas; notes from an exhibition win

11/02/2022, 12:45am EDT
By Josh Verlin

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The new-look Temple women’s squad certainly had plenty to feel good about, as the Owls absolutely crushed Division II opponent St. Thomas Aquinas (N.Y.) 116-48 in an exhibition game at the Liacouras Center Tuesday night.


Jasha Clinton (above) and Temple had no issues in their exhibition win on Tuesday. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL)

It was the first public appearance and final tune-up of the preseason for first-year head coach Diane Richardson and her program, which has a bevy of new pieces and a few key holdovers from last year’s 13-win squad. Though there was a significant disparity in talent, size, athleticism, etc. — you name it — between Temple and St. Thomas Aquinas, 40 minutes of action was enough to glean at least a few takeaways about the 2022-23 Owls as they prepare for next Monday’s season opener at No. 24 Princeton.

Rotation Watch

Richardson’s first starting lineup, even unofficially, consisted of two holders from last year’s squad in sophomore Jasha Clinton and Tiarra East, joined by transfers Aleah Nelson (Towson), Ines Piper (NW Florida JUCO) and Denise Solis (UMass-Lowell). 

Richardson didn’t take long to go to her bench, substituting Caranda Perea in for Solis after just a few minutes; she was followed shortly after by Jalynn Holmes and Tarriyonna Gary; the rotations didn’t stop at that point, substitutions happening early and often, not seeming to change any bit of momentum happening on the court. 

“That’s what we’ve seen, the biggest part about this team this year,” Richardson said. “We have so many different weapons, but they all play together.”

All-in-all, 10 Owls played at least nine minutes, a trend that should continue under a coaching staff that wants to push the pace and feature a deep, interchangeable rotation. (More on that in a second). East played a game-high 28 minutes, with Nelson (25), Clinton (24), Piper (23), Perea (23) and Gary (22) also seeing more than half the action. 

The only part of the Temple rotation unavailable on Tuesday night was sophomore guard Aniya Gourdine, one of the Owls’ top youngsters a year ago (7.7 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 4.5 apg). Richardson didn’t say exactly why Gourdine wasn’t suited up, but it seems like she’s out indefinitely.

“We’re working on some things there,” Richardson said. “We can’t talk about it, so hopefully we’ll get that taken care of and we’ll see her on the floor.”

Aleah Nelson (above, 2) showed her scoring and playmaking abilities with an 11-point, 12-assist Temple debut. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL)

Temple fires up the afterburners

Richardson has said all offseason that she wants to play as fast as possible, and the Owls certainly looked the part on Tuesday. Temple took advantage of every transition opportunity possible, getting out for 47 fast-break points, helped out by 36 forced turnovers and 58 points off those takeaways. 

No matter which guard ended up with the ball in her hands on the break, the goal was simple: get it up court as fast as possible, and make something happen. That came by way of outlets, through lob passes that bypassed the STAC defense — and sometimes just purely by footspeed, multiple Owls going coast-to-coast for layups.

It was hard to know just how much of it was the gap between a D-II program and a D-I squad, and how much Temple was absolutely swarming on the defensive end, then turning it around. Maybe call it a little bit of both?

“Our goal is to score, and to score pretty fast,” Richardson said. “And I think we accomplished that today, at least we have the template for that. And we’ll continue to work on that each game.”

Nelson, an All-CAA First Teamer a year ago, finished with a double-double, 11 points and most impressively 12 assists coming off the hands of the 5-6 guard from Maryland. She’s used to playing in Richardson’s system, but didn’t hesitate when asked to compare how that system worked with her new teammates.

“It was better. It was better,” she said. “I think it’s just building trust, just with the guards [...] always pushing the ball as soon as I get it, they’re already down the court already, we work on that all the time in practice. It’s actually much better and I love playing with them. It’s good, we score three-to-five seconds every time.”

Clinton finished with 18 points and five assists as the Owls as a group dished out 32 times on 44 buckets. Of the 10 women who saw the court Tuesday, all but one collected an assist; seven players had multiple dimes. 

“I was really pleased with the amount of assists we had on baskets, we’re looking for the extra man,” Richardson said. “With that equal opportunity offense, you saw our fast breaks, we were passing and passing and passing, but that’s what they’re used to doing.”

Owls’ shooting looks much-improved


Gary (above) hit four 3-pointers en route to a team-high 21 points. (Photo: Jack Verdeur/CoBL)

Last year, Temple’s women were one of the worst 3-point teams in the country, making 24.2% of their shots from deep, which put them 350th nationally according to HerHoopStats. The Owls made more than six 3-pointers in a game only three times last season, and one of those games required 32 attempts. They only had one game where they made more than half their triples, and that was a 5-of-9 showing against Northwestern.

A sample size of one isn’t much, but there’s no doubt the Owls looked much better from deep on Tuesday night. They were 12-of-27 (44.4%) from deep in the rout, and while they were certainly getting a few more open looks than they would against a Division I opponent, the line won’t get any deeper for the regular season.

East, who led the Owls with 21 points, was 2-of-4 from deep, one of four who made multiple triples. Gary, a Towson transfer, was 4-of-6 from downtown to help her to a 20-point outing; freshman guard Kourtney Wilson, who had 10 points in her TU debut, was 2-of-4 on her 3-point attempts and generally looked ready to help the Owls right away.

“It’s improved a lot,” East said of the outside shooting. “I know from last year that we weren’t really making a lot of 3s. This year, everybody’s been in the gym shooting. It’s just made an impact on today’s game, going to keep going forward.”

Richardson said she would love to see her team shoot 46% from 3-point range — an awfully optimistic goal, considering last year’s Division I leader, Iowa, made about 38% from deep.

“It is,” she said, “but we like to set the bar high.”

Other Notes

  • There was only one statistical area that Temple didn’t dominate Tuesday night: rebounding. The Owls finished with a 36-32 advantage on the boards, including a 12-11 edge in offensive rebounds, but STAC had the edge for much of the night, including a 23-16 edge in the first half. Temple’s interior defense generally held strong, but there were a few third-chance opportunities, and a few boards that Temple should have secured but couldn’t lock down.

  • Another Temple newcomer who impressed was sophomore Ines Piper. The 6-0 wing guard out of France, who spent last season at the JUCO level with Northwest Florida, got the starting nod and filled up the box score, finishing with nine points, seven rebounds, six steals and four assists. She had an impressive coast-to-coast take for a three-point play, and started numerous other fast-break opportunities, while otherwise finishing well around the rim.


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