Temple Hosts Ohio Thursday In WNIT Third Round
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Everyone is anxiously awaiting Villanova's "Sweet 16" match-up in the NCAA Tournament with Miami on Thursday night. But the Wildcats are not the only area college basketball team putting together a post-season run.
The Temple University women's basketball team has advanced into the third round of the WNIT and on Thursday night the Owls will take on Ohio University at McGonigle Hall.
The Owls were on the bubble for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament but ended up getting left out of the field despite a 20-11 record.
"It was a little bit of a disappointment," Temple head coach Tonya Cardoza tells KYW Newsradio. "But we've let that go and just focusing on trying to win some games in the WNIT and continue to try to play good basketball and get better every day."
Listen to the entire interview with Temple's Tonya Cardoza:
The Owls have won road games against Drexel and Quinnipiac so far in the WNIT to raise their record to 22-11 for the season. On Thursday they will match-up with an Ohio team that is 26-6. The Bobcats have WNIT wins over Marshall and Virginia Tech to their credit.
Cardoza says the Owls will be tested on the perimeter in this one.
"They actually have the best three-point shooter in the nation on their team," Cardoza says.
That would be senior guard Kiyanna Black who has hit 126 threes this season, the top total in the country. She shoots 37% from behind the arc.
"We're going to have to defend on the perimeter as well as guarding dribble penetration," Cardoza says. "But they have a lot of guys that can score the basketball and when you have the nation's best three-point shooter, that in itself creates (tough) defensive match-ups."
The winner of this game gets the winner of San Diego and Michigan in the national quarterfinals of the WNIT.
Thursday's game will get underway at 7:00 p.m.
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