<em>Basketball:</em> Season of Milestones For Temple Women's Hoops
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's been another great season for Temple women's basketball. The Owls are 19-6 on the season and a perfect 10-0 in the Atlantic 10 after beating La Salle on Saturday, 72-63.
Temple has already had its share of milestones during the 2010-2011 season as three different players -- junior guard Shey Peddy, junior forward Kristen McCarthy, and senior guard Qwedia Wallace -- have hit the 1,000-point milestone in their careers.
Peddy was the first to do it, hitting the 1,000-point plateau on December 21st in a loss to Eastern Michigan. A transfer from Wright State, this is Peddy's first season on the floor for the Owls, and she says having multiple scoring threats like the Owls do takes the pressure off everyone.
"It's very relaxing that you can have a bad day and you still have two other people that will pick up the slack for you, so there's not too much pressure," she told KYW Newsradio. "I have confidence in Kris and Q, knowing that if I have a bad game, then they're not going to have a bad game likely. So we can try to calm down, there's not so much stress on all three of us."
Peddy also leads the Lady Owls in assists and steals.
Hear the entire Shey Peddy interview in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
Kristen McCarthy was the second member of this year's team to join the 1,000-point club. She hit that mark in a January 19th win over St. Joe's.
McCarthy says the milestone was one she was happy, and a bit relieved, to clear.
"As I was inching up on 1,000 points, I was getting text messages and phone calls, 'Oh you are almost there', you know. It was just like, 'OK, can I please get it over with so that people don't have to keep talking about it?' " she recalls. "I mean, it's definitely a great thing. I think later in life I'll look back on it more so than now. Right now, we have another game to play -- you have to focus on that."
Hear the entire Kristen McCarthy interview in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
McCarthy scored a team-high 22 in Saturday's win over La Salle.
A week after McCarthy, it was Qwedia Wallace's turn to hit 1,000 when the senior guard turned the trick in a win at UMass. She says she tried not focus on the milestone too much.
"You know, I let everyone else worry about that -- my friends, family, teammates, coaches, anyone who was excited for me, I let them worry about that, do the whole countdown thing. I just tried to go out every night and just play as if it's not even there, just try to play. And that's what happened, and it came to me in the UMass game," she says.
Hear the entire Qwedia Wallace interview in this CBS Philly SportsPod...
Wallace needed 21 points heading into that UMass game for the mark, and scored exactly 21 points to lead the Owls in that game.
Peddy, McCarthy, Wallace and the rest of the Owls return to the court on Wednesday night to visit George Washington.
Reported by Matt Leon, KYW Newsradio 1060.
