Tigers Women's Basketball Hosts Temple Thursday

Thursday, February 18

Memphis, Tenn.

7 pm CT

University of Memphis

Temple

Tickets

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Feb 17, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Both teams enter game having won six of their last seven.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Head coaches love it when their teams are playing well heading into month of March and the postseason. If that's the case, then both coaches in Thursday's contest have smiles on their faces.

The University of Memphis women's basketball team (15-10) hosts Temple (17-8) Thursday, Feb. 18 in an American Athletic Conference match-up. Game time is 7 p.m. (CT) at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse.

Entering Thursday's game, Memphis has a 9-5 league record and is fourth in the American Athletic Conference standings. Just above the Tigers in the standings is Temple with an 11-3 conference record and in a second-place tie with USF.

"Thursday is a battle of two teams moving in the same direction as we near the close of the regular season," said Tigers associate head coach Darryl Brown. "The schedule-makers have two of the league's hottest teams meeting Thursday, and we'll see what happens.

"Thursday's game against Temple is a challenge. They got us good up in Philadelphia earlier this season, and being a Philadelphia native, the loss bothered me as well as the rest of our team. Temple is a good team. They are on a roll, and they want to continue to do what they're doing. It's our job to play the best we can and get the win."

Both teams have played well recently, and their success is eerily similar. Memphis and Temple both enter Thursday's contest having won six of their last seven games. In that stretch, the Tigers and Owls have three road victories and one win over a ranked team (both defeated USF). The lone loss for both Memphis and Temple was to top-ranked Connecticut.

TV: None
Radio: 91.7 FM (WUMR)
Internet Video: American Digital Network (ADN)
Live Stats: memphis.statbroadcast.com
LiveTweet: @MemphisWBKB, #MEMWBKB, #GoTigersGo

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know
• For the sixth time this season, Memphis played a game in which the outcome was decided by five or fewer points last Saturday at East Carolina. And, for the sixth time this season, the Tigers won the close nail-biter. In 2015-16, Memphis is a perfect 6-0 in games decided by five or fewer points. The previous two seasons (2013-14, 2014-15), the Tigers had a 9-8 record in games decided by five or fewer points.

• Temple leads the all-time series with Memphis 5-0. The Owls are one of two league foes the Tigers have not beaten since the American Athletic Conference was formed in July of 2013. Temple won this season's earlier meeting, an 82-58 victory in the league opener for both teams. In the last encounter played in Memphis, the Owls posted a narrow 58-57 victory Dec. 28, 2014.

• When it comes to defense, the Tigers have been playing well lately. In four of its last six games, Memphis held the four foes under 60 points. The Tigers' opponents averaged 55.0 points, while Memphis averaged 66.8 points in those four games. Memphis also forced its opponents to average 23.8 turnovers per game (95 total) over that stretch of games. For the season, the Tigers have a 10-1 record (.909 winning percentage) when they hold their opponents to under 60 points.

• So, Tiger Nation wants more defense. Well, the 2015-16 squad can do that. In the last four games in which it held foes to under 60 points, Memphis also has held three of those four opponents to under 40 percent shooting from the field. For the season, the Tigers have an impressive 10-3 record (.769 winning percentage) when holding opponents to under 40 percent from the floor.

• Senior Ariel Hearn became the Tigers' "iron-woman" in the thrilling 79-78 overtime win at East Carolina Feb. 13. Hearn played 43 minutes against the Pirates and now has a school-record 3,983 minutes played for her career. The Memphis, Tenn., native also moved into the No. 8 spot on the program's all-time scoring chart with her 22 points versus East Carolina. She now has 1,853 career points. All seven players in front of Hearn on the Tigers all-time scoring chart have 2,000 or more points.

Scouting Temple
The Owls enter Thursday's American Athletic Conference match-up with a 17-8 overall record and an 11-3 league mark. Temple has won six of its last seven, with the lone setback against top-ranked Connecticut Feb. 14. The Owls are 7-5 overall away from home, including a 5-2 road record in American Athletic Conference play. Temple won its last three road games at Tulane Jan. 26, East Carolina Jan. 30 and Cincinnati Feb. 9. The Owls' last road setback was a 104-49 loss at No. 1 ranked Connecticut.

Temple returns four starters and seven letterwinners from its 2014-15 team. Sophomore guard Alliya Butts leads three players averaging double figures at 15.6 ppg. Feyonda Fitzgerald (13.0 ppg) and Tanaya Atkinson (12.2 ppg) also average double digits. Erica Covile leads the Owls on the glass at 7.2 rpg. Donnaizha Fountain is the squad's second-leading rebounder (6.5 rpg). Fitzgerald leads the Owls in assists (128 total; 5.1 apg), while Butts is tops on the team in steals (70 total; 2.8 spg). Butts is the team's top three-point threat, taking 186 attempts and hitting 32.8 percent from the arc.

Temple is shooting 39.2 percent from the floor, 30.4 percent from the three-point arc and 69 percent from the free throw line. The Owls are out-rebounding their opponents by an average margin of +1.6 boards per game (41.3-39.7).