Temple 68, No. 13 George Washington 66

1/19/2008 4:16 PM

By ROB MAADDI
AP Sports Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Ashley Morris leaped in the air and landed in a teammate's arms.

Just like one of Lindsay Kimmel's arching 3-pointers, everything fell nicely for Temple.

Shanea Cotton's basket with 23 seconds left lifted the Owls to a 68-66 victory over No. 13 George Washington on Saturday.

Kimmel scored 15 points on five 3-pointers and Lady Comfort and Morris added 14 each for Temple (9-10, 2-1 Atlantic 10 Conference).

The Owls improved to 11-79 all-time against ranked opponents. Temple beat then-No. 22 Purdue 61-47 on Nov. 24. This one against a conference foe was a lot sweeter.

``To beat GW, it's bragging rights,'' Temple coach Dawn Staley said.

So when the final buzzer sounded after LaKeisha Eaddy stole an inbounds pass, it was time to celebrate.

``We were well-prepared, well-coached and we knew what to expect from them,'' Morris said. ``This win does a lot for us. Like Coach said before the game, if we win, we get our mojo back.''

Sarah-Jo Lawrence had 17 and Kimberly Beck scored 15 for George Washington (14-4, 2-1), which had won nine straight games.

The Colonials hadn't lost since wasting a 24-point halftime lead in a 62-61 loss to UNLV on Nov. 30.

``Temple is a little better team than their record shows,'' George Washington coach Joe McKeown said. ``They play a national schedule. They don't dodge anybody.''

After Eaddy's jumper put Temple ahead 61-53, the Colonials answered with a 13-3 run. Whitney Allen's driving layup got George Washington within a basket and Antelia Parrish hit a long jumper to tie it at 64. Lawrence scored on a strong inside move to put the Colonials ahead for the first time, 66-64, with 2 minutes to go.

Eaddy's layup tied it and Cotton scored off her own miss to give the Owls a 68-66 lead. Cotton then grabbed a key rebound at the other end to help secure the win. After Cotton missed a free throw, Eaddy's steal sealed it.

``They played hard. We didn't play good enough offense,'' said Jessica Adair, who had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Colonials.

George Washington had won 19 consecutive conference games, including 12 straight on the road. The fired-up Owls jumped out to a 13-5 lead and led 31-26 at halftime.

Temple used an 11-2 run early in the second half to open up its first double-digit lead at 42-32. Kimmel hit consecutive wide-open 3s during the stretch, and it seemed the Owls would pull away.

But the Colonials answered with a 9-2 spurt to cut it to 44-41 and the teams went back-and-forth for much of the remainder of the game.