Freshman forward Erica Covile suffered a dislocated knee in practice last week and could be lost for the remainder of the season.

The injury occurred in the days leading up to Temple’s trip to Duquesne, when a teammate inadvertently fell on Covile in practice and twisted her knee.

Covile has started six games this season as a rookie, averaging five points and four rebounds per game on the year. She scored a career-high 13 points in a win over Western Michigan on Jan. 7.

Although coach Tonya Cardoza has not officially shut her down for good, Covile said a doctor told her the recovery time will be about two months. If that timetable proves accurate, she’ll be unable to play again this season.

When the Owls host La Salle on Sunday it will be their third Big 5 battle of the season.

Temple (8-10, 1-1 in the Big 5) and La Salle (5-13, 0-2 in the Big 5) have very little to play for in the quest to be crown Philadelphia’s best as Villanova (15-3, 4-0 in the Big 5) has already clinched the title.

Temple dropped their matchup against the Wildcats 55-44 in Villanova on Dec. 21.  All that the Owls can hope for at this point is a second-place finish. The current standings are as follows:

Villanova: 4-0
St. Joseph’s: 1-1
Temple: 1-1
Penn: 1-3
La Salle: 0-2

Only three games remain in the city series. After Sunday’s pairing Temple travels to face the Hawks in what will likely decide the runner-up on Feb. 17. Three days later the Hawks host the Explorers in the Big 5 finale.

If Temple wins Sunday they must defeat St. Joe’s to finish one game behind Villanova. While they won’t have a shot at the title again this year—Villanova won last year as well—coach Tonya Cardoza and company surely won’t want to finish worse than second.

The Owls will be without breakout freshman guard Erica Covile against La Salle, who Tyler Sablich reported has a dislocated knee and will be out for at least two months.

Freshman guard Erica Covile finally established herself as a mainstay in the Owls’ lineup, but an untimely knee injury ended that after just four games.

Now coach Tonya Cardoza is one more player down (sophomore guard Monaye Merritt has been out all season with a torn ACL) and has to make yet another lineup adjustment.

For now Cardoza seems to want a timeshare with freshman forwards Sally Kabengano and Jacquilyn Jackson. Kabengano has started most of the year at the three position. Jackson has only just begun to establish herself after a slow start adjusting to the college game.

So here’s what the Owls are losing from Covile in the last four games she played before missing Wednesday’s contest with Penn. Covile was a balanced and more physical three than Temple has been accustomed to, scoring 7.25 points while grabbing 7.25 rebounds per game. She also shot 38.7 percent from the field but is not a three point shooter, with zero connections from downtown.

On the flipside Cardoza gets 7.8 points per game (over the course of the season) and 4.6 rebounds per game from the Kabengano-Jackson combination. And while the duo shoots just 32 percent they also shoot 36 percent from three-point territory.

So the Owls will lack a more physical presence in Covile but get a little more multi-dimensional on offense with Kabengano and Jackson.

In the wake of the 2013 Atlantic 10 in-conference season, which begun just days ago, the Inaugural Women’s Basketball Legends team has been announced, with Marilyn Stephens being recognized as Temple’s representative.

The A-10 has named 16 former players worthy of being honored for their contributions while playing for their respected A-10 basketball programs.

Stephens, currently the women’s basketball coach at Cheyney University, is Temple’s all-time leader in points (2,194), rebounds (1,519), blocked shots (342), blocks per game (2.9), field goals (919), and free throws (356). She was named Team Kodak All-American in 1984 and was the A-10 Player of the Year in both 1983 and 1984. As the team’s leader, Stephens led the Owls to a fifth-place finish in the WNIT in 1982, followed by a seventh-place finish in 1983. She was inducted in the Temple Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995.

The Women’s Basketball Legends will be honored on March 16 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY. Each institution selected its Legend, a group that represents ten U.S. states, one foreign country, six former All-Americans, and three former academic All-Americans.

***

The announcement of the Legends honorees comes on the evening of Temple’s A-10 home opener against VCU, three days removed from the Owls win over conference rival St. Bonaventure. The Owls (7-8) will look to win three games in a row for the first time this season, a feat that may have seemed unimaginable less than two weeks ago when it was in the midst of a six-game losing skid.

VCU is 7-9 on the season and is coming off a loss to St. Louis in its first in-conference game of the season. Much like Temple, VCU has seen its fair share of ups and downs throughout the year. The Rams have not won back-to-back games since Dec. 8. Junior forward Robyn Parks has been solid all season, averaging 18 points and 8 rebounds per game. Freshman guard Jessica Pellechio has shown great promise as a rookie, averaging 13 points per game while playing the second most minutes on the team.

Temple is coming off two consecutive games in which they have forced more turnovers than committed, an issue that has plagued them until recently. In Sunday’s win over the Bonnies, senior center Victoria Macaulay recored her seventh double-double of the season, scoring 23 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Freshman guard Erica Covile and sophomore guard Tyonna Williams finished in double-figures with 11 points each.

The recent decline in turnovers can be much accredited to Williams, the team’s starting point guard, who has zero turnovers compared to 16 assists the last two games. Williams, who coach Tonya Cardoza recognizes as competitive and hard working, has shown significant progress as of late as a two-guard turned point guard.

Temple and VCU will tip off at 7 p.m. at the Liacouras Center.

Tyler Sablich can be reached at tyler.sablich@temple.edu or on Twitter @TySablich.

The Owls didn’t envision being 7-8 at this point in the season. That’s been well-documented.

But if there’s any sort of solace to take from that rough start, one game into the Atlantic 10 Conference season it’s this. Temple had one of the most ridiculous RPI’s in the nation, and certainly the toughest in the conference.

RPIRatings.com has two different sets of numbers, one on their main page, and another by Jeff Sagarin. The numbers differ a bit but the general consensus is the same.

Temple played one of the toughest schedule in the A-10 thus far. According to Sagarin’s numbers, the Owls had the 13th toughest schedule as of Jan. 13. The next closes was St. Joe’s who came in at 39th in the nation.

According to RPIRatings.com, the Hawks came in at 22nd while the Owls sat at 33rd.

What does this mean?

Well, for starters the Owls are clearly more battle-tested as the conference schedule starts. The tough part of the season should be over, although coach Tonya Cardoza would beg to differ.

Secondly, while teams like Dayton, St. Joe’s and Duquesne may have a better record to date than the Owls it seems like a good predictor that the Owls should be able to leapfrog some of these squads if the ratings are any indication.

Maybe all hope is not lost on the season.

-Jake Adams

The women’s basketball team halted a month-long losing streak just in time for the beginning of Atlantic-10 Conference play.

In the midst of a six-game losing skid, the Owls (6-8) snapped out of their funk last Monday, beating Western Michigan 68-41. Today, Temple will tip off against St. Bonaventure (7-8) in its first in-conference game of the season.

After a team meeting following their loss to Howard, Temple erupted against Western Michigan, finishing with four players in double-figures. Senior center Victoria Macaulay led the way with 22 points and six rebounds on 11-of-19 shooting from the field. For the first time this season the Owls forced more turnovers than they committed, finishing with 12 giveaways compared to Western Michigan’s 16.

St. Bonaventure has also struggled of late, losing eight of their last twelve games after a 4-0 start to the season. Their latest game resulted in a 61-42 losing effort against Green Bay.

The Bonnies have two players averaging in double-figures. Junior forward Doris Ortega leads the Bonnies in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 11.5 points and 6.1 boards per game. Junior guard CeCe Dixon enters play averaging 10.5 points per game.

After spending all six games of their losing streak away on the road, the Owls made a triumphant return to Philadelphia against Western Michigan. However, Temple, which is 1-7 on the road, will travel to Olean, N.Y. to face the Bonnies before returning home again on Wednesday Jan. 16 to face VCU.

Coach Tonya Cardoza said following the Western Michigan game that, despite the win, she anticipates the rest of the season may continue to be a challenge for her young club. The A-10 consists of five teams that have already reached double-digit wins before even beginning in-conference play (Dayton, Charlotte, Duquesne, Fordham, and Richmond), as well as two others that have nine wins (St. Joe’s and Butler).

Temple and St. Bonaventure will tip off A-10 play at 1 p.m.

Tyler Sablich can be reached at tyler.sablich@temple.edu or on Twitter @TySablich.

Only twice in coach Tonya Cardoza’s tenure as the head of the Owls’ program has her squad lost five consecutive games.

The only other time was last season when Temple dropped non-conference games against ranked opponents Ohio State, Texas A&M and Rutgers and non-ranked foe’s Northern Illinois and St. John’s.

Last season the Owls had the likes of senior guards Shey Peddy, BJ Williams and Kristen McCarthy to stop the bleeding and eventually lead the team to a 23-10 season.

This season there’s senior guard Victoria Macaulay, sophomore guard Tyonna Williams and not much else.

Cardoza called this one of the most challenging times in her five years at Temple.

“Most definitely,” Cardoza said. “And I don’t think it has anything to do with youth, I think it’s a mindset that you have to play when you play this game.”

The Owls have two more games before they start the Atlantic 10 Conference season. It’ll be interesting to see how she tries to right the ship.

-Jake Adams