Senior guard Shi-Heria Shipp was named to the American Athletic Conference and Big 5 honor rolls Monday for the second time this season.

The George Washington transfer posted game-highs of 17 points and 16 rebounds in Temple’s 61-52 road win at Montana on Saturday en route to the honors.

Through her team’s seven games to date, Shipp has averaged 11.6 points-per-game for Temple (5-2) in her debut season.

-Andrew Parent

Sophomore May Dayan will leave the team and return to her hometown of Ashdod Israel, athletic communications announced Friday. The sophomore said personal reasons ultimately led to her departure.

The 5-foot-7 guard hasn’t played in Temple’s four games this season after seeing action in 30 contests a season ago with six starts and 1.7 points-per-game as a freshman.

“After a year-and-a-half at Temple University and due to personal issues, I have to return to Israel,” Dayan said to Owlsports.com. “I would like to thank all the people that helped me along the way, my coaches, my academic advisor, compliance, and especially my teammates. I would also like to thank Temple University for giving me this great opportunity. Temple was my home for the last year-and-a-half and will always have a special place in my heart. I wish the Owls good luck and know they will have a great season.”

Dayan joins a growing list of absentees for the Owls this season, as would-be sophomore Sally Kabengano didn’t return this season after a productive freshman year. Junior guard Rateska Brown and sophomore forward Jacquilyn Jackson also were key contributors to the team a year ago, and have both been sidelined due to indefinite suspensions.

The Owls came away with four signees on signing day, the team announced Thursday.

Tanaya Atkinson, Khadijah Berger, Wendion Bibbins and Alliya Butts all signed their National Letters of Intent with the team on the first signing day, and will likely round out Temple’s 2014 recruiting class.

Atkinson is a 5-foot-9 guard from Hill Regional Career High School in New Haven, Conn. who averaged 20.4 points and 8.1 rebounds in her junior year last year en route to All-Southern Connecticut Conference and All-Connecticut High School Coaches Association honors.

Berger, a 5-foot-10 guard, posted 17.1 PPG as a junior for Hampton High School in Virginia last year and earned a 2013 USA Today honorable mention. Per Owlsports, she played AAU ball with Temple freshman guard Feyonda Fitzgerald.

Bibbins is a 6-foot-1 power forward who could help supplement the loss of redshirt-senior forward Natasha Thames next year. The Helgen Cox High School senior was a 2012 LSWA Class 4A Honorable Mention All-State selection.

Butts, a local kid from Holy Cross High School in Edgewater Park, N.J., stands at a mere 5-foot-4 at the point guard position.

The height disadvantage clearly is no problem, as the current high school senior led all of Burlington County with 25.2 PPG last season for Holy Cross and was named to the Elite 100 Watch List. She has Philadelphia ties, as she played her AAU ball with the Philadelphia Freedom.

Senior guard Shi-Heria Shipp graced the floor during her Temple debut with a jump in her step Friday at La Salle, and it earned her a spot on the American Athletic Conference and Big 5 honor rolls for week one, it was announced Monday.

The George Washington transfer dropped a career-high 18 points in her Temple debut against the Explorers, and scored nine amid an Owls’ 19-0 run in the second half. Shipp also led Temple with an 8-for-8 performance from the free throw line, and swiped five steals en route to a 60-47 Owls win in the season opener.

Heading into their matchup against a very different Delaware team from a year ago, the Owls at least know who they don’t have to worry about.

Temple (1-0) will take on Delaware at the Blue Hens’ Bob Carpenter Center Tuesday night at 7 p.m., and will at least know who they don’t have to worry about.

The Blue Hens (1-0) return three starters from last year, and will be missing the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year in Elena Delle Donne. Delle Donne was the No. 2 selection in the WNBA draft in 2013 after a four-year career at Delaware in which she averaged 26.4 points per game and led Delaware to back-to-back Colonial Athletic Association championships in her final two years.

Still, Blue Hens seniors Courtni Green and Kelsey Buchanan each put up 15 points on Rhode Island Friday in a 63-47 win. Buchanan, a 6’3” center, could be the Owls first challenge up front this season as the 6’0” redshirt-senior forward Natasha Thames is expected to start at center for the second consecutive game.

Temple senior guard Shi-Heria Shipp scored a game-high 18 points in the Owls’ 60-47 opening win against La Salle Friday night and is again expected to start, as coach Tonya Cardoza will likely go with the same relatively small four-guard lineup of Thames, Shipp, junior Tyonna Williams, sophomore Erica Covile and freshman Feyonda Fitzgerald.

Tuesday marks the first matchup between the two teams since Temple downed Delaware, 72-54, at McGonigle Hall in 1997.

The Owls will begin the regular season with a road contest against cross-town rival La Salle on Friday at 7 p.m. Friday’s game will be both team’s first Philadelphia Big-5 game of the season.

Last year, the Owls earned a 14-18 overall record which included a 5-9 Atlantic-10 conference record. Among Temple’s nine conference losses was a 71-57 loss to former A-10 foe La Salle in McGonigle Hall. The loss to La Salle was coach Tonya Cardoza’s first loss to the Explorers in her five seasons as coach of the Owls.

Junior guard Tyonna Williams, redshirt senior forward Natasha Thames, and sophomore Erica Coville are the Owls’ top returning players and will be part of the starting roster against the Explorers. Coville joins the starting lineup after a season-ending knee injury last season.

In the offseason, the Owls brought two new players who will likely start against the Explorers: freshman guard Feyonda Fitzgerald and former George Washington fifth-year senior forward Shi-Heria Shipp. In the Owls’ exhibition game against West Chester, Fitzgerald scored a game-high 23 points and Shipp tied a game-high with 12 rebounds.

Top returning scorer junior guard Rateska Brown has been suspended indefinitely so Temple will also depend on sophomore guards Meghan Roxas and May Dayan to provide support off the bench at the guard position. Roxas scored 11 points in last year’s game against La Salle.

Depending on Cardoza’s decision on the size of Temple’s lineup, freshmen centers Safiya Martin and Taylor Robinson may also play significant minutes.

For La Salle, its starting lineup will feature a brand new combination of players, as they return four letterwinners and no starters from last season. The Explorers were selected to finish in tenth place in the A-10’s preseason poll.

With Temple moving to the American Athletic Conference, the Owls and La Salle no longer conference foes, but the 37 year Philadelphia rivalry continues in the Big-5. Last year’s victory gave La Salle a 21-20 all-time advantage against Temple.