The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Atkinson adds team record
UNCASVILLE — With friends and family watching from the stands, Tanaya Atkinson wasn’t thinking about a chance to set another Temple women’s basketball record. All she wanted to do was to have at least one more game to play.
Atkinson made certain that would happen with a game-high 24 points to lift the 11th-seeded Owls to a 72-59 win over No. 6 Wichita State in the first game of the American Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena.
In the process, Atkinson set Temple’s single-season scoring record with 634 points.
“I don’t even know how I feel. It is a bittersweet feeling, but my teammates understand that this is one and done,” said Atkinson, who earned All-AAC first team honors and was named the conference’s most improved player. “I feel like we are trying to fight for each other and it is the first time in a while I have seen it all season, and I love that because regardless of what happens, I feel like my teammates are really trying to keep playing for our seniors. We didn’t have a great season, but we are finding a way to get back and finding a way to fight so I feel like this is great for them having to grow up, their first conference (tournament) win ever and I feel like they could feed off of this energy.”
The New Haven native who was the New Haven Register State Player of the Year as a senior at Career, Atkinson etched her name into the Temple record books by becoming the second player in program history to record at least 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. She also became the first player from Temple to win the AAC scoring champion.
More history came when Atkinson set the Owls’ single-season scoring record. Kamesha Hairston, who called Mohegan Sun Arena her home court during her lone WNBA season when she played in 17 games with the Connecticut Sun, had 625 points during the 2006-07 season. Atkinson will enter Sunday’s AAC quarterfinal against UCF with 634 points. Still, it was more about surviving and advancing than any individual accomplishments for Atkinson.
“I told them that even if we lose, as long as we fought hard,” said Atkinson, who was joined in the starting lineup by three freshmen. “We didn’t give up and the way we fought as a team, that is something we can live with. We have a lot of young guys and I feel like we definitely needed this boost. It made me into a better leader, I feel like they look at me as their big sister and I love that role because I am the perfect person to play it. I am very vocal, I am very emotional and passionate, I love the game. I just want them to have those footsteps to look forward to when they are seniors. I feel like they respect me a lot and want to play for not just me but our seniors too.”