In the last seven seconds of Wednesday night’s game, freshman guard Marissa Mackins scored five points.
Those points didn’t change the outcome of the 64-61 loss to Tulsa, but they represented much more to Mackins.
What [Cardoza] said at halftime, playing with pride,” Mackins said. “That really hit me hard, so I just came out and played like I knew how to.”
Mackins led the Owls in scoring with 19 points, which ties her career high.
The Owls (9-18, 5-9 The American Athletic Conference) scored only 22 points in the first half, shooting 25.8 percent from the floor and 16.7 percent from beyond the arc.
At the half, Mackins scored eight total points, including both of Temple’s 3-point shots.
Mackins’ 19-point performance came in a frustrating game for coach Tonya Cardoza. Cardoza said the team “went through the motions” in the loss and did not play with enough energy to win.
“It felt like right from the start [Tulsa] took it right at us,” Cardoza said. “Really, there was no catching up and I felt like we played on our heels the entire game.”
Heading into halftime, Temple trailed by 11 points. By the end of the third quarter, the Owls only trailed by three points, thanks to an offensive spark from Mackins and sophomore forward Mia Davis, who ended the game with 18 points.
Davis hit Temple’s first two shots of the quarter. Mackins and Davis each scored six points in the third quarter, combining for more than half of Temple’s total for the 10-minute period.
By the end of the night, Mackins accounted for five of Temple’s eight 3’s, while also recording a steal, three rebounds and two assists. Mackins played for 38 minutes, tying another career high.
“[Mackins] has been in the starting lineup over the last month, she’s grown a lot,” Cardoza said. “She just has a sense that she wants to win and she’s going to go out there and do whatever her team needs her to do.”
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