Coming out of the locker room for the second half, Temple only trailed by five points and was searching for its first win against a ranked opponent since the 2016-17 season. The Owls shot 52% in the first half and forced 12 turnovers and were looking for a spark to take control against Cal.
Instead, Temple fell flat in the third quarter. The Golden Bears came out of halftime dominating in every aspect of the game. Cal used an 11-2 run in the middle of the third quarter to push its lead to 17 points.
As the third quarter buzzer sounded, Temple was down by 22 points. The Owls got outrebounded by 12 in the third quarter and failed to rediscover their offensive momentum from the first half. Temple could not dig themselves out of the hole and fell to the nationally-ranked Golden Bears to close non-conference play.
Temple (6-5, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) was overpowered by No. 24 California (13-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) 89-63 Sunday night in the Raising the B.A.R. Invitational championship. The Owls gave up 16 three-pointers to Cal, which is the most they have allowed since they gave up 19 to Florida Gulf Coast on Dec. 22, 2019.
The Owls opened their game against Xavier last night on the right foot and seemingly got off to a similar start against Cal. Temple scored the first four points of the game to try and set the tone. However, the Golden Bears immediately answered back by scoring the next 10 points to force Temple into a timeout.
Cal entered the game 10th in the country in three-pointers made per game with 10 and its shooting was causing headaches for Temple’s defense early on. The Golden Bears opened up a 20-10 lead behind a pair of three-pointers from guard Ioanna Krimili. The game looked like it was going to get out of hand for the Owls, but they rallied and scored the final nine points of the first quarter.
Cal guard Lulu Twidale opened the second quarter by hitting three consecutive three-pointers as the Golden Bears extended their lead to 29-21. However, the Owls remained in the game thanks to their defense forcing turnovers. Temple forced 12 turnovers in the first half and turned those into eight points.
While the Owls were consistently forcing turnovers, they did not have an answer for the Cal barrage from beyond the arc. The Golden Bears made 15 shots in the first half and 10 came from three-point land. As the buzzer sounded to end the first half, Krimili hit a deep three-pointer to put the cherry on top for Cal’s first-half shooting. Temple’s offense was playing just as well, shooting 52% from the field in the first half but entering halftime trailing 40-35.
Coming out of the locker room, Cal regained control of the game by taking command of the glass. Temple outrebounded Xavier by 18 in the first round of the tournament but failed to replicate that success to open the second half. The Owls were outrebounded 33-13 in the second half and 50-25 in the game.
Cal recorded four offensive rebounds in the first four minutes of the second half. Center Ugonne Onyaih had two of those rebounds and scored layups off both second-chance shots. The Golden Bears extended their lead back to double digits as guard Kayla Williams connected on the 11th three of the game for Cal.
While the Owls were able to claw their way back from down double digits in the first half, they could not do the same in the second half. The Golden Bears went on an 11-2 run in the middle of the third quarter to balloon their lead to 60-41 behind more three-pointers.
Temple continued to have no answer for the Cal offensive attack as the Golden Bears extended their lead to 22 after another three from Twidale. By the time the dust settled in the third quarter, Cal was leading 69-46 and outscored Temple 29-11 in the quarter.
Cal also outrebounded Temple 18-6 in the third quarter and the Owls only shot 35% from the field. Temple went from competing with the nationally ranked Golden Bears to being blown out of the water.
The Owls still did not have an answer for the red-hot Golden Bears in the fourth quarter, giving up 20 more points and squashing any hopes for a comeback.
Four different players scored in double figures for Cal, led by Twidale and Krimili with 20 each. Temple shot just 32% in the second half and was outscored 49-28 after halftime. Guard Tristen Taylor led the Owls with 17 points and was the only Owl to reach double digits.
The Owls will look to rebound when they kick off their conference slate by traveling to Birmingham, Alabama to take on UAB (9-3, 0-0 AAC) on Dec. 29 at 3 p.m.
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