With 30 seconds remaining, Temple was leading Tulsa by six and seemed to be on track to pick up the win despite nearly blowing a 17-point lead. However, disaster promptly struck for the Owls.
Tulsa forward Jade Clack hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to three. Temple could not get the ball inbounded and was called for a five-second violation which gave Tulsa possession again. Tulsa guard Delanie Crawford got the ball in the corner and nailed a heavily contested three to tie the game with five seconds remaining.
Temple called a timeout and drew up a play for guard Kaylah Turner to give the Owls the win. Turner got the ball and got to her spot on the right elbow, but her jumper hit the back rim and careened into a sea of players. Temple forward Amaya Oliver came away with the rebound and made a putback layup to give Temple the win.
Temple (10-6, 4-1 American Athletic Conference) defeated Tulsa (8-9, 2-3 AAC) 73-71 Saturday afternoon at The Liacouras Center. The Owls’ 4-1 start in conference play is their best start to conference play since the 2021-22 season when they also started 4-1.
“Our resilience has built up through the season, and it was good to see that they toughed it out,” said head coach Diane Richardson. “Tulsa is a great team, they’ve got great shooters and we knew that, but we hung in there, we didn’t have our heads down, and then that last-second putback put us over.”
The Owls raced out of the gate with guard Tiarra East scoring their first four points and had seven points through five minutes. However, Temple struggled to maintain its scoring after the hot start. A drought quickly followed and it allowed Tulsa to crawl back into the game.
Tulsa capitalized on Temple’s scoring drought and grabbed the lead behind strong play from guard Delanie Crawford, who finished the first quarter with 10 points. A key portion of Tulsa’s offense came from three-point range as nearly half of its points came from beyond the arc.
Temple came out on a mission in the second quarter and flipped the momentum by taking a four-point lead. Guard Kaylah Turner continued her hot streak, ripping off eight points in the opening minutes and also forced a turnover.
“We’re getting to that confidence in all of our players and as you can see with so many people scoring, it’s hard to defend,” Richardson said. “That’s what we want. We want to have everybody be a scorer, so it’s hard to double team.”
Crawford continued to fight to get Tulsa back into the game as she drilled a jumper to cut the lead to just two. Despite Crawford’s efforts, it wasn’t enough as the Owls continued to roll, taking a 10-point lead after a Turner three-pointer. The Golden Hurricane cut the lead to five, but in the final two minutes of the half Temple extended it back up to 10 and went into the locker room leading 45-35.
Both teams struggled offensively to open the second half which forced Richardson to call a timeout to regroup her team. Coming out of the timeout, the Owls ripped off an 11-0 run to take a 17-point lead, their largest of the day. Guard Tarriyonna Gary sparked the run as she hit back-to-back three-pointers.
The Golden Hurricane were determined to get back into the game and went on a 7-0 run of their own following a timeout which cut the lead to 56-46. In the final minutes of the quarter, Gary went on another run as she scored five straight points to bring the Temple lead back up to 15.
Tulsa started much stronger in the fourth quarter and went on an 8-0 run to bring the Owls’ lead down to seven which forced Richardson to call another timeout. The timeout failed to slow down the Golden Hurricane attack as they continued their run with another three. Temple looked to regain a comfortable lead as it scored six points unanswered to extend its back lead to 67-57.
The Golden Hurricane refused to go away as Crawford drilled back-to-back three-pointers to bring them within two. Once again Temple turned to Turner in the clutch as she nailed a jumper at the end of the shot clock to bring its lead up to four. The Owls forced a turnover and scored on the ensuing possession to once again take a 71-65 lead with just 30 seconds remaining.
Tulsa responded with a three and then forced a five-second violation to get the ball back, where Crawford sank her fifth three of the night to tie the game with just five seconds remaining. In the Owls’ final possession Turner was given the chance to come up clutch again, but missed the jumper. However, Oliver was there to put back the game-winner and secure a 73-71 victory.
“A win is a win, but we just have to make sure going down the line that we’re not letting teams come back from a 20 point lead,” Gary said. “We’re going to make sure that never happens again, or at least try to make sure that never happens again. We’re just going to continue to do what we do.”
Temple remains at The Liacouras Center for its next matchup against Charlotte (5-10, 0-4 AAC) on Jan. 18 at 2 p.m.
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