Temple was trailing Tulane by four points and on a scoring drought with less than three minutes to go. The Owls’ offense had been a mixed bag all game, but guard Tarriyonna Gary refused to go down without a fight. She connected on a three pointer to cut the deficit to one, forcing the Green Wave to call a timeout.
On the ensuing possession, the Owls forced a turnover and Gary drilled another three to give Temple a two-point lead. The lead was short-lived as Tulane forward Sherese Pittman made a layup on the next possession that tied the game with two minutes to go.
Temple never got a bucket after Gary’s three despite multiple opportunities to leave with a win. Pittman made another layup to put the Green Wave up by two with 28 seconds left to play. The Owls missed their next two shots and were forced to foul. Tulane missed both free throws and the door was cracked open, but guard Tiarra East’s last-second shot ricocheted off the rim and Tulane held on for the win.
Temple (12-7, 6-2 American Athletic Conference) stumbled in its 62-60 loss against Tulane (12-7, 5-3 AAC) Saturday afternoon at The Liacouras Center. The loss snaps the Owls’ four-game winning streak and spoils their chances of taking sole possession of second place in the AAC.
“It was a game that we should have won and I don’t think we gave enough to win,” said head coach Diane Richardson. “Tulane came in here fighting and they came out with a win. We’ve gotta do better than that. We’ve got to play defense the entire game.”
Temple started the game sluggish and was held to a shot clock violation on its first possession. Tulane on the other hand, was on fire and opened the game shooting 5-7 from the field. The Green Wave dominated down low and finished the first quarter with 12 of their 14 points coming inside the paint.
The Owls’ offensive struggles only got worse during the next 10 minutes. Temple missed 14 straight shots amid a seven-minute field goal drought. Despite the non-existent offense, Temple stayed in the game as Tulane couldn’t take advantage and the score was 14-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Temple found a groove to start the second period and trimmed the deficit down to one. The push was guided by back-to-back three- pointers from guard Kaylah Turner and forward Savannah Curry, but the spark was promptly put out. Tulane responded with a 6-0 run to push its lead back to seven going into the media timeout.
“I told them I thought they were asleep in the first quarter,” Richardson said. “We weren’t moving, which gave them the opportunity to defend us better. At this point in our season, we’ve got to be ready as soon as the buzzer goes off.”
The Green Wave’s momentum slowed coming out of the break and Temple went to work with a 6-0 run of its own. The Owls have excelled at forcing turnovers all season and that continued against Tulane with six in the second quarter. The burst on both ends of the court wasn’t enough for the Owls, as they trailed 31-26 heading into the locker room.
The Owls rode their momentum to open the second half with a 9-2 run, taking their first lead since the opening quarter. Tulane fought back with guard Kyren Whittington spearheading the charge with ten points in the third quarter. Whittington finished the night with 15 points and was one of three Tulane players to finish with double-digits.
Temple’s offense settled down and yet another scoring drought ensued, going three minutes without a bucket. The Green Wave picked up steam to end the quarter and finished with three straight buckets to retake the lead at 48-45 heading into the final 10 minutes.
Both teams went back and forth to open the fourth quarter, but neither could take control of the game. Richardson called a timeout following a Tulane jumper as her team was down by two and in the midst of a scoring drought. Coming out of the timeout, Temple gave the ball away which allowed for Tulane to score and extend its lead to four.
Gary stepped up to keep Temple in the game. East entered the game as the Owls’ leading scorer but went the entire second half without a made shot and Gary took her place as the offensive engine. The guard had 23 points including back-to-back three-pointers to put the Owls up by two. Temple didn’t score a basket after that, and its win streak came crashing down.
“They played some tough defense, but I thought we should have been able to get open,” Richardson said. “We stood around too much offensively, didn’t execute our stuff. When we are communicating defensively, we communicate offensively. It’s just like a well-oiled machine and we didn’t see that today.”
Temple will be back in action when it travels to Denton, Texas, to take on North Texas (14-5, 6-1 AAC) on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m.
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