Temple drops first home game in 80-74 loss to Tulsa
Temple Men’s Basketball was as good as any team in the country when defending its home court, starting the season with 10 straight wins at the Liacouras Center. But, all good things must come to an end, as Tulsa became the first road team to pick up a win on North Broad this season.
The Owls jumped out to an 11-point lead with 4:39 left in the first half, but the Golden Hurricane then closed the half on a 10-point run to cut the deficit to one point.
Tulsa (10-15, 4-8 American Athletic Conference) carried that momentum into the second half, closing out the final 10 minutes on a 13-point run and defeating the Owls (14-11, 6-6 AAC) 80-74 on Wednesday night.
“We gotta do a better job,” said head coach Adam Fisher. “We gotta talk more, we gotta communicate more. Great credit to [Tulsa], but we got to guard better.”
Temple guard Jamal Mashburn Jr., who came into the game second in the nation in points per game averaging 22.1, returned after a three-game absence due to a toe injury. He put up 19 points on an inefficient 6-for-20 from the field.
“He missed a lot of time,” Fisher said. “In the first half, his shooting numbers weren’t that great, but I thought he really defended. I thought he played really hard. We talked about it with him, he’s a guy that we trust.”
Temple failed to make a three-pointer in the first half, shooting 0-for-8. They finished the game shooting 5-for-17 from three-point range.
The Golden Hurricane shot a staggering 18-for-25 from the field in the second half (72%) compared to the Owls’ 11-for-25 (44%).
The Owls started strong in the second half, jumping out to a nine-point lead. Things were starting to look comfortable for Fisher’s squad, but then Golden Hurricane’s guard Isaiah Barnes stole the ball from Mashburn Jr. and scored on the other end, sparking a quick 5-0 run and cutting the deficit to just four points.
Later in the half, monstrous dunks by Barnes and guard Dwon Odom gave Tulsa all the momentum they needed to win the game, as they took the lead 38 seconds after Odom’s dunk on a made layup by guard Keaston Willis.
Temple did regain the lead, but it didn’t last long.
Tulsa quickly took back the lead and held onto it thanks to a floater from Odom giving the Golden Hurricane a three-point lead with 33 seconds left. After Berry missed a floater of his own, the game was sealed with two made free throws by Willis.
The Owls will be back at the Liacouras Center on Saturday to take on FAU at 12 p.m. on ESPN2.
