Temple Falls to Tulane Yet Again in a Nailbiter

Written By: Liam Andell

Photo Courtesy of: Temple Women’s Basketball Twitter

Normally, March is the time of the year where we see the most intense and exciting finishes in college hoops, but today’s Temple matchup against Tulane did not disappoint…well unless you played for the Owls.

Tulane was able to hold on right to the end and secure the victory 71-69.  With this win, Tulane advances to 6-4 and swaps spots with Temple in the AAC.

Temple found themselves down 10 points right at the 3:00 mark of the 4th quarter. The Owls did find a glimmer of hope as they earned 6 free-throw attempts in the span of 23 seconds.

Unfortunately for Temple, it was a familiar outcome at the charity stripe as they managed to go 3 of 6 on those attempts.  

Temple played solid on both sides of the ball making baskets and attacking on defense in the closing minutes but ultimately lost.  

In hindsight, you could say that those three missed shots from the free-throw line could have won Temple the game. Poor free-throw shooting is not going to cut it for Temple when their opponents shoot well.

Tulane dropped in 20 of 25 from the line but also had success in other aspects of the game.  Most importantly was the impact from beyond the arc.  Tulane went 9 of 19 from the three and it helped spread their offense out.  

Freshman Jerkalia Jordan was lighting it up per usual as she dropped 18 points on only twenty-eight minutes. Senior forward Krystal Freeman tallied 16 points and eight rebounds and senior guard Sierra Cheatham came off the bench and drained three clutch three-point shots.  

The three-point shooting efficiency for Tulane was Temple’s worst performance defensively all season long, luckily for them, Temple’s offense was clicking today.  

The Owls had a season-high four players score in double figures.  

Mia Davis and Jasha Clinton went back to lighting it up as Davis was a force inside the paint scoring 22 and Clinton with 17 hit a clutch shot down the wire to cut the deficit to six.

While Clinton’s points were there, she struggled throughout the game with fouls and turnovers.  She committed seven total turnovers as well as five fouls resulting in her fouling out of the game. 

Junior forward Alexa Williamson dropped a subtle 15 points as she worked underneath the basket not only scoring but scooping up seven rebounds of her own.  Her presence around the basket led her to 10 free throw attempts where she struggled severely by only converting on 5 of the 10 attempts

Temple desperately needs to get back in the win column and they have the opportunity to do so on Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 6:00 PM when the Owls continue the long road trip and head to Cincinnati (3-10, 2-7).