BY: COLE NOWAK
Key Injury hurts Owls in matchup that should have been won
PHILADELPHIA- Temple (13-8 overall, 6-4 AAC) could not follow up Saturday’s 67-58 victory against Tulsa (7-14 overall, 1-9 AAC) at the Liacouras Center. The Owls traveled to Tampa to take on USF (7-14 overall, 2-7 AAC) on Monday, prior to this matchup Temple has been a perfect 7-0 against USF on the road in previous meetings.
Monday night would write a different story.
Temple Outlasts Tulsa
Entering Saturday, Temple was 6-2 over their last 8 games. One of those losses coming from an extremely talented Houston team who is currently 6th in the latest AP poll. In that contest, the Owls hung tough losing 66-61 on their home floor.
Tulsa is the direct opposite of Houston in terms of AAC standings. Houston sits atop of the league standings, while Tulsa entered Saturday in last place of the AAC. The game still would not come easy for the Owls.
“I think it’s experience, we are talking about kids who have yet to play a full college season,” noted Temple head coach Aaron Mckie.
McKie was referring to the inability of Temple to string a full 40 minutes of basketball together. The Owls jumped out to a great start, taking a 32-21 lead into the half. Nick Jourdain was hands down the most pivotal player in the first half, grabbing six offensive rebounds leading to five second chance points. He added seven points and finished with seven rebounds to conclude the half.
The second half would not go as smoothly for the Owls, with 10:15 left in the half, Tulsa would pull even at 40. Both teams would trade blows for the next six minutes of gameplay, resulting in a 50-50 tie with 3:48 left.
Temple would put their foot on the accelerator and take off from Tulsa from that point on. Back-to-back daggers took place to finish off Golden Hurricanes.
The first, came via a gorgeous cross court feed from freshman Jahlil White to Zach Hicks in the corner for a three. A minute later, Temple’s Jeremiah Williams would make a great defensive play, that was scooped up by White, where he would rifle the pass up court for Jourdain, who finished off the play with an empathic jam that would extend the Owls lead to seven with two minutes left.
Temple vs.Tulsa Game Highlights & post-game interviews with head coach Aaron Mckie, Nick Jourdain & jahlil White - by COle Nowak:
This would be too much to overcome, as the Owls took care of business at the free throw line down the stretch to secure the 67-58 victory.
“I’m proud, he’s coming. He drives me crazy, but I love his ability to check so many boxes for us,” said McKie when addressing Jahlil White’s development this season.
White did everything for the Owls in the win. He finished with nine points, nine assists, and six rebounds.
Jourdain was the other big performer as he added eight second half points to end with 15 on the afternoon, in addition to finishing with a season-high 12 rebounds.
USF’s Only 3-pointer was the deciding factor
This game was a low scoring affair for both sides. Entering halftime, USF held a two-point leading standing at 22-20 in favor of the Bulls. The ugly shooting performance would continue well into the second half, even worse USF had yet to hit a 3-pointer for the first 39 minutes and 40 seconds of the competition.
Javon Greene would change that narrative, hitting a deep three with 20 seconds left right in front of the USF bench to put them up by one. Temple would be unable to convert on the other end of the floor, and poorly defend USF’s inbound pass that would bleed five crucial seconds off the clock, leaving Greene with two big free throws with 2.8 seconds left.
Greene would sink both opportunities giving the Bulls a three-point cushion. The Bulls would give a strong defensive effort on the Owls inbound pass, and the Owls were unable to successfully get the ball in Damien Dunn’s hands that was picked off by USF. USF would steal this one right from the Owls and capture only their second American conference win.
Temple's Nick Jourdain & Jahlil White
The loss would not be the only issue, Temple’s standout freshman guard Jeremiah Williams would leave the game late in the first half after suffering an apparent right arm injury after swiping at the ball in attempt to strip the ball. He left the game in a sling, on top of that, Dunn suffered an ankle injury late in the game but would still finish.
Temple will have an uphill battle on their hands if these injuries hold them out from any gameplay, with Khalif Battle already out for the season and Jake Forrester out with personal reasons. Temple enters a critical stretch in their six games: two against Tulane, one against Cincinnati, SMU, Memphis, and Houston with four of the six being on the road.
Buckle up Owls' fans.