City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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The vision for Temple women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson when she took over this past offseason was a program that plays fast.

There were glimpses of that vision against No. 24 Princeton on Monday night to officially begin Richardson’s tenure as head coach. There were also more indications that ‘Fast’ might come slow.

Richardson’s Owls looked like a group still trying to figure themselves out in a 67-49 loss to the Tigers, who return four starters from last season’s Ivy League champions.

It's going to take time for the new head coach to get her team up to speed.

“The thing about today is obviously it’s the first game, and we’re going to look at the film and talk about where we can be better,” Richardson said after her first game as the Owls’ head coach. “That’s one of the things I think that our coaching staff is really good at is pointing out what we need to get better at through film.

“It was a measure against a Top 25 team. Obviously, I knew that going in that they’re a tough, tough team. … They’ll get better, and they'll get better playing together and they’ll get better reading defenses as well.”

Richardson wasn’t the only one making her Temple debut on Monday night as more than half of the nine-player rotation wasn’t on campus last season.

Sophomore guard Jasha Clinton was the only returner in the starting five who also started to begin last season. Clinton and classmate Tiarra East, who started the final 12 games of 2021-22, were the only holdovers out on the floor for the Owls on to start Monday night. 

“There’s a lot of things that are different,” East said. “We’re pushing it at a fast pace now and we’re getting out in transition and getting buckets. That’s the main difference.”

Senior guard Aleah Nelson (Towson), senior forward Denise Solis (UMass-Lowell) and sophomore forward Ines Piper (Northwest Florida) were the other Temple starters.

Sophomore forward Caranda Perea and graduate guard Jalynn Holmes are the only other returners to see action on Monday, while junior guard Tarriyonna Gary (Towson) and redshirt-junior forward Brittany Garner (Prairie View A&M) came off the bench.

“That was pretty tough for us this summer,” Richardson said. “While other people were working on their sets and their offense, we were working on familiarity and skill development. Coming in with six players from last year, knowing our style of offense, we had to learn and we had to teach them that and understanding that this fast pace, fast tempo is the way we’re going to play. That took us a little time to get used to that and to get comfortable.”

The newness of the Owls was apparent on both ends where positioning and communication combined for a slow start.

Defensively Temple gave up six layups in the first eight minutes and change as Princeton went 9-for-13 from the floor . With the Owls unable to get stops and unable to get out and run, the offense struggled as well, putting Temple in a 20-5 hole.

“We weren’t recovering on defense, helping the helper,” East said. “That’s something we gotta work on.”

“It took us out (of our offensive game) because when they’re getting buckets we need to be able to reciprocate on the other end. But also when we make a bucket we have to make another stop. We just can’t keep going back and forth,” she added.

There was a brief part of the game where things started to hum. Temple finished the last 5:23 of the first half on a 15-3 run to close its gap to 28-25 at halftime. The Tigers kept a five-to-nine point edge throughout the third as the two teams traded buckets before pulling away in the fourth.

Richardson noted her team got in foul trouble in the fourth (Piper and Garner fouled out) and there was a defensive let down, allowing the Tigers to turn a tight game into a blowout win.

“We went into halftime down three because our defense got us back in the game,” Richardson said. “I think in the fourth quarter, we just got down, not pushing up on defense like we normally do and they were able to make shots.”

Kaitlyn Chen (14 points, nine rebounds), Julia Cunningham (13 points, nine rebounds, five assists), Paige Morton (13 points) and Ellie Mitchell (12 points, 15 rebounds) all reached double figures for Princeton.

Clinton had 15 points (5-for-16), East had 11 points and 11 rebounds and Nelson had nine (2-for-14) for Temple. Perea was the only Temple player to knock down a 3-point shot as the Owls finished 1-for-20 from deep (the two teams were a combined 0-for-29 from deep before Perea’s three with 3:39 to play). 

“I thought we had some great moments today, some great, great moments in the game, and we’ll just build on that,” Richardson said. “We’re talking about a team that was just put together in the summer. Obviously, they are a talented and very experienced team and we’ve got players who have never played together. I’m thrilled with what we did together and we’ll just build on that.”

The Richardson era continues Saturday at Georgetown with the goal to continue to grow. The Owls still feel like there’s a buzz this season with a lot of new faces in the building to shake things up.

They'll do their best to speed up the progress.

“There’s a lot more energy from last year,” East said. “They all believe in us. They all have confidence in us so that brings another boost of energy to all of us on the team.”