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Tulane hands Temple first AAC defeat

01/07/2023, 8:30pm EST
By Kevin Callahan

By Kevin Callahan (@CP_KCallahan)
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NORTH PHILADELPHIA — This young Temple team is still trying to consistently replicate a winning method, one which the Owls seemingly found the three previous games.

Compounding this challenge, however, was the Owls – with four sophomore starters - retreated to a fail safe formula for losing Saturday afternoon, giving up easy inside shots and settling for 3-pointers down the other end of the Liacouras Center.

This deadly combination of allowing uncontested buckets and not attacking the interior of Tulane’s shifty matchup 2-3 zone tipped a Temple 3-point lead midway though the second half into a slip-away 87-76 loss for the Owls, snapping their modest three-game league winning streak.

“We didn’t do a good job of keeping guys in front of us,” Temple coach Aaron McKie said about the defense in this American Athletic Conference game.

The Temple coach added about the offense: “Their zone can seduce you to take in threes. I thought when we attacked the zone and kicked it out, we got quality shots, but we didn’t do that enough.”

The Owls committed both tragic flaws during Tulane’s decisive 20-6 run after Temple opened a 61-58 lead on a Khalif Battle 3-pointer with 9:50 left.

“Our focus for 40 minutes wasn’t there,” McKie acknowledged.

Temple's Kur Jongkuch, left, throws down a dunk against Tulane on Saturday. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Why, of course, is the haunting question? 

Youth certainly can be blamed and quite possibly so is the continued search for a starting five. McKie has started nine different players this season and just two players – Zach Hicks and Hysier Miller – have opened all 17 games in this 9-8 season.

Interestingly, Temple’s leading scorer Battle has started just eight games while second-leading scorer Damian Dunn has come off the bench in three games.

Again McKie’s starting strategy was used against Tulane, which improved to 10-5 and 3-1 in the AAC, as Battle and Dunn started the game in their warm-ups.

Battle, a 6-foot-5 sophomore guard from Trenton Catholic, came into the game third in the AAC in scoring (18.1) and he finished with 21.

Dunn, a 6-5 sophomore guard, added 16 points – two more than his average.

“We didn’t do our best job of guarding down the stretch,” said Dunn, who scored a career-high 38 points, earlier this season against Vanderbilt for the most points by a Temple player since 2004. 

“We were moving well and getting stops and pushing the ball and not allowing them to set up their defense.”

Temple's Damian Dunn, center, controls the ball in the paint against Tulane on Saturday. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

The stops on defense and the pushing in transition stopped shortly after Dunn drained corner three, tying the score at 58-58 and capping a 10-2 run surge.

Tulane coach Ron Hunter called timeout, but the Owls came out of the break still closing off passing lanes inside on defense and taking open shots on offense as Battle’s 3-pointer padded the lead to 61-58.

Like turning off a light, though, Temple’s concentration on defense and aggression on offense just flicked off and Tulane responded with 11 unanswered points for a 69-61 lead.

Temple certainly didn’t roll over as Hicks buried consecutive 3-pointers to slice the Green Wave lead to 71-67 with five minutes still to play.

The Owls failed to sustain a comeback when Tulane ripped eight straight points for a 78-67 spread with 2:19 left.

“We got to stay together, like coach said,” said Hicks, a 6-8 sophomore swingman from Camden Catholic, after doubling his season average with 16 points on a tidy 6-for-12 shooting from the floor, including 4-for-8 beyond the stripe

Temple did come apart a bit besides on offense and defense.

Jahlil White, 6-7 sophomore guard from Wildwood Catholic, and McKie were both whistled for technical fouls in the second half.  Tulane junior guard Jaylen Forbes, who is the leading free throw shooter in the AAC, sank all four techs for a sudden 54-48 lead.

“I was upset with some of the things that were going on during the game, so I was a little surprised he called a technical foul,” McKie explained. “It was a hard-fought game and for him to make that call at that time, maybe I’m wrong … I got a technical and it hurt our team.”

Another hurt came after the Owls slashed the deficit to 80-72 when Temple was assessed a bench technical for six players on the floor and the Green Wave padded their lead to 11 points. 

“That was on me,” McKie said.

Maybe so, but more significantly the Owls need to stop giving up easy inside shots and settling for 3-pointers when the game is on the line, beginning with another challenging league matchup at Tulsa on Tuesday.

“We have a quick turnaround,” Damon said, “we have to get ready.”


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