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Temple collapses late in loss to Tulsa

01/14/2017, 9:45pm EST
By Will Slover

Shizz Alston Jr. (above) went for a career-high 25 points but Temple fell at home to Tulsa. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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Leading the visiting Tulsa Golden Hurricane by eight points with just under eight minutes to play following an emphatic spin through the lane followed by a monstrous dunk from junior forward Obi Enechionyia, it looked like Temple was going to cruise to its eleventh victory of the season.

Then, slowly but surely, the wheels started to fall off for the Owls and their lead began to slip through their fingertips.

Eight points, six points, four points, one point; Temple watched its lead dwindle down until eventually, the Owls found themselves battling from behind as they trailed by three points with just under three minutes to play.

Shizz Alston Jr. drilled a 3-pointer to tie things up for Temple with 2:24 to go and tied up is how things would stay for what felt like an eternity.

Finally, coming out of a timeout with just 14 seconds left and the score unchanged, Tulsa inbounded the ball to Sterling Taplin.

Taplin, the sophomore, sped past the Owls defense and laid the ball in off the glass with four seconds remaining to give his team the lead. After an Alston attempt from nearly half court fell short at the buzzer, Tulsa could finally exhale and do so victoriously.

With the circumstances of the game, it was rather surprising to those in attendance how easily Taplin seemed to get past his defender and right to the hoop for the game-winning bucket.

“We were just hoping that we would keep Taplin in front of us and he got to his right hand and that’s not what we were hoping for,” Temple head coach Fran Dunphy said. “We were hoping to force him to his weak side.”

In a game that consisted of eight ties and seven lead changes, Tulsa came out on top by a score of 70-68 over the Temple Owls at the Liacouras Center on Saturday afternoon.

“We didn’t do a great job down the stretch,” Dunphy said. “I thought we were really pretty good up until about the last eight minutes of the game.”

The final eight minutes of this contest were not kind to Temple (10-9, 1-5 AAC), as the Owls committed six turnovers and only connected on three field goals following the Enechionyia slam.

Although the dreadful offensive numbers of the closing minutes are what stand out, it’s the Owls’ defense that ultimately cost them as they had no answer for Tulsa (9-7, 3-1 AAC) in the late going, allowing them to cash in for 16 points in those final eight minutes.

“I thought they just drove it to the rim on us. A lot of straight line driving and we didn’t do a good job of keeping them in front of us so that was a big factor I thought today,” Dunphy said. “In the second half, I thought we solved some issues and then they went back to driving it right to the rim and it cost us.”

As for the offense, the Owls struggled particularly hard in the game’s final six minutes, as they scored just three points, which came on Alston’s game-tying field goal.

“We just didn’t adjust to their defense,” Enechionyia said. “They were going in and out of their zone and we didn’t find enough ways to score.”

For Temple, once things began to fall apart on one end, they allowed them to do the same on the other.

“We need to focus more on the defensive end,” Enechionyia said. “Sometimes, we let the offense dictate how we play on defense and we can’t do that. We have to come out and play as hard as we can on both ends regardless of whether things are going our way or not. We just have to play hard on both ends.”

Leading Temple in the scoring column was Alston, who finished with a career-high of 25 points while also turning the ball over just once in 39 minutes of play.

“He scored it great today,” Dunphy said. “He’s a good basketball player and we need him badly.”

Aiding Alston’s effort was that of Enechionyia, who followed up a poor 3-of-17 shooting performance against UConn by pouring in 15 points against Tulsa.

For Tulsa, the Golden Hurricanes were led by Junior Etou and Pat Birt. Etou, a junior forward, finished with team-high’s of 15 points and nine rebounds while Birt chipped in with another 14 points, 12 of which came from beyond the arc.

Temple’s 1-5 start to conference play is marking a low-point this season for the Owls as it’s hard to believe this same Owl’s team beat No. 9 Florida State and No. 10 West Virginia on back-to-back days over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Aside from the 2013-14 season, Temple has lost more than five conference contests just once under Dunphy, and it was back in his first season on Broad Street in 2006-07.

Although never having started this poorly, starting off conference play not at its best isn’t anything new for Temple as it started 3-2 in their first five games last year, and 3-3 in their first six the year before that before going on to post 14-4 and 13-5 marks, respectively.

With history on their side and still 12 games to play on their conference slate, there is still optimism in the Owls' locker room as they look ahead to face No. 22 Cincinnati on the road on Wednesday.

“We didn’t expect to start off this slow,” Alston said. “We played really well in nonconference play, so I think that we can get on a run and make a push.”

Enechionyia, a junior who has been a key part of both of the Temple turnarounds the last two years echoed the same.

“I think this team can make a comeback just like we did the last two years and finish strong.”


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