Cold shooting Owls fall to UTSA in conference opener

PHILADELPHIA — Temple spent the entire second half playing catch up with UTSA. The Owls trailed by as many as 14 points and shot a shade more than 20% from the field through three quarters. 

Then the Owls’ offense finally found its groove in the final quarter. 

Guard Drew Alexander made a trio of threes, then guard Kaylah Turner made a three of her own to make it a three-point deficit with 24 seconds left. The Owls had two chances to tie thanks to three missed free throws by UTSA, but a turnover wasted one chance and guard Tristen Taylor’s three was off the mark in a 50-47 defeat in Temple’s conference opener Saturday at the Liacouras Center. 

“UTSA played really really hard,” said head coach Diane Richardson. “I don’t think we played hard enough. I think we waited until the fourth quarter to play Temple basketball. We can’t go through the conference like that. That’s going to be the reality and it has to change.” 

Taylor missed Temple’s previous four games with an ankle injury she suffered against Western Carolina on Nov. 30 and made her return to the starting lineup Saturday. The starting point guard, who averages 10.1 points and 4.6 assists, became Temple’s only source of offense. 

Taylor showed no signs of rust, racking up 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting. She scored Temple’s first bucket with a layup and helped the Owls out to a 6-2 lead.

“I feel good. I feel like I worked my way back from my injury,” Taylor said. “I was doing the things in the game that I was doing in practice. I felt comfortable and confident.”

But Temple’s offense completely crumbled shortly thereafter. The Owls (6-7) shot just 4-for-19 from the field in the first 10 minutes, but their defense backed it up. The Roadrunners shot an even worse 20%, which allowed Temple to lead 8-7 after one quarter. The Owls remained ahead early in the second quarter before the Roadrunners took off and never looked back. 

UTSA (7-6, 2-0 American) used a 12-2 run to jump ahead 21-14 with two-and-a-half minutes left in the second quarter. The Owls got a layup from Turner just before the halftime buzzer to enter the locker room down 25-18. 

Turner became Temple’s go-to source of offense with Taylor out, averaging 23 points in the four games without her. However, Turner was at the forefront of Temple’s offensive struggles against UTSA. She shot just 3-of-18 from the field and 1-of-7 from three. 

“I think she took some quick shots,” Richardson said. “I think quite a few of them took some quick shots.” 

Despite shooting 24.2% from the field and missing all 12 three pointers, Temple was within reach heading into the third quarter. But instead of finding momentum after halftime, the offense found a way to regress more. 

The Owls shot 1-for-11 from the field, with the one make being a three from Taylor, yet they were not totally out of it thanks to six made free throws and trailed 39-27 with 10 minutes to play. 

Then Temple’s offense finally got hot to spark a comeback. Taylor opened the fourth quarter with a three and Alexander connected on two of her attempts from deep to make it a 41-38 game with just under eight minutes left. A third three from Alexander made it 44-41 a minute later before the offense fizzled out again. 

The Owls did not score for the next five minutes as UTSA built its lead back to eight points. Temple attempted to battle back again in the final 90 seconds and had two chances to potentially tie the game with under 10 seconds. 

Taylor attempted to inbound the ball over 6-foot-3 forward Mia Hammonds, who deflected it for a Roadrunner steal. Temple was gifted another chance after guard Jayda Holiman missed two free throws, but Taylor’s shot missed to seal the loss. 

“It was a heave,” Taylor said. “But I had to do what I had to do to try and win the game.” 

While the Owls got Taylor back from injury, they lost guard Savannah Curry with an undisclosed injury, and Richardson said Curry will be out for “a little while.” Curry had started in every game and was averaging 6.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per contest. Without Curry, Temple will need more production from a bench unit that did not produce a single point Saturday.  

“We’ve had depth all year and the feeling in the locker room is that when you come off the bench you have to be ready,” Richardson said. “We expect them to be ready. This week we will work on them making an impact.” 

Temple will continue conference play at Wichita State (3-12, 0-2) on Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.