Temple survives triple-overtime scare from Tulane in quarterfinals of AAC women’s basketball tournament

FORT WORTH, Texas — Temple knows a thing or two about improbable runs.

This time last year, the Owls weren’t even here in the American Athletic Conference championship, their eight-woman squad having been bounced in the first round by Wichita State. This season, however, saw the Owls secure a regular-season AAC title for the first time, and, with it, a coveted double bye in the conference tournament.

On the other bench sat Tulane — the No. 14 seed, the cellar-dwellers. The Green Wave knocked down No. 11 seed SMU and No. 6 Charlotte before crashing ashore at Dickies Arena on Monday night, but Temple, as it had done twice already this season, handled the inundation, 76-72, in triple overtime.

“We have battled all year,” Temple coach Diane Richardson said. “The reason we’re here today is because they all played together. And they played for each other, and that’s what’s been different for us this year is we play for each other. The culture is great. They play for themselves, and they play for Temple University.”

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They’ll face No. 10 seed Rice, which knocked off No. 2 seed North Texas, 61-59, in a thriller just before this one.

And each of those three overtimes proved just how long a minute is in basketball. Tiarra East hit a jump shot with 38 seconds left to send the Owls (20-11) to the second overtime, then drilled a pair of free throws to force the third overtime. She also hit the go-ahead bucket with 2 minutes, 18 seconds left to give Temple a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. The junior co-captain led the team with 22 points and nine rebounds.

Before that, though, it was a scoring desert for much of the second half. Kaylah Rainey hit a three with 1:08 left to erase a modest Temple lead and give Tulane (12-20) a one-point advantage. Aleah Nelson knotted the score with 45 seconds left, and East’s foul shots gave Temple a two-point lead with 15 seconds left, but Kyren Whittington (31 points, six assists) drilled a pair of free throws with seven seconds left to send the game into extra time.

The Owls only trailed for 45 seconds in the first quarter, but their three-point lead at the end of period, like everything else Monday night, didn’t come easy. Freshman Tristen Taylor, playing about 30 miles from her hometown of Duncanville, Texas, drilled a falling-down three as time expired to briefly break a 17-17 tie. Taylor finished with 14 points, Demi Washington had 12 points and seven rebounds, and Rayne Tucker added eight points and a game-high 14 rebounds.

Despite Taylor’s shot, Tulane carried its momentum into the second quarter and led by as many as five points about halfway through the frame.

Was another upset brewing in this AAC tournament that had seen so many already?

Not so.

That Green Wave five-point lead came on a pair of free throws with 4 minutes, 41 seconds left, but they failed to score again as Temple rode a 10-0 run to close the half with a 35-30 lead.

Tulane kept several possessions alive on the offensive end and outrebounded Temple, 18-17, in the first half (the final total, ironically was 50 each).

“I know I didn’t really rebound in the first half, so that was just kind of something I was focusing on because that’s what I bring to the team,” Tucker said. “I feel like once one person picks it up, we all kind of pick it up and help each other, whether it be tipping it out to somebody or just getting it.”

» READ MORE: Temple earned its share of the AAC regular season title because ‘the energy is just different’

It took a little bit for the Owls to get going offensively in the second half, but they came out of the break energetic defensively and slowly climbed to an eight-point lead at the 6:50 mark.

Suddenly it was the Owls all over the glass — on both sides — but they couldn’t pull away and only stretched their lead to eight points before a scoring drought that lasted 2:35 and left them clinging to a 42-40 lead.

That lack of offense continued into the game’s final period. But Temple did just enough in those 10 minutes, and the 15 that followed, to earn at least one more game, at 9 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN+) in the semifinals.

“In one of our breakdowns before the game, I was just telling everybody, ‘This could be your last game,’” said Tucker, a senior. “For me, it could have been my last game in a Temple uniform; it could have been my last game altogether. So with that in mind, I just tried to get everybody to have that mindset, like, you never know what’s going to happen in life, so just play hard. This is what we have right now; it’s tournament time.”