Temple falls to Tulane in AAC tournament, 69-60

After trailing by 9 points heading into the second half, No. 4 Temple couldn’t keep up with No. 5 Tulane’s shooting down the stretch, as the Green Wave beat the Owls 69-60 in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

“We certainly knew we had some flaws, but we managed to get this far with it,” said coach Aaron McKie. “I wanted to go further, but it didn’t happen. Through it all, I’m still proud of these guys.”

The Owls knew prior to tipoff that the Green Wave played a tough matchup zone. Knowing how to counter it was another matter, however, as Temple was out of sync offensively and missed key shots all game long.

Early in the second half, leading scorer guard Damian Dunn walked off the court limping. After attempting to come back at 8:36, his ankle injury was evident and ruled him out for the rest of the game. He finished with 7 points.

Temple went into the half down 36-27, the largest lead of the first. The Owls were slow offensively and struggled to get the right looks, shooting 18.8% from the field. Most of their points came from the free-throw line. The Owls made 13-of-15 free throw shots, which kept them in the game.

Tulane finished the first half shooting 55.6% from the field. But their offense didn’t get going until a 7-0 run turned the Green Waves’ lead to 22-12 with 7:35 left. Then a second 7-0 Tulane run late in the half, kept Temple in a scoring drought until they managed some points from the free-throw line.

Temple split the series 1-1 against Tulane in the regular season. In their first matchup, the Owls were without Dunn (ankle) and Jeremiah Williams (shoulder) due to injuries encountered against South Florida on Feb. 7. They were still without Williams, who is considered day-to-day, on Friday, and the Green Wave was also without leading scorer guard Jalen Cook (hamstring).

Forward Kevin Cross led Tulane with 18 points while grabbing 9 rebounds and guard Devon Baker trailed behind with 15 points, shooting 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.

The Owls’ true freshman led the team in points. Guard Hysier Miller had a career-high performance of 21 points and went 8-of-9 from the line, while forward Zach Hicks had 12 points, shooting 4-of-12 from the field.

Temple wraps up its season, finishing 17-12 overall and 10-8 in the AAC. Tulane (14-14, 11-8 AAC) will play No. 1 seed Houston (27-5, 16-3 AAC) in the AAC semifinals at 3 p.m tomorrow.

Tulane is at the bottom in the AAC in rebounding, but yet Temple still missed second chance opportunities.

In the first half, Temple made 6-of-32 shots, while grabbing 13 offensive rebounds. Whether it was a bad look or a forced shot, the Owls worked harder not smarter on offense.

Early in the game, forward Jahlil White grabbed a defensive rebound after a missed three-pointer by guard Jaylen Forbes. But Temple quickly had to get back on defense, after a missed pull-up jumper by forward Nick Jourdain.

In the second half, the Owls went on a four-minute scoring drought. Despite improving their shooting, Temple’s turnovers ‌hurt them down the stretch. While finishing with 14 turnovers, the Owls picked up 10 personal fouls in the second.

With under eight minutes left in the game, guard Tai Strickland grabbed the ball off of Cross, however, Hicks lost the ball on offense and Cross came back for a quick turnaround jumper, making the Owls deficit 51-41 — a hole they couldn’t come back from.

“We fought in moments, but we didn’t fight for 40 minutes,” McKie said.