Khalif Battle scores career-high 22 points in Temple win over Tulsa

Khalif Battle wasted little time getting involved in Temple’s offense in Tuesday’s matinee against Tulsa at the Liacouras Center. Shortly after he came off the bench in the first half, the sophomore guard brought the ball down the court and pulled up for a contested three.

Battle missed the shot, and coach Aaron McKie pulled him to the side for a lesson. Even though it wasn’t a shot that McKie wanted, it showed Battle’s growing confidence in his third game back from a hamstring injury. Battle didn’t miss many more shots and finished with a team- and career-high 22 points and 11 rebounds.

The Owls had one of their best offensive performances of the season as they defeated the Golden Hurricane, 76-67, in an American Athletic Conference game. Temple improved to 4-4, 3-4 AAC. Tulsa fell to 8-6, 5-4.

It’s no coincidence that the offensive explosion happened after Battle’s return from the injury that had sidelined him for the first five games. Battle shot a combined 4-of-19 in his first two games. He shot 6-for-10 on Tuesday afternoon and made three three-pointers.

“My job is to come off the bench, play hard, and just help my teammates win,” Battle said. “I really don’t think I had the best game today. I still had five turnovers at the end of the day. I got to keep on working on being in control with the ball.”

De’Vondre Perry scored 17 points on 6-for-7 shooting after going scoreless Saturday in the Owls’ loss to No. 8 Houston. Damian Dunn, held to a season-low five points by Houston, was limited to 18 minutes by foul trouble Tuesday and scored 10 points.

Dunn was one of two Temple starters to foul out. The other was Jake Forrester, who scored 15 points in each of the previous two games. Forrester finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 15 minutes.

The foul trouble led to a late scare from the Golden Hurricane. With 2 minutes, 5 seconds left, Tulsa had cut a 44-25 halftime deficit to eight points. Temple was solid from the free-throw line to put the game away. The Owls made 19 of its 26 foul shots.

“[Jake] got us off to a good start and we told him, ‘Hey, you got to find a way to keep yourself in the game,’” McKie said. “We’re telling him not to foul; just get your hands up. He’s still a work in progress when it comes to that.

“Hopefully these guys just watch film and learn from it,” he added.

The Owls held Tulsa to 33% shooting in the first half while shooting 51% themselves. For the game, Temple shot 51% and Tulsa 40%.

“I think sometimes when we get hit with the zone, we kind of get stagnant and hold the ball,” Perry said. “But everybody was in attack mode, everybody was aggressive, and everybody was playing with confidence from the start.”

Temple’s win continues a strange series history between the programs. Tulsa leads the series, 10-4, and this was the first meeting decided by fewer than 10 points.

The Owls return to action Sunday at home against Tulane on ESPN+. The game was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. but was been moved to a noon start time.