Temple women knock off Charlotte, 73-68

Temple bounced back after a devastating women’s basketball loss last Sunday by beating conference-leading Charlotte, 73-68, Sunday at the Liacouras Center.

“I am in a better mood today because we played defense and that was important for us to bounce back,” coach Diane Richardson said. “We can see that in the stat sheet where we turn them over 25 times.”

The Owls (10-8. 4-2 American Athletic Conference) had momentum after a 2-0 Midwest road trip, but after losing to Memphis last Sunday, the defeat to a team that was winless in the AAC could have changed the course of the season. But this was one of the best responses you could imagine.

Piper has been one of the most consistent players for the Owls this season with her effort and shot-blocking. Piper fouled out of the game with three minutes left, but she had 11 points to go along with seven rebounds and three assists.

Aleah Nelson scored 14 points and Tiarra East added 12 for the Owls.

The Owls made their first three threes and finished 7-for-20 from deep. That opened up the paint for the Owls, which is something that they have missed all year.

The most important element of the equal-opportunity offense is sharing the ball and that’s exactly what the Owls did. On Temple’s 24 field goals made, they assisted on 17 of them.

“Our stats show that we were looking for each other,” Richardson said. “We had a lot of passes that we got underneath pressure. So we were looking for each other and that’s really good.”

The Owls will begin a two game road trip starting at SMU (8-10, 2-5 AAC) on Wednesday (8 p.m., ESPN+).