Temple’s trio of conference wins fueled by a ‘new culture’ inside the locker room

After the dismissal and departure of four players, Temple women’s basketball has won three consecutive games — with only eight active players on the roster.

Throughout her basketball career, Owls guard Aleah Nelson has never played with a roster of only eight players.

However...

“It’s nothing [we] can’t handle,” Nelson said Thursday. “It is what it is. We have eight. That’s what we roll with. That’s the thing, we can’t change it.”

» READ MORE: Two players dismissed from the Temple women’s basketball program

After serving one-game suspensions, it was announced last Friday that guards Jasha Clinton and Aniya Gourdine were both dismissed from the program. A few days before that decision was made, freshman guard Kourtney Wilson and graduate forward Jalynn Holmes both voluntarily left the program, too.

The Owls (10-11, 4-4 American) moved up to sixth place in the American Athletic Conference with a 72-59 win over Wichita State last night.

The current roster size could prove challenging for the Owls to overcome.

But while the situation is less than ideal, the players have developed a stronger bond with each other as a result.

“I think it has,” said Owls head coach Diane Richardson regarding her team’s renewed energy and the “new culture” inside the locker room. . “We are rallying around each other. I think the atmosphere has changed.”

The program has been short-handed at practices because of class schedules. Practices have become less strenuous as the minutes for each player might increase.

“It challenges us more mentally than physically because in practice, a lot of times we’re not really tired, but we just tell ourselves we’re tired because we don’t have people [available],” Nelson said. “So I think it’s mentally just being exhausted of running through the plays and having to know the defensive assignments.”

Against Wichita State, forward Caranda Perea scored a career-high 17 points. Prior to this three-game stretch, guard Makayla Waleed played 15 minutes in five games. With minutes available at the guard position, Waleed scored six points and finished with three steals versus Wichita State.

Everyone knows that with just seven conference games remaining, role players have to step up.

“They gave her the confidence in practice,” Nelson said about the performance of Perea, Waleed and other contributing role players over Temple’s three-game win streak. “I think the coaches ... we need you. We need you, we only have eight… She definitely didn’t shy away from it, even though she didn’t play a lot in the beginning, now that it is her time, she is showing what she can do.”

» READ MORE: Owls win third straight in 72-59 rout of Wichita State

Temple faces Houston (8-13, 5-3 American) on Saturday at the Fertitta Center. The Cougars could be a tough matchup for the Owls.

No matter who Temple faces on game days, this three-game win streak has coincided with invaluable takeaways.

“It’s been an uphill climb for us,” Richardson said. “I think these last three games showed us that we can hang in there. Our goal is to be in the top four [of] [the] [conference].”