Shorthanded Temple beats Central Florida, 63-56, behind Aleah Nelson’s 28 points

In its first game since the dismissal of sophomore guards Jasha Clinton and Aniya Gourdine, Temple women’s basketball defeated Central Florida, 63-56. Following a men’s victory that bled into the first quarter of the women’s game, it was the second time that Temple beat UCF in basketball on Saturday.

With graduate forward Jalynn Holmes and freshman guard Kourtney Wilson having left Temple’s program on Wednesday, Temple only had eight players available against UCF (10-9, 1-6 American Athletic Conference) as graduate guard Kendall Currence and redshirt junior forward Rayne Tucker have been out all season. Currence has been out with a torn ACL while Tucker hasn’t been cleared by the NCAA as a transfer.

Temple head coach Diane Richardson would not address the dismissals and did not have an update on Tucker.

The game keeps Temple (9-11, 4-4) within one game of a top-five seed in the AAC tournament, which would guarantee the Owls a first-round bye.

It was close for all 40 minutes as the game was tightly contested in many statistical categories, but turnovers proved to be the difference.

UCF turned the ball over 22 times, which turned into 17 points for the Owls.

Temple’s starters led the way as the Owls’ three available reserves scored just two points compared to 41 by UCF’s reserves.

“They may not have scored, but they stopped some people from scoring,” Richardson said. “Very proud that we stuck together.”

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Graduate guard Aleah Nelson led all scorers with 28 points, followed by junior guard Tarriyonna Gary’s 16. Sophomore guard Tiarra East added 12 points.

UCF forwards Destiny Thomas and Taylor Gibson led the Golden Knights with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Thomas led the game in rebounds with 13 while Nelson and Gary tied for a game high three assists.

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After a slow first quarter, Temple’s offense started to come alive as Nelson made two threes in a row to spark the Owls early in the second period. She made a third one, but it was waved off by an illegal screen call on Gary. However, the Owls followed that up with a steal and a layup by East to force a UCF timeout after an 8-0 run.

The Golden Knights went more than six minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter, allowing Temple to expand its lead. UCF head coach Sytia Messer was assessed a technical foul that allowed Temple to push its lead to nine points, the largest of the game, during that span.

“We went into the fourth quarter like, ‘We have to get stops,’” Nelson said. “Everybody was in tune.”

The Owls will stay at home for a Wednesday matchup against Wichita State (12-8, 2-5). Tipoff is at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.