Women's Basketball Falls to Tulane on the Road

Saturday, February 7

New Orleans, La.

12:00 p.m.

Temple University

11-13, 7-4

Tulane

18-5, 9-3

Temple

Tulane

Tanaya Atkinson had 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds

Photo by: Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

Women's Basketball Falls to Tulane on the Road

2.7.15 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS — In a battle of the third and fourth ranked teams in The American, it was Tulane that came out on top, defeating Temple, 77-63, at Devlin Fieldhouse. The Green Wave shot 49.2% for the game, holding the Owls to 36.7% from the field and just 12.5% from three-point range.

The win improves Tulane to 18-5 overall, 9-3 in the conference, while Temple falls to 11-13, 7-4 in The American.

Junior Erica Covile led the Owls with 20 points, while also pulling down seven rebounds with two assists and two steals. Freshman Alliya Butts scored 19 points with three steals, while classmate Tanaya Atkinson had 12 points nine rebounds, and three steals. Rounding out the box score for Temple, senior Tyonna Williams had five points and four assists. One game after making a program-record 15 three pointers, the Owls went cold from deep, only hitting 3-of-24, while going 0-10 in the second half.

Tulane's defense was the early story, allowing Temple a fast-break bucket to open the game, but not another until the 14:38 mark. Offensively, the Green Wave scored nine-straight, opening a 9-2 lead with 15:02 to play.

Temple heated up on offense, and cut the lead to four at 19-15 after threes from Atkinson and Williams and a Covile putback. Tulane answered with a 10-0 surge, however, increasing their lead to 29-15 with 6:22 to play in the half. Temple broke its scoring drought with four-straight from Atkinson, but Tulane rolled to another 7-0 surge, going up 36-19 with 3:54 to play.

As was the case with much of the first half, every time Temple made a run, Tulane answered with a larger. At the end of the period, the Owls had a 5-2 run, but the Green Wave answered with seven unanswered points, increasing their lead to 45-24. Temple closed out the half with a driving lay-up from Covile, but Tulane held a 19-point advantage (45-26) at the break.

Tulane shot 54.3% from the field and 66.7% from three-point range in the first half. Temple was paced by nine points and five rebounds from Atkinson, while Covile had seven points and four rebounds, while Tulane's Chinwe Duru led all players with 12 points.

Temple had the early momentum in the second half, as Butts had six points to lead the Owls to a 10-7 run, cutting the lead to 52-36 with 14:50 to play. Temple surged again, with six-straight points to bring the Green Wave lead to 12 at 52-40 with 13:20 remaining.

Tulane responded with an 8-2 run pushing their advantage back to 18 points with 10:12 on the clock. A strong press from the Owls and a spark from Feyonda Fitzgerald off the bench keyed another Owls run, this one 8-2, cutting the lead back to 12 at 62-50 with 7:25 to play.

The 12-point deficit was as low as Temple could get it the rest of the way. Every run the Owls made, Tulane answered, taking care of the ball down the stretch to seal the 77-63 victory.

The Owls had no answer for Duru who finished with 23 points on 11-of-16 shooting, while tying for game-high honors with nine rebounds. Morgan finished with 15 points, four assists, and three steals, while Leslie Vorpahl had 13 points and seven assists and Jamie Kaplan added eight assists.

Temple stays on the road, next heading to Tulsa for a Tuesday match-up with the Hurricane at 8 p.m.

Box Score (PDF)